July 11, Colombo (LNW):Sri Lanka is likely to achieve real GDP growth between 3.5% to 5% in 2024 if the current reform process continues, according to Standard Chartered Bank Global Research in their Credit Alert titled “Sri Lanka – Light at the End of the Tunnel.”

The report forecasts real GDP growth at 3% in 2024 and between 3.5% to 4% from 2025 to 2027, resulting in cumulative real GDP growth of 14% over the period from 2024 to 2027. The bank assigns an 80% probability that cumulative GDP growth will exceed the baseline of 11.1%.

Achieving an average nominal GDP of USD 100 billion over 2025-27 and 11.1% cumulative real growth from 2024-27 is likely highly correlated. The report adjusts the probability of the ‘Upside #1’ scenario to 8.75%, leaving a 1.25% probability that the nominal GDP target of USD 100 billion is met but real GDP growth is less than 11.1%.

The exchange rate, specifically USD-LKR, remains a key variable for nominal GDP in USD terms. The report expects gradual and modest LKR depreciation versus the USD, projecting USD-LKR at 390 by the end of 2027. This projection places 2024 GDP in the USD 89-91 billion range and nominal GDP above USD 96 billion by the end of 2027. The report assigns a 75% probability of average 2025-27 nominal GDP exceeding USD 92 billion.

On July 3, Sri Lankan authorities and the ‘steering committee’ comprising 10 major bondholders reached an agreement on the core financial terms of restructuring the International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs). The agreed terms, which broadly follow the bondholders’ April proposal, include key differences such as downward adjustments to the coupon and changes in principal reinstatement, narrowing the range of recovery values across the six restructuring scenarios.

July 11, Colombo (LNW): Urban Development and Housing Minister Prasanna Ranatunga informed Parliament yesterday (10 July) that housing loans were distributed haphazardly during the tenure of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa as Housing Minister. He stated that officials are struggling to locate the correct addresses of some loan recipients.

Minister Ranatunga highlighted that from 2015 to 2019, when Premadasa was Housing Minister, over 100,000 houses were initiated without proper funding and were subsequently abandoned. He attributed this crisis to contracts for more houses than allocated funds, intended to showcase an inflated housing construction record.

In response to allegations from Premadasa, Ranatunga noted that the loans of 53,709 beneficiaries granted during Premadasa’s tenure had to be restricted. He detailed that seven housing projects were initiated during Premadasa’s period as Housing Minister. In 2019 alone, 62,994 houses were started despite funding being allocated for only 40,500 houses.

From 2015 to 2019, Premadasa initiated the construction of 341,510 houses, but only 233,578 houses received the necessary provisions. An inspection revealed that 53,709 housing loan recipients during Premadasa’s tenure were ineligible for the loans they received.

July 11, Colombo (LNW): Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana informed Parliament yesterday that the government can no longer provide a salary increase for public servants from state tax revenue, as there is no projected revenue growth allocated for this purpose in 2024.

He highlighted that between 50 percent and 86 percent of the total revenue obtained from taxes levied on ordinary citizens is allocated to the salaries and pensions of public servants. In 2020, despite low state revenue, 86.7 percent of the total revenue was used for these expenses.

Dr. Gunawardhana presented detailed statistics on the salary payments of public servants from 2014, emphasizing that any government must maintain sufficient income for daily expenses, including paying pensions and salaries to public servants. Welfare benefits like “Aswesuma” also need to be provided, and without adequate funds, the government is forced into debt. Last year, Rs. 4.7 trillion was spent on government employee salaries and other expenses, while only Rs. 3 trillion was received from all revenue channels, including taxes and non-tax revenues.

He criticized opposition members for making false promises on political platforms, knowing they cannot fulfill them if they come into power. Dr. Gunawardhana stressed the importance of transparency, noting that more than half of the tax revenue is spent on paying government employee salaries and pensions. He also mentioned that while governments have previously increased wages by printing money, this option is no longer viable due to restrictions from the International Monetary Fund, which has advised the Sri Lankan government against money printing.

July 11, Colombo (LNW): The South-western part of the country is expected to experience enhanced showery conditions over the next few days starting from tomorrow, 12 July. Several spells of showers are forecasted in Western, Sabaragamuwa, and North-western provinces, as well as in Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, Galle, and Matara districts. Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in Eastern and Uva provinces in the evening or night.

Additionally, strong winds ranging from 40-50 kmph are anticipated at times over the Western slopes of the central hills, Northern, North-central, and North-western provinces, and in Trincomalee, Hambantota, and Monaragala districts.

The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.

SriLankan Airlines and Mastercard today announced their collaboration to enhance the operational efficiency and strengthen the cybersecurity posture of the country’s national carrier. 

The airline will be leveraging Mastercard’s Tourism Insights, a suite of data-driven tourism solutions that helps organisations understand consumer spending patterns, behaviours, and sentiments. 

Combining anonymised spending data with data from credible third parties, it identifies search trends, travel bookings and accommodations, social media insights and more, enabling companies to drive growth. 

By deploying such insights for enhanced route optimisation, SriLankan Airlines stands to gain a competitive advantage and a higher ROI on marketing activities, along with a larger market share. 

Similarly, the airline will be using Mastercard’s RiskRecon, a comprehensive vendor security monitoring solution tailored to align with an organisation’s risk policy. By simplifying the understanding of potential risks, it will enable SriLankan Airlines to closely assess the cyber hygiene of its systems and vendors. 

RiskRecon continuously monitors an enterprise’s vendors for compliance to the risk policy, making it easy for the company to understand and act on third-party risk. 

It powers the management team with the information needed to allocate assessment resources based on risk, so that they can prioritise resources to those performing poorly.

 Further, RiskRecon helps the enterprise to compare risk performance ratings of multiple vendors simultaneously, enabling it to select the service provider which best meets its risk performance requirements.

As part of the collaboration, SriLankan Airlines and Mastercard will also work towards curating and delivering exciting deals and discounts to cardholders, thereby enhancing their travel experience. 

SriLankan Airlines Chief Executive Officer Richard Nuttall said: “We are excited to collaborate with Mastercard to gain key consumer insights and cater to our passengers’ diverse needs by curating rich travel experiences for them. We also look forward to utilising Mastercard’s expertise in cybersecurity to ensure that our enterprise, partners, and vendors can enjoy safe and seamless operations.” 

Mastercard Sri Lanka and Maldives Country Manager Sandun Hapugoda said: “Mastercard has remained focused on bringing the latest in technology and innovation to Sri Lanka, offering advanced solutions to enterprises across sectors. 

While the Tourism Insights platform will enable the country’s national carrier to increase revenue and optimise costs, RiskRecon will ensure a safe cyber environment for its own systems and vendors. Through this collaboration, Mastercard and SriLankan Airlines will also create a unique value proposition for cardholders by providing them with exciting discounts and benefits.”

July 10, Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka’s new capacity to produce fortified rice kernels marks a significant advancement in combating malnutrition and food insecurity. 

This collaborative effort between the government, international organizations, and private sector partners underscores a shared commitment to improving the nation’s nutritional status, particularly for its children, through innovative and sustainable food fortification practices.

The Government has announced the capacity to produce fortified rice kernels enriched with folic acid and iron.

 This achievement, realized through an extrusion process, aims to address the heightened food insecurity and malnutrition following the recent economic crisis. President’s Chief of Staff, Sagala Ratnayaka, emphasized the government’s commitment to this initiative, especially through the National Free School Meal Program.

The transfer of extrusion technology was a priority for the Presidential Secretariat, facilitated by the World Food Program (WFP), PATH, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Akshata, and Connect To Care. 

This collaboration was celebrated with a workshop at the Galle Face Hotel, organized by the Presidential Secretariat Support Unit, Connect to Care, and PATH. The event gathered key stakeholders from various sectors to discuss the benefits of food fortification and the potential for further technological collaboration.

In his keynote speech, Ratnayaka highlighted the government’s vision and support for food fortification initiatives. He acknowledged the Gates Foundation’s role in the Rice Fortification Project as a significant step towards improving children’s health and well-being. Ratnayaka expressed gratitude for the partnership with WFP, PATH, and Connect to Care in making this vision a reality.

Roshan Perera, Managing Director of Grains n Green, expressed pride in becoming Sri Lanka’s first fortified rice kernel producer. Perera emphasized the project’s long-term positive impact on the population’s nutritional status, particularly for children. Grains n Green, in partnership with Akshata and the Gates Foundation, is spearheading this initiative, which will greatly benefit the National School Meal Program by ensuring children receive essential nutrients for their growth and development.

The Free National School Meal Program, a critical component of this initiative, provides nutritious meals to children in grades 1 to 5 at selected schools. This program currently reaches over one million children across the country, supported by the Education Ministry and the WFP. The inclusion of fortified kernels in the program will enhance nutrition and reduce reliance on imported fortified rice kernels from India.

The workshop featured prominent attendees, including the President’s Chief of Staff, government ministry representatives, the Gates Foundation, WFP, PATH, donor agencies such as Save the Children, USAID, UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, and FAO, as well as private sector individuals. Panel discussions and breakout sessions focused on the progress, gaps, and unmet needs in food fortification. Specific topics included quality assurance, storage, transport systems, and expanding fortification programs to other social protection initiatives and broader markets.

July 10, Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka is currently in the process of amending its Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) Act to accommodate the Starlink satellite system, launched by Elon Musk, the billionaire behind SpaceX and Tesla. 

The island nation has preliminarily approved Starlink to offer satellite-based internet services following a formal public consultation. This decision followed a meeting between President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Musk during the 10th World Water Forum in Indonesia two months ago.

However, Sri Lanka’s current TRC law does not include provisions for granting licenses to third parties to operate telecommunications services.

 The proposed amendment, set to be presented in parliament today on Tuesday (09), will introduce new licenses: infrastructure service, telecommunications service, and cable landing station licenses, according to State Technology Minister Kanaka Herath.

“Starlink falls under the telecommunications service license,” Herath informed reporters at a media briefing in Colombo on Monday (08).

 He also addressed concerns by the Attorney General’s Department by removing certain clauses from the amendment. “There were four requests from the AG Department. We have addressed all of them, and the amendment has passed through the parliament oversight committee stage,” Herath explained, responding to national security concerns.

Last month, the State Minister announced that Sri Lanka would collaborate with Starlink to provide internet via satellite technology, marking a significant advancement in the technology sector with high-speed internet access.

Starlink, part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX group, operates a low earth orbit satellite network connecting approximately 3 million people with high-speed internet across nearly 100 countries, territories, and markets.

The new legislation will provide provisions to introduce a mechanism to provide telecommunication frequencies under a competitive system. 

Accordingly, the relevant regulations should be compiled by the Parliament and thus the opportunity to introduce the new technology to the telecommunications sector of the country as well as it will be possible to properly regulate the institutions that are involved in the business, the officials pointed out.

It was also disclosed that in addition to the existing telecommunication system licences and frequency licences, 3 other types of licences will be introduced. 

Accordingly, it will provide provisions to issue licences to companies that provide infrastructure, in addition to the companies that provide telecommunication services. The officials also stated that the powers of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission will be strengthened through these amendments.

Furthermore, the officials also pointed out that through these amendments, there is an opportunity to give the customer the advantage of reducing tariffs in the market competition. It was also discussed that provisions that have been provided in the legislature to ensure security of undersea telecommunication cables.

July 10, Colombo (LNW): The consecration ceremony of the Sita Amman Kovil in Nuwara Eliya was held last Saturday (06). According to the Ramayana, a revered text among Indian and Lovasi Hindu devotees, Hanuman met Sita at this kovil’s location in Sita Eliya, brought there by King Ravana 7,600 years ago.

Following the Kumbhabhishek festival held on May 19th at the Nuwara Eliya Sita Amman Kovil, which is believed to be around 150 years old, the final grand puja, or Mangalabhishek festival, of the 47-day pujas took place on Saturday (06).

During the ceremony, a special stone pillar from the Rama kovil in Ayodhya, India (the birthplace of Lord Rama), and a stone plaque from Janakpur, Nepal (the birthplace of Goddess Sita), were installed in the kovil. A procession carrying offerings and statues of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, and Hanuman toured the streets of Nuwara Eliya before visiting the Sita Amman Kovil.

The third Kumbhabhishek festival of the Kumbhabhishek Mahotsava, which occurs once every eight years, was celebrated on May 19th with nearly two thousand Hindu devotees from various countries, including India and Nepal, in attendance. Member of Parliament V. Radhakrishnan was among those present at the festival.