Former Member of Parliament Ranjan Ramanayake, who is currently serving a prison sentence, informed Supreme Court today(25) that he is expecting to make a special regret on his utterances that caused contempt towards the Supreme Court.
The case was taken up before a panel of Supreme Court judges comprising Buwaneka Aluvihare, Gamini Amarasekera and L.T.B. Dehideniya.
The case has been filed against former parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake for contempt of court at the Supreme Court premises.
The Sri Lankan rupee has depreciated by 26% against the US dollar since January 1, says the world-renowned economist Steve Hank of the University of Johns Hopkins in his official Twitter account.
It said Sri Lanka was mired in an economic crisis due to rising fuel prices and unbalanced debt repayments.
The message further stated that a Currency Board should be established in Sri Lanka as was the case in 1884-1950 to alleviate this situation.
Meanwhile, it is reported that Sri Lanka is seeking World Bank’s assistance for Sri Lanka’s rural development, renewable energy, and digitization projects, and also Sri Lanka is seeking around $ 1 billion in financial assistance from the World Bank for those projects.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is being devastated by another mass bleaching event, officials have confirmed.
It is the fourth time in six years that such severe and widespread damage – caused by warm sea temperatures – has been detected.
Only two other mass bleaching events have ever been recorded.
Scientists say urgent action on climate change is needed if the world’s largest reef system is to survive.
There are particular concerns that this bleaching event has occurred in the same year as a La Niña weather phenomenon. Typically in Australia, a La Niña brings cooler temperatures.
Scientists are now fearful of the damage that could be caused by the next El Niño.
The declaration was made by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority which has been conducting aerial surveys.
Recently it warned that water temperatures in parts of the reef had been up to 4C above the March average.
The announcement comes as two scientists are in Queensland for a UN monitoring mission.
The first mass bleaching event was seen in 1998. It was again observed in 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020.
BBC
Asela Sampath, President of the All Ceylon Restaurant Owners’ Association, says that many people who dine at restaurants are buying cheaper foods such as paratha and wade. The reason for this is that people cannot afford the minimum price of a parcel of rice.
At present the price of a parcel of rice with vegetables alone has exceeded Rs. 200. A parcel of rice with chicken has gone up to Rs. 300 and a parcel of rice with fish has gone up to Rs. 240. Asela Sampath points out that due to this many people find it difficult to buy a parcel of rice.
Asela Sampath says that people have to make ends meet with low-cost snacks instead of rice, which shows how difficult it is for ordinary people to quench their hunger.
Restaurant owners point out that the prices of food items such as wheat flour, coconut oil and other foods could increase further and as a result, people will not be able to afford the prices of foods such as wade and paratha in the future.
North Korea says it test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on the orders of leader Kim Jong Un to boost its defences and prepare for a “long confrontation” with the United States, state media reported on Friday.
Kim, dressed in a black leather jacket and sunglasses, oversaw the Thursday launch of what was described as a “new-type” of ICBM, the Hwasong-17.
The first full ICBM test by nuclear-armed North Korea since 2017 drew swift condemnation from South Korea and Japan, as well as the US. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres condemned the launch as a “clear violation” of Security Council resolutions.
According to state media, the weapon was launched from Pyongyang International Airport, travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6,248 km (3,880 miles) and flew a distance of 1,090 km (680 miles) during a 67-minute flight before falling into the Sea of Japan.
Kim ordered the test because of the “daily-escalating military tension in and around the Korean peninsula” and the “inevitability of the long-standing confrontation with the US imperialists accompanied by the danger of a nuclear war,” the official news agency for North Korea, KCNA, reported.
“The emergence of the new strategic weapon of the DPRK would make the whole world clearly aware of the power of our strategic armed forces once again,” Kim said.
“Any forces should be made to be well aware of the fact that they will have to pay a very dear price before daring to attempt to infringe upon the security of our country,” he added, according to KCNA.
North Korea has carried out nearly a dozen missile tests since the start of the year that analysts say are aimed at forcing the US to accept North Korea as a nuclear power and remove the international sanctions that had crippled the economy even before Pyongyang sealed its borders because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“South Korea has already launched missiles in response, and the US and South Korea are expected to respond to North Korea’s provocations through military exercises,” Kim Jong-ha, a security analyst at Hannam University in South Korea, told Al Jazeera. “As a result, inter-Korea and US-North Korea relations will be strained for the time being.”
Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s newly-elected conservative president who has promised a more robust policy towards Pyongyang, is due to take office in May, while the attention of the US, the South’s key ally, is focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The Kim regime is determined not only to keep South Korea hostage to military threats that can evade Seoul’s missile defenses and preemptive strike capabilities; it aims to expand its nuclear reach over the American homeland to deter Washington from coming to the defense of U.S. allies,” Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said in an email. “North Korea is nowhere near initiating aggression on the scale of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Pyongyang’s ambitions likewise exceed self-defense as it wants to overturn the postwar security order in Asia.”
The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting on the test on Friday, but condemnation or new sanctions could be hard to achieve amid divisions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s veto.
Late on Thursday in the US, Washington announced new sanctions in relation to North Korea’s illicit weapons programme, targeting two Russian companies, a Russian and a North Korean, as well as North Korea’s Second Academy of Natural Science Foreign Affairs Bureau.
“These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to impede the DPRK’s ability to advance its missile program and they highlight the negative role Russia plays on the world stage as a proliferator to programs of concern,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Believed to be about 25 metres (82 feet) long, the Hwasong-17 was first revealed in a military parade in October 2020. North Korea’s longest-range weapon and, by some estimates, the world’s biggest road-mobile ballistic missile system, Thursday’s launch was its first full-range test.
South Korea’s military estimated its range as 6,200 kilometres (3,800 miles), further than the Hwasong-15 that was the last ICBM to be tested in October 2017.
KCNA called the successful test a “striking demonstration of great military muscle”, while Kim said it was a “miraculous” and “priceless” victory by the Korean people.
Analysts say the drive for a successful launch of the weapon is probably part of Pyongyang’s preparations to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.
North Korea typically celebrates such key anniversaries with weapons tests and parades of military might.
“Kim Jong Un wants to ultimately establish himself as a leader who has successfully developed both nuclear weapons and ICBMs,” Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean studies scholar, told the AFP news agency.
“He is almost desperate as without such military achievements, he really hasn’t done much.”SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Colombo, Sri Lanka – Tourism in Sri Lanka just can’t seem to catch a break.
Three years ago, the number of tourists was down 18 percent following the Easter Sunday bombings in April 2019. The coronavirus pandemic that followed in 2020 was particularly bad. Arrivals fell drastically and there were no signs of recovery until November 2021, when the government removed all quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated tourists, encouraging vacationers to come to the island state.
It was a welcome change as tourism is the third-largest source of foreign exchange for the country – behind worker remittances and the apparel industry – a large employer and an important source of dollars that help the government run the country.
But now as Sri Lanka grapples with the worst financial crisis the country has ever faced, there are daily power cuts and people are forced to stand in kilometres-long queues to buy fuel and cooking gas. Inflation was 17.5 percent in February and the government has further tightened its restrictions on imports, exacerbating shortages. All of this is once again keeping tourists away – at a time when the government is scrambling to find ways to repay an overwhelming amount of foreign loans and needs those tourist dollars.
“We need to find solutions for these people as soon as possible,” President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in his national address on Sri Lanka’s independence day earlier in February. “As such, whilst strictly adhering to health recommendations, we have acted to restart the tourism industry in a phased manner.”
“Business has been fantastic the last few months,” said Kate Hopkinson, a foreign national who owns a restaurant and a bed and breakfast in Weligama, a popular coastal town in the south of the country. The prevailing economic conditions, however, are making it extremely tough for her to keep her business running.
“Due to the gas shortage, we have to buy on the black market, food prices are skyrocketing, [and] flour and imported goods are getting harder and harder to source. We run an Italian restaurant and we need cheese, but that is in short supply because of the import restrictions and local alternatives are getting pricier due to the milk shortage,” Hopkinson said.
Hopkinson is not the only one suffering. Restaurant owner Rasika Lakmal and lifestyle and travel ambassador Paloma Monnappa operate tourism businesses in the popular coastal towns of Galle and Unawatuna.
“We are facing four- to seven-hour-long power cuts daily. Fishermen are forced to cut back on fishing due to the fuel shortage, [and] shipping containers with essential items are stuck at the port because the country doesn’t have the money to pay for them”, said Monnappa.
“Every time you think of a possible solution you’re faced with a new issue or obstacle. You buy a generator but there’s no diesel to run it. We are desperate for tourists, but how do we cater to them? My Sri Lankan friends tell me the economy wasn’t this bad even during the war,” she said.
While some restaurants are buying gas from other cities like Colombo and Matara, Lakmal says that’s not an option for him. “If we do that then it costs about 10,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($35), more than double the normal price. We can’t afford that,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s usual top tourism source markets are India, China, the United Kingdom and Germany, but since tourism’s reopening, many visitors have been coming from the Eastern bloc, with Russia and Ukraine bringing in 25 percent of arrivals between January and mid-February, partly on the back of active marketing by the tourism authorities targeting those regions.
However, Western sanctions on Russia like the ban on the SWIFT international payment system have now spilled over onto Sri Lanka as well. “Inquiries from Ukraine and Russian nationals came to a complete halt,” Dimitra Fernando, who manages a chain of villas for tourists to rent, told Al Jazeera. “We had Russian guests who were already in the country, but they cancelled all their bookings with us because they did not have money to pay. They couldn’t use their cards, nor could they withdraw money.”
But the main issue continues to be Sri Lanka’s own economic situation. The UK government, for instance, updated its travel advisory for Sri Lanka and warned travellers of shortages and power outages. “Inquiries from the UK and Middle-Eastern market have slowed down so much after the travel advisories,” said Fernando. “We manage eight villas, but we have not had even one booking since.”
Nuwan Amarasuriya, who works for a travel agency that gets most of its business from travellers from the UK, told Al Jazeera that the agency’s clients are “very concerned” about the ongoing shortage of fuel and other essentials, “so we are constantly in touch with them to reassure them”.
Authorities have ensured that tourism vehicles would be given priority in fuel queues, but this has caused anger among locals who are forced to queue for hours. A heated argument broke out in a town in Colombo this week when police officers attempted to allow a tourist coach to pump fuel ahead of others.
Immediate problems aside, the industry must also address its labour shortage.
Although tourism has been growing in significance for the Sri Lankan economy, it struggled with labour shortages long before COVID-19. In 2018, Malik Fernando, head of the industry body the Tourism Skills Committee, told a roomful of tourism stakeholders that the country needs 100,000 more tourism sector employees within the next three years. “Yet, we only train about 10,000 each year,” he said.
Lakmal has been struggling to find staff for his restaurant in Unawatuna most of whom have “moved on” to other occupations and industries after the last couple of bad years. “They are not interested in working in the tourism industry anymore,” he said.
With the ongoing economic crisis the skills shortage is likely to become more acute as many tourism workers are looking at moving overseas or are not interested in returning to an uncertain industry.
“The issue with the Sri Lankan tourism industry is the pay structure,” said Ahamed Nizar, a tourism consultant. “There is a low basic pay which is topped up with service charges and tips, but that depends on how well the property is performing. So obviously without any tourists, workers were earning next to nothing the last few years and it was very difficult to survive.”
Nizar says he’s seen many skilled tourism workers migrate while the unskilled workers have found alternate options with stable pay. One of his clients doesn’t offer a dinner service any more because of the shortage of staff, while another is making do with a skeletal staff, he said.
While COVID-19 appears to be in the rearview mirror as far as Sri Lanka is concerned, the worsening economic situation has cast a heavy shadow on tourism. The government’s attempt to preserve what little foreign exchange reserves it has with measures like restricting imports of food items has had a severe impact on the availability of essential goods.
“Some restaurants have had to close for days because of the gas shortage; some have had to remove or reduce their menu offerings due to the import bans and rising cost of local food items. The power cuts are very difficult to explain to tourists. They do empathise with our plight, but nobody wants to come on holiday and sit in the darkness and the heat,” sighs Nizar.SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
High Commission of India, Colombo celebrated ‘Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation’ (ITEC) Day on 23 March 2022 at Hotel Taj Samudra. The function was attended by about 125 guests comprising ITEC Alumni and professionals from various sectors who have participated in various training courses in India as well as in e-ITEC courses, and officials from various Ministries of the Government of Sri Lanka. Hon’ble. Dr. Seetha Arambepola, State Minister of Skills Development, Vocational Education, Research & Innovations was the Chief Guest at the event. High Commissioner H.E. Gopal Baglay also graced the occasion.
2. Recalling the historically strong multidimensional ties between the two countries, Hon’ble. Dr. Seetha Arambepola, lauded Indian support for human resource development in multiple areas for growth and development in Sri Lanka. She expressed keenness to further strengthen bilateral collaboration in the areas of Skill Development & Vocational Training for creating employment generation for youth.
3. Deputy High Commissioner Mr. Vinod K. Jacob reiterated India’s continued support to Sri Lanka in skill development. Underlining the philosophy of ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’, he said that India has been helping countries across the world to enhance skill sets of their personnel. He said that on account of COVID pandemic, Government of India in meeting the requirements of the times, began conducting online Courses in early April, 2020 and since then, more than 600 participants from Sri Lanka have benefitted from online training courses. Several ITEC alumni from Sri Lanka who pursued various training courses also shared their experiences.
4. The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme was instituted in 1964 as a bilateral programme of assistance of the Government of India. Training and capacity building of professionals is one of the major activities under ITEC. With its Civil and Defence components, ITEC offers a wide variety of courses in 25 streams ranging from Accounts, Audit, Banking and finance to Cyber technology; Environment and climate change to Management and leadership; Human resource development and planning to Logistics and Management; Media and journalism to Urban planning; Marine and Aeronautical Engineering to Women empowerment and many more. Sri Lanka is among the most important ITEC partner countries and 402 fully-funded slots are offered every year to Sri Lankan Government personnel/nationals for short term training courses towards enhancing their skill-set. For more information on the ITEC, please visit www.itecgoi.in
Mitra Innovation, which celebrates its 10th year in business this year, yesterday announced that it rolled out a dollar-pegged salary scheme as one of its key financial wellness initiatives for all employees in Sri Lanka.
The company attributes its tremendous growth to its market differentiated services and strong focus on its people – a value that the company has continued to foster since its inception in March 2012.
The decision to implement a dollar-pegged salary scheme comes from an understanding that employers need to find creative ways to ensure the financial wellness of their teams.
In an ideal situation with a good economy, employers need happy, healthy and skilled employees, while employees expect great opportunities, career growth and a good source of income.
However, when faced with an economic crisis, it is critical to explore different and innovative ways to uphold employee wellness.
“At the start of this year, upon careful consideration, the Board of Mitra Innovation made a swift decision to peg all salaries to the dollar effective Q1 2022,” Chief Executive Officer Chinthi Weerasinghe said.
Furthermore, the Global Leadership Team stated that this decision was taken in the best interests of their employees in Sri Lanka, considering how best to help the existing team, given the current economic environment in the country.
“With this rollout, all employees of Mitra Innovation SL will receive a remuneration package that proportionally increases in value as the dollar appreciates against the rupee,” added Chief Operating Officer Sanjeev Palihawadana.
Research shows that financial wellness programs can increase employee satisfaction and help reduce employee stress. While the company’s ‘hyper growth’ provides its employees with great opportunities, lowered financial stress is key to retaining employees and to reduce brain drain, especially during trying economic times.
Mitra Innovation, which grew its top line and bottom line exponentially in FY2021, increased its global headcount from 180 to 300 during the same period, with most of the additions being recorded in Sri Lanka, where its main software development centre is located.
As the company continues with industry leading growth this year and expands its global presence, the number of opportunities it creates for overseas employment will also increase exponentially.
In keeping with the People First mantra in the company, Mitra prefers to give opportunities to its team members first, before looking for external options, through the ‘Grow With Us’ initiative.
Mitra Innovation is one of Sri Lanka’s foremost innovative business solutions providers. Headquartered in London, with over 300 employees located worldwide, Mitra Innovation offers scalable solutions with the right level of resources, at the right price, with minimal risk.
The company uses secure internal and external collaboration to draw better insights and turn business requirements into strategic, innovative solutions, generating growth and customer engagement.
With expertise across multiple systems and platforms and across all business and public sectors, Mitra Innovation strives to help companies at all stages of their digital journey.
Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa is a person like the Rambo character who came all alone and destroyed the whole of Sri Lanka, says Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila.
“In the past movies show, a lone American named Rambo comes and destroys Vietnam. Like Hanumantha came and set fire to India. A single American like that has come to Sri Lanka and is destroying this whole country. People are suffering in fuel queues and gas queues. This is a deliberate crisis ”
Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila stated this while visiting the Malwatta Anunayake Dimbulkumbure Wimaladhamma Thero yesterday (24) and engaging in a discussion with him.
Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in Tourism Sri Lanka (ASMET) and Colombo City Restaurant Collective (CCRC) on Tuesday strongly opposed any necessity to change the existing Tourism Act No. 38 of 2005 completely.
“We collectively remain steadfast in our opinion that the majority of the new proposals brought forward by the regulator can certainly be implemented within the current Tourism Act No. 38 of 2005,” the two industry bodies said at a joint media briefing yesterday under the ‘One Industry One Voice’ umbrella.
Despite the dire economic circumstances that require urgent attention and actions to repair and restore what’s being lost, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) attention is sadly displaced, the industry bodies claimed.
“The regulator is more worried about changing the Tourism Act, rather than addressing these burning issues in the tourism industry, which is grappling to survive in aftermath of a global pandemic. Both ASMET and CCRC stand strong and united against the repealing of the Current Tourism Act No. 38 of 2005,” the industry stakeholders said.
Both CCRC and ASMET pointed out that the repealing of the current Tourism Act will not result in generating a single tourist more to the country.
“There are more important and burning issues on which, the regulator should focus attention to, which has not happened. Unfortunately, neither the opinions are sought from the business generators nor do they engage in any discussion to get over the challenging times together,” the industry bodies asserted.
In an unprecedented economic crisis, the regulator should unify the industry, they said, claiming that instead divisions are created among the tourism related associations, which is detrimental to the revival of the battered tourism industry.
ASMET stakeholders said the tourism industry continues its efforts to survive in the post-COVID era, but the authorities have failed to provide proper solutions towards the extension of the financial moratorium beyond 30 June.
They also lamented that the visible lack of tourism promotions is one of the main issues the industry, including the formal SMEs, continue to face as the regulatory bodies focus more on consumer based marketing than the business-to-business (B2B) promotional activities such as trade fairs, road shows and market-centric promotions.
“It is indeed noteworthy that Destinations Management Companies (DMCs) in Sri Lanka are responsible for nearly 65% of the total tourist arrivals, accounting to nearly 55% of the total revenue generated by tourism to Sri Lanka. DMCs spend around Rs. 1.5 billion of their own funds to promote Sri Lanka as a lucrative holiday, meeting, incentive, wedding, honeymoon destination in numerous overseas markets with the trade fairs and road shows organised by SLTPB,” they added.
ASMET said unlike the ‘wealthy hotel chains,’ and boutique resorts, formal SMEs are unable to participate in foreign trade fairs without the assistance of the regulatory bodies.
“It was mentioned by regulator that there are several SME associations struggling under the current dire economic circumstances of the country. Many of the members in these associations are not registered with SLTDA. The associations themselves are mostly recently formed and have registered by the regulator who is clearly driving a division within the tourism sector,” they claimed.
They said almost all members of those associations are suppliers of the DMCs who are licensed and registered with the SLTDA. “We strongly feel that priority should be given to those members who are registered with the SLTDA, who are in-fact, the establishments paying the Tourism Development Levy (TDL),” ASMET suggested.
They also said the negative foreign travel advisories of their significant source market countries have been weighing heavily on the negative impact made on the tourism industry.
CCRC pointed out that they were still recovering from the Easter Sunday attacks whilst they were harbouring expectations of considerable growth and stability in the sector in 2022.
