Former Governor Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon has been appointed as the Director General of Community Affairs at the Presidential Secretariat.

Tennakoon, who is of sound experience in a number of fields including civil organisations, human rights and election observation affairs, previously served as the Governor of the Southern Province and the Governor of the Central Province during the Good Governance government.

MIAP

The Government of Turkiye donated USD one million worth of emergency medicines and other medical supplies which are urgently required by the hospitals in Sri Lanka. The first consignment which includes Filgasstrin injections, were airlifted to Sri Lanka and were received by the officials of the Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka on 14 August, 2022.

Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Turkiye M.Rizvi Hassen during his meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkiye Mevlut Cavusoglu and the Chairman of Turkiye -Sri Lanka Parliamentarian Friendship Group Ahmet Hamdi Camli on 17August, 2022 thanked and expressed gratitude to the President of the Republic of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Government of Turkiye for the generous donation and the solidarity extended to the Government and people of Sri Lanka.

The two containers of other medicines and medical supplies left the Izmit Sea Port, Turkiye on 17 August, 2022 and are expected to reach the Colombo Port by mid-September 2022.

The donation was a result of a request made by Ambassador Hassen during his meeting with the Chairman of Turkiye – Sri Lanka Parliamentarian Friendship Group Ahmet Hamdi Camli and senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkiye in the month of May 2022 to brief about the situation in Sri Lanka with a request to consider assisting the health sector of Sri Lanka. Subsequently, the Ministry of Health of Turkiye coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkiye and expedited the dispatch of the medical consignment with the approval of the President of the Republic of Turkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Embassy of Sri Lanka

Ankara

22 August, 2022

The High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Canada Harsha Kumara Navaratne graced the Annual Award Ceremony of the Canadian Immigrant Magazine on 11 August, 2022 in Toronto  where two Sri Lankan origin Canadians, Professor Janaka Ruwanpura and Dr.  Sivakumar Gulasingam were among the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants of 2022. The annual awards programme celebrates the achievements of inspiring Canadian immigrants.

Professor Ruwanpura is a scholar in construction engineering and an award-winning academic. He is the Vice-provost and Associate Vice-President (Research/international) and Professor of Engineering at the University of Calgary. Professor Ruwanpura has won international, national, provincial, and municipal awards for his academic accomplishments, research   and innovation. A few recent awards received by him include the Distinguished Alumni Award (Arizona State University), Life Time Achievement Award from Sri Lanka Foundation (Los Angeles) and City of Calgary’s International Achievement.

Dr. Sivakumar Gulasingam is an award-winning physical medicine and rehabilitation physician attached to University Health Network’s Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and an Assistant Professor of the University of Toronto. He is a medical graduate from the University of Colombo. Before migrating to Canada, Dr. Gulasingam had worked as the lead physician at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Sri Lanka. He is a national trainer and para-athletics classifier with Athletics Canada, International Paralympic Committee classifier, international trainer for World Para-Athletics and World Para-Dance Sports. Dr. Gulasingam is a recipient of many prestigious awards including Michael Gordon Award for Humanism in Medicine from University of Toronto and The Most Outstanding Young Persons of the Year – Humanitarian and Voluntary Services, Junior Chambers International (JCI), Sri Lanka (2004).

The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, Sean Fraser, High Commissioner Navaratne and a cross section of academics, professionals and members of the business community in Canada, attended the event.

Sri Lanka High Commission

Ottawa

22 August, 2022

The country’s debt burden is considered ‘unsustainable’ leading the lender to seek assurances from creditors

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it will need “adequate assurances” from Sri Lanka’s creditors for a new program as it prepares a visit to Colombo later this month.

The goal of the visit is to make progress on a staff-level agreement for an aid package “in the near term,” to help the island nation weather a severe economic crisis, the IMF said on Friday.

Staff from the global lender will be in Colombo from August 24 to 31, the IMF said.

“Because Sri Lanka’s public debt is assessed as unsustainable, approval by the IMF Executive Board of the Extended Fund Facility program would require adequate assurances by Sri Lanka’s creditors that debt sustainability will be restored,” the IMF said.

The Reuters news agency reported last week that Sri Lanka will ask Japan to invite the Indian Ocean island’s main creditor nations, including China and India, to talks on bilateral debt restructuring.

The loan package being negotiated with the IMF is for between $2bn and $3bn according to President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who said he would present an interim budget in September focusing on fiscal consolidation measures agreed with the IMF.

The country of 22 million people is facing its most severe financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, resulting from the combined effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic mismanagement.

Sri Lankans have been battling shortages for months amid crippling inflation and a devalued currency, stoking unprecedented mass protests. Thousands of people stormed the colonial-era presidential residence in Colombo, the commercial capital, in early July.

Sri Lanka’s total bilateral debt earlier this year was estimated at $6.2bn as of the end of 2020 by the IMF. It also has $14bn of international sovereign bond debt.

Al Jazeera

The Government of Austria donated an urgently required consignment of essential medicines worth four million Sri Lankan Rupees to the Government of Sri Lanka on 16 August 2022.

The consignment, containing 27 essential medicines, was handed over to the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Milinda Moragoda by the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Embassy of Austria in New Delhi Matthias Radosztics at the Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi. The Austrian Embassy in New Delhi is concurrently accredited to Sri Lanka.

This donation of medicines was in response to the appeal made by the Government of Sri Lanka to foreign countries for medicines urgently required in Sri Lanka. Accepting the consignment, High Commissioner Moragoda expressed his appreciation to the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Embassy of Austria for this gesture of friendship and goodwill by the Austrian Government. The High Commission will take immediate action to dispatch these medicines to Sri Lanka.

The High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi functions as the main coordinating point between the concurrently accredited 94 Foreign Missions and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka.