June 26, Colombo (LNW): Showers will occur at times in Western, Sabaragamuwa, and North-western provinces and in Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Galle, and Matara districts. Fairly heavy showers above 50mm are likely at some places in Sabaragamuwa province and in Kurunegala, Kandy, and Nuwara Eliya districts.
Several spells of showers may occur in Matale and Hambantota districts.
Strong winds of about 40-50 kmph can be expected at times over the Western slopes of the central hills, Northern, North-central, and North-western provinces and in Trincomalee, Hambantota, and Monaragala districts.
June 25, Colombo (LNW): The British government has introduced two significant initiatives aimed at revitalising Sri Lanka’s educational sector, aligned with President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s vision to establish the most advanced educational system in South Asia.
Emphasising education as the nation’s foremost asset, President Wickremesinghe underscored the government’s commitment to prioritising funding despite prevailing economic challenges.
Under this vision, the government has announced the launch of the Cambridge Climate Quest, a self-paced educational programme tailored for students in Grades 8-12.
This comprehensive course, available in all three national languages, is designed to equip young learners with essential knowledge in climate and sustainability. Upon successful completion, students will receive Cambridge Certification.
The curriculum has been meticulously developed by scholars from Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge’s leading research initiative in climate and sustainability studies.
Christine Ozden, Global Director of Cambridge University Press and Assessments, recently met with President Wickremesinghe and Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha, reaffirming Cambridge’s commitment to support this initiative as part of broader educational reforms.
Additionally, Flinders University, Australia, has confirmed plans to establish an offshore campus in Sri Lanka. Professor Colin Stirling, Vice Chancellor of Flinders University, finalised discussions with President Wickremesinghe on this initiative.
The new campus aims to cater to the regional demand for higher education, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes as well as pathway courses in fields such as Engineering, Information Technology, Business Studies, Finance, Marketing, and Medicine.
Flinders University’s presence in Sri Lanka is anticipated to significantly enhance educational opportunities within the country, providing local students with access to world-class education.
June 25, Colombo (LNW): The task of the rating agency is to upgrade or downgrade a country’s sovereign ratings but not the declaration of bankruptcy or exiting from it as mentioned by some opposition politicians to mislead the people of Sri Lanka, a former treasury secretary and an ex Central Bank governor claimed with in depth knowledge relating to functions of international rating agencies.
They noted that these rating agencies are used to publish ratings by considering the statements of the country’s finance ministry on the fiscal situation and thereafter making their assessments to assign ratings by upgrading or downgrading Sri Lanka’s international sovereign rating.
These ratings will be issued after the assessment of the actual fiscal performances of the state and the outcome of the measures to revive the economy and they have no authority to make announcements about a country’s debt negotiation outcome.
It is unbecoming for local politicians to make public false statements aiming that it is the rating agencies that should announce that a nation has come out of bankruptcy
Sri Lanka has to have triple c rating to come out of bankruptcy. Besides, Sri Lanka has not reached an agreement with ISB holders. Therefore, how can one say our country has come out of bankruptcy?” they questioned.
These politicians should accept the fact that the authority to make such announce moments of exiting from preemptive debt default or freedom from bankruptcy is the head of state bit not the rating agencies.
A credit rating agency (also called a ratings service) is a company that assigns credit ratings, which rate a debtor’s ability to pay back debt by making timely principal and interest payments and the likelihood of default.
An agency may rate the creditworthiness of issuers of debt obligations, of debt instruments and in some cases, of the services of the underlying debt but not of individual consumers.
International rating agencies have authority to make unwarranted downgrade or upgrade the country sovereign ratings.
The internationally recognised rating agency has to wait to downgrade or up grade Sri Lanka as it is being constantly updated by Sri Lankan authorities on the latest developments in all sectors of the economy and imminent foreign exchange inflows.
With such measures, the external current account balance is expected to be maintained at growth supporting levels, thereby accommodating equity capital to the financial account through direct investment to the identified projects in the Colombo Port City and Industrial Zones, in addition to the expected monetisation of non strategic and underutilized assets.
Under this situation of positive economic indicators no credit agency will down grade Sri Lanka sovereign ratings the economic experts emphasized.
June 25, Colombo (LNW): Iran smuggled two aircraft that were flying out of Lithuania and heading to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
According to the Jerusalem Post, two Airbus A340s, leased by the Gambian company Macka Invest, were due to fly to South Asia in February.
As per the latest reports, these aircraft ended up in Iran instead of reaching their final destinations, causing major concern among the Lithuanian authorities.
Interestingly, the aircraft’s transponders—which enable them to be identified on air traffic control radars—were turned off the moment it entered the Iranian airspace.
Multiple Lithuanian news outlets suggested that one plane landed at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran and another at Konarak airport in Chabahar. The incident first came to light after a Lithuanian business news website, vz.lt published the shocking report.
With this, the Iranian aviation company, Mahan Air, now possesses the two aircraft as it continues to navigate through American sanctions.
After the report came to light, Aurelija Kuezada, director of Šiauliai Airport revealed that a third plane was prevented from taking off because they ” assume[d] that it could have landed in Iran as well.”
“Nothing could have prevented that,” Kuezada continued, “So, we just didn’t let it go when we found out that the first plane had landed in Iran.” the Lithuanian official added.
However, this is not the first time and unwantedly came under Iran’s possession. In December 2022, Iran International reported that four commercial Airbus A340 planes took off from Johannesburg and landed near Iran.
The places were en route Uzbekistan had shut off their transponders while it was near the Iranian airspace. In the same year, The Tehran Times reported that Iran is in need of at least 550 aircraft.
Why Iran is facing a paucity of aircraft, is because Economic sanctions have prevented the Middle Eastern nation from purchasing new planes. It is pertinent to note that the cost of Airbus A340 is over $150 million.
June 25, Colombo (LNW): The Department of Agriculture Department is planning to increase the production of banana, mango, papaya, pineapple and passion fruit by 2027.
Accordingly, the department is planning to increase banana production to 19.5 metric tons per hectare, mango production to 9.5 metric tons, papaya production to 45 metric tons, pineapple production to 14 metric tons and passion fruit production to 30 metric tons by 2027.
The Department’s Acting Director Dr. Kamani Ranatunga said that many technical measures have been planned for that purpose, such as variety breeding, hybrid variety breeding, high density cultivation, integrated pest control, the introduction of plant nutrients, the reduction of crop damage and the introduction of value-added production technology.
She said this while handing over the plan prepared by the Department for the growth of the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka by 2027 to Minister Mahinda Amaraweera today.
Accordingly, the consumption of fruits in Sri Lanka had increased to 12.8 million metric tons (1,283,039 metric tons) in 2023, Dr. Ranatunga said.
“The annual requirement of fruits in this country is 19.6 million metric tons (196,9371 metric tons). There was a notable increase in the production of bananas, mangoes, pineapples and papayas. The export of fruits has also increased in 2023, and 38,201 metric tons of fruits have been exported,” she said.
Meanwhile, Minister Amaraweera said that it is a national responsibility to save the foreign exchange spent on importing fruits that can be grown in the country.
When looking at the increase in the production of fruits in 2023, the increase in the production of bananas, mangoes, pineapples and papayas is notable, says the Department of Agriculture.
In order to uplift the economy of the poor farming community in 4 electorates (Nawalapitiya, Gampola, Udunuwara and Hewaheta) in the Kandy District, a sum of Rs. 700 million (aid of Rs. 5 hundred thousand per family) was provided to 2000 families for the ‘cultivation of fruits for export market.’
The ‘Innovation Project’ was being implemented under World Bank Aid. The specialty here is the cultivation of these products directly for export market.
It is also planned to provide the farmer with technical knowledge and understanding required for high quality products, drip water technology and plants with yielding capacity to produce high quality production that can meet the demand of foreign markets.
Under this, 4 well equipped State-of-The-Art Processing Centers have been set up for those electorates towards a suitable supply chain for those products.
Under this project, fruits like banana, guava, pineapple and avocado had been cultivated for export purposes.
The project will also cover 12 more districts in Sri Lanka. Under this, work has already commenced in 05 districts.
June 25, Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lankan Rupee has maintained its stability against the US Dollar today (25) in comparison to Monday’s exchange rates.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka reports that the buying rate for the US Dollar remains within the Rs. 300 range.
Specifically, there has been a slight decrease in the buying rate from Rs. 300.56 to Rs. 300.54, while the selling rate has also seen a decrease from Rs. 309.88 to Rs. 309.80.
However, the Rupee has experienced depreciation against a variety of other foreign currencies, although it has retained its stability against currencies from the Gulf region.
June 25, Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) happens to be steady against the US Dollar today (25) in comparison to yesterday, as per leading commercial banks in the country.
At Peoples Bank, the buying price of the US Dollar has dropped to Rs. 299.59 from Rs. 299.64, and the selling price to Rs. 309.73 from Rs. 309.79.
At Commercial Bank, the buying and selling prices of the US Dollar remain unchanged at Rs. 298.82 and Rs. 309, respectively.
At Sampath Bank, the buying and selling prices of the US Dollar remain unchanged at Rs. 300.52 and Rs. 309.50, respectively.
June 25, Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka Bank business revival units set up during the Covid -19 pandemic period will be strengthened to operate independently under current normal circumstances to help Small medium and corporate enterprises that have bad loans to continue their operations, Central Bank Governor Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said.
New guidelines will be issued by the Central Bank next week to maintain and strengthen these units by banks to facilitate the revival of those enterprises hit by the economic crisis journalists at the second monetary policy review briefing.
Bank s will have to extend loans facilities at concessionary loans to restructure their business entities affected by the recent challenging macroeconomic circumstances, he said.
Sri Lanka’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) hit by the economic downturn will receive a new impetus with the introduction of Rs 5 billion new loan relief package proposed in the budget 2024, finance ministry sources confirmed.
The finance ministry in collaboration with ministry of industries will provide credit facilities of Rs 5 million each to 1000 selected existing MSMEs for further expansion and recovery of their businesses via licensed commercial banks and licensed specialised banks at concessional interest rates.
Another special loan scheme amounting to Rs.3 billion will be implemented with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in addition to the 2024 budgetary support.
The government is also considering the possibility of upgrading the Sri Lanka Savings Bank a subsidiary of the National Savings Bank to a MSME Bank or to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to disburse loans easing the burden on the banking sector.
Ceylon Federation of Micro, Small, and Medium Entrepreneurs Chairperson Shashika de Silva has urgently called for the restructuring of MSME loans to avert an impending crisis.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, de Silva highlighted the critical need for immediate action to support MSMEs, warning of severe consequences if their financial burdens are not addressed.
“We have a responsibility to bring focus to issues faced by MSMEs,” de Silva stated. She emphasised that while the Government has taken steps to temporarily halt parate executions, the ongoing restructuring phase in Sri Lanka has overlooked the dire situation of MSMEs.
De Silva noted that MSMEs are currently weighed down by Rs. 1.6 trillion in third-stage loans. “Restructuring MSMEs is essential, but it cannot happen if we do not address the Rs. 1.6 trillion in loans.
Among these, Rs. 250 billion are attributed to non-wilful defaulters,” she said. “If this issue is ignored, MSMEs will face severe difficulties after 15 December, when parate executions resume.”,she said.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up a large part of Sri Lanka’s economy, with over one million SMEs accounting for approximately 75 percent of all businesses.
These are found in all sectors of the economy and are estimated to contribute about 45 percent of total employment in Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan government will provide extensive support for the upcoming Bora community spiritual conference and annual convention, scheduled from July 7th to 16th: Directed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Senior Advisor Sagala Ratnayaka, preparations focus on enhancing infrastructure at venues like the Bambalapitiya Bora Mosque and Sri Lanka Convention and Exhibition Centre: The event anticipates 15,000 attendees from various countries, reflecting the government’s commitment to its success.
The Colombo District Court extends an injunction preventing Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe from serving as Chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and as a party member: SLFP Treasurer Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna lodged the complaint, and today (25) the court allowed respondents to file objections: The court further extended the injunction until the complaint is revisited on July 9, 2024.
Retired Major General Sampath Kotuwegoda advocating for the National Peoples Power (NPP) says the rulers of this country led Sri Lanka into crisis long before independence: alleges the country had been ruled for 76 years by ‘the corrupt’, a regime far more sinister than ‘the inferiors’ suggested by Plato (misquoting Socrates) in his famous quote about politics, “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”.
International economic news agency Bloomberg reports Sri Lanka and international investors are in talks to finalise restructuring $12 bn in defaulted bonds, aiming for a swift resolution before upcoming elections: adds bondholders are under trading restrictions during negotiations: The restructuring is crucial for IMF financing and involves discussions with both bondholders and bilateral lenders: stresses progress is reported, indicating potential agreements in the coming months.
Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Bandula Gunawardena says the Cabinet has approved debt restructuring agreements: President Ranil Wickremesinghe briefed the Cabinet, allowing authorities to finalise deals with bilateral creditors: Gunawardane adds details will be presented to Parliament by the President following this approval.
The Disaster Management Centre reports 946 individuals across 432 families in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province are affected by drought in Karachchi, Kilinochchi district: No casualties reported: DMC is distributing drinking water to ease hardships and ensure essential supplies: Authorities are closely monitoring and prepared to implement additional support measures for affected communities.
The Sri Lanka Administrative Services Association (SASA) pauses planned trade union action after talks with Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, securing an allowance increase effective June 1st: However, Government Executive Officers proceed with sick leave strikes over unresolved demands: Education non-academic staff are on strike awaiting responses, while teacher-principal unions plan a nationwide strike: University non-academic staff continue their strike pending resolution discussions with the National Pay Commission.
Reports indicate several private medical institutions in Sri Lanka are operating without 2024 licences from the Ministry of Health, causing concern: Despite completing required procedures, licences have not been issued, affecting hospitals and labs: The delay, attributed to an internal crisis in the Private Health Services Regulatory Council, jeopardises service standards and the sector’s reputation: Authorities have provided vague explanations, prompting inquiries and public apprehension about healthcare quality.
The World Bank approves $150 mn to improve primary healthcare in Sri Lanka, focusing on quality enhancement and increased utilisation of facilities: The project aims to address underutilisation of primary healthcare, improve service quality, and expand coverage to over 1,000 facilities: It targets non-communicable diseases and ageing population needs, while enhancing pandemic preparedness and overall healthcare system resilience.
In the first T-20 of their series, Sri Lanka women, led by Chamari Athapaththu’s career-best 4 for 29 bowling, secures a four-wicket victory over West Indies women: Chasing 135, Sri Lanka reached 137/6 with Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshitha Samarawickrama contributing 35 each: Earlier, West Indies managed 134/8 in 20 overs: The teams will play their second T-20 at Hambantota tomorrow.
A total of Rs. 30mn worth of scholarships for the year 2024
Sri Lanka Insurance Life – The Nations’ protector, over the years have had contributed to the betterment of the future generation of the country. Sri Lanka Insurance Life (SLICLL) is not only one of the most profitable state-owned enterprises but also a responsible corporate citizen that enriches the community it operates in.
SLIC Life initiated the ‘Sri Lanka Insurance Life – Suba Pathum Scholarship’ program in 2014 for the children of its Life policyholders across the country. This scheme has awarded over 2000 scholarships, worth more than Rs.200mn up to date. This year the scholarship scheme will be rewarding 300 students, who excelled in the 2022 Grade 5 Scholarship, 2021/22 GCE Ordinary Level and 2022 GCE Advanced Level examinations. 75 top ranking students were selected from each of the three examinations totaling up to 370 students. Grade 5 Scholarship and GCE Ordinary Level, qualifiers were selected based on the district achievement and for GCE Advanced Level applicants, selections were based on the national level achievement.
A Financial scholarship of Rs. 20,000 for five years, Rs. 40,000 for two years and Rs. 50,000 for three years is awarded to the students who are eligible for the Suba Pathum scholarship from Grade 5 Scholarship, GCE Ordinary Level and GCE Advanced Level examinations, respectively. A total of Rs. 30mn has been allocated for the 2021/22 Suba Pathum Scholarship program which will continue for the next five years.
The scholarship awarding ceremony was held at Nelum Pokuna – Mahinda Rajapakse Theater, Colombo on the 17th of June 2024 with the participation of the Board of Directors, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and the senior management team along with the students and their parents.
Sri Lanka Insurance Life boasts over 60 years of experience in the industry with the largest asset base in the Life Insurance industry at Rs. 221 billion and the largest life fund of Rs. 180.8 billion, the company’s financial strength and stability are unmatched.
