A security official attached to Media Spokesperson of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Sumanhtiran has reportedly died by suicide.
Sumanthiran’s security officer who was an Army soldier deployed to guard the MP’s house in Wellawatte has shot himself with his firearm this morning, according to reports.
The officer was a 22-year old resident of Walapane. The cause of his actions is yet to be determined, Police said.
MIAP
All 22 millions citizens of Sri Lanka are urged to join the Cultivation War in response to the food crisis befallen the country, said Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa during the donation of computer equipment and digital computer screens worth Rs. 846,000 to the Sri Rathanasara Maha Vidyalaya, Waga, Avissawella in the Western Province yesterday (03), as the 21st phase of the ‘Sakwala’ initiative implemented by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
The Opposition Leader noted that the SJB will be a strength to that mission.
The government’s wallet is empty today and a bankrupt government governs a bankrupt country today, Premadasa went on, adding that the Opposition, nevertheless, is committed to the country.
MIAP
A discussion was held between Trade Minister Manusha Nanayakkara and trade unions of the Public Sector yesterday (03) regarding the sending of public servants for foreign employments as a solution to the prevailing forex crisis.
The trade unions demanded that public servants be given the opportunity for employment overseas but in a manner by which their seniority is not compromised, and stressed the importance of sending excess public servants for overseas jobs.
Addressing the meeting, TUs of the Sri Lanka Transport Board and the Port emphasised that the weight put on the Treasury may be reduced should the excess workers employed in the Technical Sector be given the opportunity to work overseas.
The meeting also discussed the importance of sending trainee workers trained by institutes like the SLTB and the Mahapola Technical Training Institute for foreign employment.
In response, the Subject Minister revealed that steps are being taken to call for proposals from the TUs regarding the Public Sector fields that could provide foreign employment opportunities.
MIAP
Sri Lanka has never been as unstable as we see today, not even during the almost 30+ year civil war which could now be considered normal in comparison to the mess we are in currently. In Sri Lanka, unfortunately both economic and social stability ironically rests on responsible and credible political leadership and their decisions. Bad political decisions in the last few years have had perverse repercussions in wrecking the country’s future. The worst among all in our very long history – Sri Lanka has now joined the list of hapless nations that have defaulted on sovereign debt.
Sri Lanka has now suspended debt payments on its foreign debt worth $ 51 billion. When a country fails to pay back its local and foreign creditors the principal amount as well as the interest amount of the loan/bond it is known as sovereign debt default. According to newspapers Sri Lanka has hired Lazard and Clifford Chance as financial and legal advisers to represent the Government in talks with international creditors. Whilst a creditor group of the largest holders of Sri Lanka’s sovereign dollar bonds hired Rothschild & Co as financial adviser and White & Case as legal adviser.
Hard default
Sovereign debt restructuring can be pre-emptive or hard-default. A hard default will be very costly as it can result in a continuing loss of access to international capital markets for both the government and the private sector for a very long time. Whilst pre-emptive restructuring is when a country deems itself unable to service outstanding debt, works proactively with their creditors. Both finally have the same results, with one less dramatic. Sri Lanka has also now missed a payment to multilateral institutions, blocking fresh funds and the country could now be potentially locked out of multilateral funding, which is very unfortunate.
Sri Lanka is not alone. Several emerging markets have either recently restructured their sovereign debt like Ecuador and Argentina or remain in default like, Surinam, Lebanon and Venezuela. Countries like Chad, Ethiopia and Somalia are in debt distress. Research indicates that Spain in 1557, became the first country to default on its loans. Venezuela defaulted on its loans worth $ 60+ billion. Greece defaulted on its debt twice over in 2015 worth $ 1.7 billion and 456 million euros. Therefore analysts say Sri Lanka’s wait and see attitude and not doing anything to help ourselves by looking for home grown solutions was a very costly mistake. Even at this late stage a proactive debt restructure engaging the best in class may reduce the total magnitude of upfront losses to all the stakeholders and get the country’s debt to a sustainable level at the lowest financial and social cost to both the country and its local and international creditors and help to kick start the IMF program that is two years behind.
Sovereign borrowing
According to analysts and information available on/in the public domain, sovereign borrowing has grown from a small group made up of multilateral organisations, a few high power MNC commercial banks, Funds, and the ‘Paris Club’ of rich countries to something much more complex and demanding and ruthless. Many developing economies have in the last decade borrowed ridiculously more from international bond markets and tapped new non-Paris Club lenders like China and Russia to fund government programs, some of no value to the taxpayers, simply because it was easy to get and often the life span of fund manages are two years.
Debt restructuring
Sri Lanka according to sources, is looking to restructure over $ 12.55 billion on overseas debt. Local banks have invested close to $ 4 billion. This is one of the largest components of the ISBs and SLDBs. The banks have a huge forex liquidity issue because of the Government’s inability to service the debt. Many of the large and seemingly stable Lankan banks are unfortunately losing their credibility internationally. Lee Buchheit who crafted the restructuring deal that cut Greek debt by 100 billion euros says, “Sri Lanka’s creditors —be they bilateral or commercial, will be interested in one critical question – who are we going to share the pain with? Every sovereign bond restructuring boils down to one decision — How much of the country’s pain should be borne by its citizens, and how much should be borne by the creditors.”
Conclusions
Today there is no point in lamenting about the past, we need to move forward. Therefore we need to get the best talent both locally and internationally to cut a good deal for Sri Lanka, given the diversity of the creditors. Over dependence on economists will not help the cause and will only make it worse. This is now also a banking crisis. We must engage an international bank with a large, active and credible trading platform interacting with the world of investment funds, to talk to creditors in addition to the advisory role of Lazard to speedily, smoothly and efficiently accomplish the debt restructuring. We need several parallel tracks running (foreign and local creditors), including a political track to deal with the bilateral and multilateral debt and that requires a soft approach.
The laissez-faire actors of the past must be dropped. Incompetent high commissioners must not be engaged in this project, unless fully trained. As taxpayers we want the Government to ensure the pain (haircuts – LKR and Fx) is managed and ensure that we have the skill and experience in battling litigious hedge funds. This is no longer a project for our politicians and bureaucrats to only manage. Because the public will have to bear part of the pain. In the final analysis, the leadership of the past and present government must surely take the blame for allowing the debt crisis to fester for years, especially in the last two years.
Many agreements were reportedly made during the special party leaders’ meeting convened by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday (03) on the 21st Amendment to the Constitution.
Leaders of all political parties representing Parliament were invited to this meeting.
Attendees stated that a number of a important agreements were reached on a number of key issues, including the proscription of the opportunity for dual citizens to represent Parliament.
The meeting also understood the agreement to abolish the President’s right to hold a number of ministerial posts, to obtain the consent of the Prime Minister in appointing ministers, and to allow the President to remove the Prime Minister only with a majority-vote of Parliament.
Accordingly, the new constitutional amendment will be presented to the Cabinet by the Justice Minister next Monday.
Computer equipment and digital computer screens worth Rs. 846,000 were donated to the Sri Rathanasara Maha Vidyalaya, Waga, Avissawella in the Western Province by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) yesterday (03) as the 21st phase of the ‘Sakwala’ initiative implemented to donate computer technology boards and state-of-the-art computers to skillful classrooms to help children of the country raise their skills, based on a concept by Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa.
MIAP
The Fort Magistrate Court issued an order barring an agitation organised by the protesters of the GalleFace Ground today (04), based on a request made by the Officer in Charge of the Fort Police Station.
Accordingly, the order was issued against Rathindu Senaratne (RATTA), Nimesha Devmini, Dinomi Devsindu, Sheshani Jayawardena, Malcolm Nicholas, Dinesh Fernando and a number of other activists.
The order bars the protesters from entering or blocking from the NSA Roundabout to the Temple Road and the Janadhipathi Mawatha, from the Ceramic Junction to the York Street and the Lady Bastian Mawatha, and the Mudalige Mawatha, the Hospital Street, the Banku Mawatha, the Barron Jayathilake Mawatha, the Chatham Street and the Canal Road.
The order also bars the holding of agitations interrupting the above roads, the people walking on them, the vehicles driving on them and the pavements.
MIAP
High Commissioner Gopal Baglay handed over 3.3 tons of essential medical supplies donated by Government of India for the 1990 Suwaseriya Ambulance Service to the Chairman of Suwaseriya Foundation Mr. Duminda Rathnayaka in the gracious presence of Dr. Harsha de Silva, Member of Parliament and Sohan de Silva, CEO of Suwaseriya Foundation in Colombo on 3 June 2022.
The Fabric Park in Punnakuda, Batticaloa will strengthen import substitutes for the apparel industry and save US$ 500 million annually for Sri Lanka, Board of Investment announced adding that, Browns Group is investing Rs. 15.3 billion to put up the country’s most modern and the largest textiles plant in the Kurunegala District.
The Board of Investment (BOI) agreement to this effect was signed recently between Brown and Company PLC Group CEO T. Sanakan and BOI Director General Renuka Weerakone.
Sanakan, along with new Project Division Heads Dulip Samaraweera and Charitha Jayasingha has taken the initiative to save extensive outflow foreign exchange on the import of much needed fabrics for the apparel manufacturing industry for exports.
The Project is driven with the expertise of Prithiv Dorai and Kenneth Wijesuriya, who have a vast knowledge in textile manufacturing industry.
Currently Sri Lanka’s apparel and textile industry is the leading income generator in foreign exchange amounting to $ 5 billion dollars of which almost $ 3 billion is spent annually on import of raw materials.
Brown and Company said the project will be established in Mahakandura, bringing in employment to approximately 800 persons in the Kurunegala District.
The plant will embrace the green concept in textile manufacturing with modern state of art machinery with very latest in technology.
Sanakan, along with new Project Division Heads Dulip Samaraweera and Charitha Jayasingha has taken the initiative to save extensive outflow foreign exchange on the import of much needed fabrics for the apparel manufacturing industry for exports.
The Project is driven with the expertise of Prithiv Dorai and Kenneth Wijesuriya, who have a vast knowledge in textile manufacturing industry.
Currently Sri Lanka’s apparel and textile industry is the leading income generator in foreign exchange amounting to $ 5 billion dollars of which almost $ 3 billion is spent annually on import of raw materials.
Brown and Company said the project will be established in Mahakandura, bringing in employment to approximately 800 persons in the Kurunegala District. The plant will embrace the green concept in textile manufacturing with modern state of art machinery with very latest in technology.
Sri Lanka, which is a county that has garnered immense acclaim and a strong reputation worldwide for manufacturing high-quality apparel trusted by the iconic global fashion brands, annually imports textile raw materials used in the apparel industry worth US $6 billion from different countries around the globe.
Taking this into account, the attention of the Board of Investment (BOI) was drawn to set up the Textile Park in Punnakuda, Batticaloa with the intention of manufacturing textile raw materials locally.
The Park spread over a 255-acre land is equipped with all facilities and the potential to establish eight to ten large-scale factory complexes. Furthermore, the Textile Park can be named the largest development project being undertaken in the Eastern Province and will provide 5,000 job opportunities.
In addition, the Government is to spend a sum of Rs. 5.5 billion on the development of infrastructure facilities in the project which will eventually boost infrastructure facilities in the area, the BOI said.
The Port of Colombo has been ranked as the most efficient port in South Asia and the Indian Sub-Continent, third in the Indian Ocean rim and 22nd among 370 ports globally.
It has gained this rank in the second edition of the Global Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) 2021, ranking developed by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence and Financial Services.
The Port of Colombo recorded an all-time high throughput of 7.25 million TEUs in 2021 and continues its growth story, recording a year-on-year growth of 2% for the first five months of 2022 ending in May.
The present terminals in the Port offer almost 4,500 m of quay with depths ranging from 12-18 m, are served by 47 Ship-To-Shore Cranes and over 130Ha of yard space. The SLPA, in addition to its role as Regulator and Landlord, also holds a 15% equity stake in the two private terminals, CICT and SAGT.
The authors of the report said that “despite the centrality of the port to global value chains, one of the major challenges to stimulating improvement has been the lack of a reliable, consistent and comparable basis on which to compare operational performance across different port.
This technical report, which represents the second edition of the Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), has been produced by the Transport Global Practice of the World Bank in collaboration with the Maritime, Trade and Supply Chain division of S&P Global Market Intelligence”.
Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Chairman Dr. Prasantha Jayamanna, “The World Bank/S&P Administrative (subjective/expert) and Statistical rankings of Colombo among the top 7% of the ports in the world and the best in South Asia, is a testament to the Port’s position as the primary transhipment hub in South Asia.”
H said “In addition to the valuable contribution made by JCT, the ranking acknowledges the significant role played by our partner terminals, Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) and South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), who together have made the port what it is today.”
Dr. Jayamanna went on to say that: “Given SLPA’s role as Regulator and Facilitator of port development of Sri Lanka, it is important to record that the Port of Colombo will continue to develop ahead of projected demand.
The , construction has already begun on two new deep water terminals, the East Container Terminal (ECT) by the SLPA and the West Container Terminal (WCT), by a consortium led by Adani Ports and including John Keells Holdings. These developments will progressively add over 7 million TEU of throughput capacity over the next 2-5 years.”
Also commenting on the CPPI ranking, CICT Chief Executive Officer Jack Huang, a member of the China Merchant Port Holdings Group, said: “As the first and currently only deep-water terminal in South Asia capable of handling the largest container ships in service, we are extremely pleased to have played a major role in achieving this ranking by the Port of Colombo.”
“Romesh David, the Chief Executive Officer of SAGT, a consortium led by John Keells Holdings and the AP Moller Maersk Group said: “SAGT has played a catalysing role in launching and contributing to maintain Colombo’s global standing as the preeminent transhipment hub in the region.”