Central Provincial
Council Property Must be Secured
The Deputy Chairman of the Central Provincial
Council W M Yasamana disclosed that there was no system to protect
the properties of the Council that is now 20 years old. He made
these remarks at a recent meeting of the Central Provincial
Council.
The rural hospital of the Council situated at
Aluvihare, Matale has been constructed on a land donated by
the father of Mr. Bernard Aluvihare but nothing has been done
to transfer the ownership up to now. Ayurvedic hospitals have
been built by the Provincial Council on lands belonging to municipal
councils. Two health centres have been constructed in the Rattota
electorate on private lands. The land owners have now come into
occupation and the health centres are no longer functioning.
Hence it is essential to regularize the land belonging to the
Provincial Council and implement a system to acquire land belonging
to others before carrying out any construction or other development
work, the Deputy Chairman proposed.
In response, the Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayaka
admitted that there were several critical issues related to
the lands of the Provincial Council that need attention. The
transfer of the ownership of the lands where schools belonging
to the Provincial Council are situated has already been completed.
The gazette notification related to the acquisition of 52 lands
where bus stands are situated is already out but the ownership
is yet to be secured. Regularization of the land has to be done
by the national Ministry of Lands. Due to delay on the part
of the Ministry, people who have encroached on the land now
challenge the Provincial Council to prove ownership, he added.
Provincial Minister of Health Ediriweera Weerawardane
said that lands allocated to the Health Ministry are now being
regularized.
Chairman of the Council Saliya Bandara Dissanayaka
pointed out that in addition to the ownership of immovable properties,
the ownership of movable property such as vehicles also needs
to be regularized.
Obama's Democrats Promote Political Dialogue
in Sri Lanka
The Sri Lanka Branch of the National Democratic
Institute (NDI) that is affiliated to President Barak Obama's
Democratic Party is promoting a national dialogue in Sri Lanka
to seek a political solution to the ethnic conflict. NDI has
launched a nationwide programme to get various important stakeholder
groups to meet to discuss the issue. A symposium was recently
held at the Hotel Tourmaline, Kandy with the Peradeniya University
political scientist Professor Prof. Navarathna Bandara serving
as the moderator.
The former Rupavahini senior executive Eric Fernando
who serves as the communication consultant to NDI is the coordinator
of the project. Mr. Fernando told The Kandy News that the NDI
does not take any particular position on the issue. It merely
serves as the facilitator to bring diverse stakeholders around
the same table to exchange ideas to develop a viable political
and governance framework for post-conflict Sri Lanka.
Beef Price Soars in Kandy
By Sunimal Liyanage
The price of beef at the Kandy Central Market has risen to an
unprecedented high lately. The price of beef which stood at
Rs.360 per kg last August has leapt to Rs. 440 per kg in late
October, a rise of 22% in the space of about two months.
The beef vendors claim that the price of live
cattle has sharply risen. They say that by Christmas season
the price is bound to rise to Rs 500 per kg. Several beef stalls
in the Kandy Market have closed down due to lack of business.
Some of the beef stalls in the Kandy suburbs and adjacent towns
also have gone out of business in recent years.
UPFA and UNP Members Criticize the Central
Province Education Ministry
Central Provincial Councilors from both the main
parties criticized the poor administration of the Provincial
Education Ministry at a meeting of the Council held recently.
Deputy Chairman of the Council W S Yasamana (UPFA)
accused the ministry of making irregular appointments of teachers
who did not have the requisite qualifications He also claimed
that some teachers avoided serving in schools in the so called
“difficult” areas. These teachers retained their
appointments in schools in Kandy and other desirable towns for
extended periods of time with the support of politicians and
senior officials, he said.
The CPC Leader of the Opposition S B Dissanayaka
(UNP) accused the ministry of collecting Rs 60 to Rs 90 from
each student for examination papers when such collection was
prohibited by the Ministry of Education of the Central Government.
Councilors Lucky Jayawardane (UNP) and Sanjeewa
Kaviratne (UNP) noted that the question papers that the provincial
ministry produced for school exams in the recent past were full
of errors. Mr. Kaviratne also criticized the schools for failing
to cover the full syllabus in most subjects.
Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayaka responding to
the criticism admitted that there were several shortcomings
in the school administration. He attributed some of them to
the lack of qualified staff and other resources. However he
assured the members that he would do his best to rectify the
shortcomings.
CPC to Raise Funds for DS Library Auditorium
The Central Provincial Council (CPC) will raise
funds to build the D.S.Senanayaka library auditorium that was
destroyed in a fire in 2007. The KMC that manages the library
is not in a position to come up with the required funds. The
estimated cost is Rs 500 million.
The former leader of the opposition in the KMC
and current provincial councilor Thilina Tennakoon (UPFA) made
the proposal for the CPC to take over the responsibility at
the last meeting of the Provincial Council. Chief Minister Sarath
Ekanayake (UPFA) as well as members from both sides of the aisle
supported the proposal.
The DS Library, as it is popularly known, was
established in as far back as 1841 and is one of the oldest
libraries in the country. The KMC took it over in 1920. The
first prime minister of Sri Lanka D S Senanayaka laid the foundation
stone for the present building in 1950 and the library was named
after him in 1962.
The library houses about 250,000 books. Sometime
ago a very valuable collection of rare books on Sri Lanka went
missing from the library. This newspaper raised the issue more
than once and some members of the opposition in the KMC also
questioned the municipal administration on the matter. For reasons
best known to the KMC it never conducted a proper inquiry to
find out who was accountable for the theft. It is suspected
that the books were sold for a large sum of money.
SRI LANKA MONTHLY BUSINESS REVIEW: SEPTEMBER
2009
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES GROW BUT OBSTACLES
NEED TO BE CLEARED
BY - Dr. ANANDA JAYAWARDANE
Increase in tourist arrivals continued during the month of August,
2009 as well. The total number recorded - 41,207- is a 34.3%
increase compared to the corresponding period last year. Most
of these tourists were from United Kingdom, Germany and India.
Sri Lanka plans to lease islands off the north-west
coast for tourist hotels, as the travel industry recovers after
the end of the 30-year ethnic war. According to the Minister
of Tourism Promotion Faiszer Musthapha, the government will
soon advertise the lease of five islands in the Kalpitiya lagoon
region which is being developed as a new up-market tourist resort
complex. The Tourism Promotion Ministry and the Investment Promotion
Ministry are holding talks with international hotel investors
on new projects in the country, Musthapha told a news conference.
The international luxury hotel chain -Six Senses- is to operate
a six-star boutique resort on an island in Kalpitiya to be built
by a group of foreign investors, Musthapha added.
Favourable conditions prevalent in Sri Lanka are
likely to create new business opportunities in the Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. According to some foreign
investors involved in this sector, Sri Lanka's rural economy
can take a slice of India's 12 billion dollar Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) industry by catering to the bottom segment
of the foreign customers who are highly cost conscious. At present
India is one of the largest BPO operators in the world, but
the boom in the Indian economy has increased operating costs
in cities due to higher rents and other expenses. The ICT penetration
rate in rural India remains poor and the Indian companies are
compelled to look at countries such as Sri Lanka for specialized
back office services such as accounts, legal, insurance and
technology-related work which can generate high income levels.
According to Sri Lankan-born Raj Amirthanayagam, Managing Director
of Revanalytics Solutions Inc., a Canadian technology company,
there is also a big demand for jobs in the lower end of the
ICT industry such as data entry which has got too expensive
to operate in Indian cities. BPO companies operate from cities
in India due to infrastructure bottlenecks such as lack of high
speed internet lines in the rural areas. But in rural Sri Lanka
IT access has substantially improved creating ideal opportunities
for skilled persons who don't want to leave their homes to remain
in villages and earn their living. "India does about 12
billion dollars of knowledge based process work and 10 % of
that is a big amount. Rural skilled persons can make 2,000 rupees
an hour which is the amount paid in other countries for quality
processed work." Amirthanayagam said. "Sri Lankan
students are very talented and if trained and developed can
provide BPO services with more value addition" said Sankar
Krishnan, Managing Director of US-based outsourcing company
Adventity, another firm keen to do BPO work in Sri Lanka and
train rural youths on ICT and use of systems.
As per the chief executive of the budget airline
-Air Asia - Sri Lankan tourism will get a boost if airport expansion
plans include budget carrier-friendly infrastructure to reduce
the cost of air travel. Air Asia, which began daily flights
to Sri Lanka from its Kuala Lumpur hub in August, had sold 30,000
tickets before its first flight landed the country by offering
seats at a third of the price charged by full service airlines.
Colombo Dockyard Limited has won an order worth
about seven billion rupees to build two tugs for a Singapore
customer with an option for two more vessels of the same type.
"The contract for the 130 ton bollard pull Anchor Handling
Tug Supply Vessels was significant as it comes at a time shipping
is in recession and many yards have closed or face cancelled
orders" the company has announced in a statement.
In response to a strong demand and a subsequent
go slow by the estate workers led by the unions, the plantation
firms of Sri Lanka agreed to raise a worker's daily wage to
405 rupees from 290rupees after lengthy talks. The wage hike
of around 40 % will cost each regional plantations company an
additional 250-450 million rupees a year, depending on the size
of the workforce. This will obviously cause a drastic impact
on their cash flow and profitability. Accordingly, Sri Lanka's
plantations industry is now demanding that the government settle
long-delayed tax refunds to help them to bear the cost of the
wage hike estimated at an extra six billion rupees a year. According
to Damitha Perera, Chairman of the Planters' Association repayment
of value-added tax refunds and disbursement of funds raised
from a tax on exports would help the firms to bear the burden.
Prior to the settlement reached, the union action
disrupted transport of made tea from hill country estates to
the Colombo auctions. The stoppage of tea deliveries and disruption
of other work on estates created fears of a shortage at the
auctions and drove up prices, which were already buoyant owing
to a global production shortfall caused by drought. "There
was good demand with an average price gain of 10-20 rupees a
kilo. The feature of the sale was the sharp escalation in prices
for BOP varieties, particularly for teas from the Western planting
districts in the hills - a direct reflection on the extremely
low availability." Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers said.
According to the brokers the auction prices are likely to stay
high as drought in major tea exporting countries had reduced
the crop thus creating a serious global shortfall in supply
that is driving up both auction and retail prices.
High publicity has been given in the media regarding
the strong possibility of Sri Lanka losing lucrative GSP Plus
trade concessions consequent to adverse findings of an initial
investigation on human rights abuses in the country conducted
recently. The European Union (EU) is expected to decide on whether
to extend or not the Generalized System of Preferences plus
(GSP+) concessions to Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan tableware manufacturer
Dankotuwa Porcelain said that it would be the hardest hit if
the European Union withdraws this concession.
According to Sunil Wijesinha, Chairman of this
company, the overseas buyers who have been asking for discounts
and had reduced orders owing to recession, would have to pay
more if the concession is withdrawn. Tableware and kitchenware
exports would be charged a duty of 8.5% under the normal GSP
scheme if the GSP Plus concession is withdrawn. The duties of
tiles and other ceramic products would be 3.5% and 2.5% respectively.
The competition is so high even an increase of 2.5% will create
a seriously problem according to industry sources.
Ceylinco Finance, a Sri Lankan finance company
that was a part of the troubled Ceylinco group, has changed
its name to Nation Lanka Finance PLC to make a fresh start.
"We want to be a good financial institutional and are looking
at the long term benefits rather than the short term gains.
During the past few weeks our shares have appreciated which
shows the public still trust us." N B S B Balalle, chairman
of Nation Lanka Finance has announced. The management of another
unit of Ceylinco Group, Ceylinco Sussex College, has been entrusted
to the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL), which has taken over
several other troubled firms of Ceylinco. More than 5,700 students
are at 20 Ceylinco Sussex College branches island-wide, studying
for national exams in the English medium, making it the largest
private school network in the country. Sussex Colleges has also
employed 900 persons of whom 600 are teachers trained in the
English medium.
According to a media report, arrangements have
been finalized for the acquisition of Sri Lanka's Millennium
IT by the London Stock Exchange for a sum of around 50 million
sterling pounds (about 9.4 billion rupees). Britain's Financial
Times newspaper said Millennium IT's system was claimed to the
fastest in the world, handling a trade in 130 microseconds,
compared with 250 microseconds for the Nasdaq's OMX system.
The Millennium IT system can handle up to one
million messages per second, compared with 20,000 on the London
Stock Exchange's TradElect system and Chi-X Europe's system
which processes 225,000 messages per second, the report said.
According to a survey carried out by the Census
and Statistics Department in all areas of the country except
for the Northen Province, Sri Lanka has lost 155,000 industrial
jobs in the second quarter of 2009. The loss in the service
sector alone was 99,000 but there has been a gain of 118,000
jobs in the agriculture sector. Consequently the total unemployment
has risen only marginally.
Arooze Saleemdeen Heads Finlay Insurance
in Central Province and Wayamba
 Finlay
Insurance Brokers have appointed one of the most experienced
insurance professionals in Sri Lanka Mr. Arooze Saleemdeen,
as its Chief Area Manager for the Central and Wayamba Provinces.
He will work from the Finlay Kandy branch office that was opened
earlier this year. Finlay Insurance is a part of Finlay Colombo
that started its insurance business in Sri Lanka as far back
as 1893. It has operations in India and the Maldives and reinsurance
facilities with major international reinsurance companies including
Asian Reinsurance Brokers in Singapore and Prudent Insurance
Brokers in India.
Director of Finlay Insurance Mr. Joachim Caspersz
says that his company is happy to introduce insurance brokering
to the business community in the Kandy and Kurunegala area under
the leadership of Mr. Saleemdeen who is a veteran in the field
and a well known personality in Kandy . The important point
that those who need insurance of any type must realize, he says,
is that an insurance broker is able to assess the needs of the
customer and secure the best insurance available at the right
price to meet the need of the customer. It will bring enormous
benefits to the customer, save money and cost him or her nothing
extra he noted.
Mr. Saleemdeen says that the Kandy branch welcomes
corporate and business customers as well as private individuals
who need insurance of any type including business, home, motor
and travel. He can be reached at 0777-288979.
Diabetic Centre in Kandy
 Diabetic
patients in Kandy now have the convenience of a special clinic
in Kandy to seek treatment. The Kandy Diabetes Centre (KDC)
was opened recently at 267, Peradeniya Road (near Girls' High
School) with the goal of providing modern diabetes care under
one roof.
The WHO on its website describes the disease as
a “life threatening condition (that) is a major threat
to global public health that is rapidly getting worse, and the
biggest impact is on adults of working age in developing countries."
WHO also reports that in 2000 Sri Lanka had 653,000 people with
the disease, a prevalence rate of about 34 in every 1,000 in
the population. This compares with a world prevalence rate of
28 per 1,000. What is even more disturbing is that the WHO projects
that in the year 2030 Sri Lanka would have 1,537,000 cases or
about 70 in every 1,000 for a total projected population of
around 22 million. Unless action is taken in Sri Lanka now to
halt the rising prevalence rate and reverse it, the adverse
implications for human wellbeing, economy and healthcare costs
would be enormous.
The vision of the KDC, its founders say, is to
reduce the incidence of diabetes and its complications among
people in the Central Province. The Centre offers the following
servicers: Education about the illness, Foot Care (Podiatry),
Nutrition and Weight Control, Diabetes Kidney service. Eye care,
Neurology care, Single-day screening to detect diabetes, Programme
for prevention of diabetes in children, Pregnancy counseling
and State-of-the-art laboratory services.
The staff at KDC consists of a Dialectologist,
Eye specialist,. Kidney specialist,. Heart specialist, Neurologist,
Diabetic educators, Diabetic Nurse. Medical officers. For appointments
and information call 081-220-5251; 220-5252; 077-324-0155.
Rotarians and Lions Join
Hands to Help Prison Guard
 The
Rotary Club of Kandy and the Lions Club of Senkadagala jointly
donated a prosthetic leg worth Rs 35,000 to Mr. Bandula Wijesinghe.
Mr. Wijesinghe is a former prison guard. The two clubs responded
to a request from one of Mr. Wijesinghe's former colleagues
Lion Tissa Jayasinghe to help the former. In the picture from
left to right Sugath Rajapakse (Rotary) Arlene Kellart (Rotary),
Dr Asela Bandara (Lions, Tissa Jayasinghe (Lions), Recipient
Bandula Wijesinghe, Srilal Mendis (Lions President), Carl Kellart
(Rotary), Ayesha Wijeyeratne (Rotary President), Nigel Fernando
(Rotary) and Shamil Peiris (Rotary).
Toastmasters Train KMC
Officials
By Special Corresponded Aslam Marikkar
The Kandy Toastmasters Club recently held a workshop
at the Kandy Municipal Council to impart skills of public speaking
to KMC officials. Mrs. Sakuntala Sirimalwatte, officer-in-charge
of the Welfare and Social Service Department organized the event.
The Kandy Toastmasters Club is a branch of Toastmasters
International founded in California 85 years ago in 1924 to
help people develop public speaking and leadership skills.
Mayor L B Aluvihare welcomed the service that
the Kandy Toastmasters was providing the KMC staff. Municipal
Commissioner Chandana Tennakoon and Dr Asoka Seneviratna were
also present.
The resource persons who conducted the training
session included the Kandy Toastmasters Club President Mr. M
R Ranatunga, former District Governor of Toastmasters M M N
Muanweera and Toastmasters Dr. Jayalath Edirisinghe and Dr Asoka
Dangolla. The Chief Engineer of the KMC Ms. Indranee Wijeyawardena
delivered an impromptu speech that was evaluated by the resource
persons.
 Mahamayan
Wins All-Island Key Board Competition
Nine year old Prasansani Weerasinghe from Mahamaya
Girls College, Kandy won the “Single Keyboard Solo”
competition at the 2009 Sri Lanka Festival of Music Dance and
Speech organized by the International Institute of Music, Speech
and Drama, Colombo. Prasansani posed for this picture with her
music instructor Mrs. Vinitha Gammanpila.
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