News

“Thurunu Diriya” loan scheme, implemented by the Bank of Ceylon (BOC) with the assistance of the Policy Development Office (PDO) of the Prime Minister’s Office, has granted loans worth around 21 million for 47 potential young entrepreneurs up to date. This was revealed by the progress report of this loan scheme issued by the Bank of Ceylon recently.
 
Young entrepreneurs, who are engaging in small and medium businesses, not only in fields such as textile, beauty-culture, technology and mechanics, but also in various field such as photography, have qualified to receive loans under the above scheme. 

Small Enterprises Development Divisions have already prepared about 330 Business Plans for the loan applicants. Out of all the provinces, the highest number of applications have been received by Sabaragamuwa, Southern and Northern provinces.
 
“Thurunu Diriya” BOC loan scheme grants loans without a guarantor and collateral or with lenient guarantor conditions, for small scale entrepreneurs who possess a degree or a recognized vocational training certificate.This loan scheme is implementing by Small Enterprises Development Divisions and District and Divisional Secretariats island-wide, under the supervision of the Policy Development Office of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Immigration New Zealand staff are manually checking nearly 900 applications from Sri Lankan students which used a finance company now at the centre of a student visa scam,  Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is investigating the fraud involving Sri Lankan student applications.

INZ officials advised Lees-Galloway in March that fraudulent behaviour had been found in 88 pending applications, and 83 were declined, with a finance company at the centre of the fraud.


Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says a finance company is at the centre of visa fraud. Photo / NZ Herald

"Immigration NZ are going to manually review the 895 applications that came from Sri Lankan students through the Mumbai office in 2017. They're going to see which of those involved this particular finance company," Lees-Galloway. 

Those that had would be flagged and if the visa-holder sought to have their visa extended, their case would be more closely scrutinised.
INZ had looked back at earlier applications but Lees-Galloway said the information confirming they had sufficient finances to support their application came from the finance company, which meant going back to the fraudulent finance company for the information.

"It's a pointless exercise and what INZ has done instead is to refuse applications that involve that finance company. They are blacklisted, they can no longer be involved in applications for visas, and to identify how many people are currently in New Zealand on visas that involved an application through that company."

National's immigration spokesman Michael Woodhouse said there could be thousands of applications approved where fraudulent documentation was supplied.

"Surely it is in the public interest to know how widespread the fraud is. Our immigration system relies in part on the honesty of the applicants, but also on targeting and eliminating fraud when it occurs," he said.

Lees-Galloway said he would have a better idea of how widespread the problem was when INZ had completed its review.


Source: New Zealand Herald

German authorities have arrested a Sri Lankan man suspected of involvement in killing captured government soldiers as a member of the Tamil Tigers rebel group a decade ago, The Associated Press reported.

Federal prosecutors said a judge ordered Thursday the 36-year-old, identified only as Sivatheeban B. because of German privacy rules, detained pending a potential indictment. He was arrested Wednesday in the Duesseldorf area, suspected of committing war crimes and membership in a foreign terrorist organization.

Prosecutors say he belonged to the Tamil Tigers from 2006-2009. They allege that, in 2008, he tied up 16 soldiers and guarded them as they were driven to a site where they were shot.

Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009 when government forces defeated the rebels, who fought to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils.

Source : Sunday Times

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who is in Sri Lanka on an official visit, met with President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday after arriving in Colombo.

During the meeting, Maithripala Sirisena referred to the old history of bilateral and friendly relations between Iran and Sri Lanka and revived the memory of his ‘beneficial and constructive’ visit to Iran earlier in May where he met with Iranian senior officials on expanding bilateral cooperation, especially in areas of energy.

“There is no barrier obstructing the expansion and deepening of bilateral relations between Iran and Sri Lanka,” he asserted after voicing his country’s willingness for further bolstering and developing of bilateral cooperation and alignment at international communities.

Iranian top diplomat, for his part, delivered ‘the warmest greetings of President Rouhani’ to Sri Lankan president and re-voiced Iran’s resolute will for expanding friendly and intimate relations.

The Iranian diplomatic chief described the areas of cooperation between the two countries as diverse and broad and called for expansion of interactions in areas of energy, agriculture, as well as technical and engineering services.

The both sides continued their dialogue exchanging views on the latest most important regional and international developments.

Maithripala Sirisena visited Iran on May 13, 2018 where he signed a host of MoUs and agreements on economic and cultural cooperation with Iran. Also at a joint presser on the same day, the two presidents called for the establishment of a direct flight between Tehran and Colombo to boost tourism.

President Maithripala Sirisena and President Rouhani had already met on the sidelines of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) summit in Bangkok in October 2016.

Also on January 15, 2017, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Science, Technology and Research Susil Premajayantha met with Iranian Foreign minister Zarif while he was visiting Tehran at the invitation of Iran’s Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari.

The ‘Jana Bala Sena’ anti-government protest and the public rally organized by the Joint Opposition is scheduled to take place today (02).

 The protest will commence from the Lipton Roundabout at 2.00 p.m. today and the rally is scheduled to be conducted at 3.00 p.m. at the Viharamahadevi Open Air Theatre.

The protest and the public rally are organized under the theme, “Let’s dispel the incompetent, traitorous government that destroys and betrays the country.”

The construction work on the last phase of the Colombo Outer Circular Highway (OCH) is expected to be completed by July 2019, the Road development Authority (RDA) said.

The 29.5 kilometer OCH starts from Kerawalapitiya along the Colombo - Katunayake Expressway to link with the Southern Expressway crossing A-4 highway at Kottawa and the main A-1 Colombo-Kandy highway at Kadawatha.

The third and last phase of the OCH (OCH-3) from Kadawatha to Kerawalapitiya extending 9.63 kilometers is currently under construction. The RDA said that about 65% of the construction work has already been completed. 

The second phase of the Outer Circular Highway from Kaduwela to Kadawatha was opened to the public in September 2015 while the first phase from Kottawa to Kaduwela was opened in March 2014.

In the third phase, a new interchange will also be constructed close to the starting point of the proposed Colombo-Kandy Central Expressway. The four-tier interchange will be the highest in the country, according to RDA.

6.3 kilometers of the total distance will also be on long bridges since the expressway runs through the Muthurajawela wetland area and low land areas with paddy fields.
RDA further said that the water drainage plan was prepared after gaining approval from the Central Environment Authority.

Sri Lanka is set to call for fresh bids from expert international petroleum companies for petroleum exploration, development and production activities in the Kaveri Basin in Mannar.
 
The Cabinet of Ministers has accordingly approved the proposal presented by Minister of Petroleum Resources Arjuna Ranatunga to call for bids from international Petroleum Companies to explore, develop and produce petroleum in Mannar. 
 
A natural gas field was found for the first time off the coast of Sri Lanka in the Mannar Basin after the previous government signed an agreement with Cairn India Limited, in 2008 to explore for oil and gas off the country’s north-western coast. Cairn later pulled out after oil prices took a plunge the world over.

Commenting on the recent claim made by the Examinations Department that a project will be launched to disable mobile phone signals within the examination centers at the upcoming G.C.E. Advanced Level examination next month, Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando said that it would not be possible to jam signals from telecommunication towers since it may disturb the communication of the public.

“How many examinations centers are there island wide? If we are to do this, we have to install jammers at all these locations. At how many areas should we do this signal jamming? This seems rather impractical,” Fernando said. 

“If we jam the signals from telecommunication towers, it will affect everyone in those areas. It will definitely have a negative impact on business interactions and similar other communications. Therefore, it does not seem practical either,” the Minister added.

Fernando said that a discussion should be held with the Examinations Department and other relevant parties before installing signal jammers at examination centres.

Party leaders are said to have agreed to hold the provincial council elections during the month of January. According to reports, the decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. 

Minister Mano Ganesan following the meeting revealed that all party leaders other than of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) agreed to hold the election according to the former electoral method. However, the leaders of the Joint Opposition had not attended the meeting while JO parliamentary group leader, Dinesh Gunawardena says they have expressed their stance regarding the elections in writing and therefore did not attend.

Sri Lanka’s first ever tourist-friendly ‘Tuk Tuk’ service was launched at the Galle Face Green under the patronage of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday.

A concept introduced by the Minister of Finance and Media Mangala Samaraweera as a proposal under Budget-2018, the government commissioned this  ‘tourist friendly tuk-tuk’ programme in collaboration with the hospitality industry.


Minister Mangala Samaraweera with Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Japanese Ambassador Kenichi Suganuma riding a Tuk. 

This programme provides for existing three-wheeler drivers to register with the SLTDA so that a three-wheeler would not only be a mode of transportation, but the driver to serve as a local tourist-guide as well.

Over 750 Tuk Tuk drivers have been trained by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) to date under its tourist-friendly training programs across several districts. 

Furthermore, all drivers who successfully complete the program will get a special ID from the SLTDA, in addition to the tourist-friendly logo that will be displayed on these Tuk Tuk as a unique mark to distinguish them from other three-wheelers.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that under the Enterprise Sri Lanka credit schemes, the Ministry of Finance will incorporate a subsidised loan scheme to enable Tuk Tuk drivers to invest in a multitude of additional services including meters, WIFI, and GPS facilities that would act as value-added services that are already provided to consumers, both domestic and tourists.

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) has brought to the attention of the Minister of Sports Faiszer Mustapha, a potential incident of abuse of power. According to TISL a complaint had been received regarding the selections process for the tennis squad for the Asian Games 2018. However, they say media reports published on July 30, 2018 announcing the selection of the squad appear to confirm that no preventative action has been taken in this matter.  

“Key among the many questions regarding the selection process is the inclusion in the final squad, of a player who did not participate in the trials” the communique read. 

TISL says In a letter dated June 15, 2018 after the trials were conducted, the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA), had informed the competent authorities of the selections made by SLTA's Selection Committee. The selection committee had itself confirmed in writing that the player in question "did not show up for her matches and is deemed to have given a walkover". Despite this, media reporting has confirmed that the individual in question has been selected to the squad, at the expense of an individual who had been selected through the trials. “This raises several questions regarding the integrity of the selection process” TISL says.  

Speaking on the matter, TISL Executive Director Asoka Obeyesekere said "It is crucial for the development of sports in the country that the integrity of sport and the spirit of sportsmanship are upheld. We call on the relevant authorities once again, to ensure fair play in the selection process and to be mindful of the damaging effects to budding sportspersons caused by such alleged interference". 

Therefore TISL has now called on the authorities concerned to take into consideration the fact that this matter involves juveniles and to, therefore, treat the case with the appropriate sensitivity.

Inaugurating a new construction industry training course at the Talalla National Vocational Training Institute, Minister of Finance and Media Mangala Samaraweera said that he government intends to establish four vocational training facilities in Anuradhapura, Badulla, Kandy and Trincomalee to provide opportunities for students who are unable to gain admission to local universities.

"Although nearly 250,000 students sit for the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination every year, only about 25,000 students are eligible to enter local universities. Some affluent parents are able to send their children abroad or to private institutes for higher education", the Minister said.


A section of the youth selected from the Southern Province who would follow a four month training course in welding, carpentry and masonry. 

"What about those who are deprived of a university education since they lack the financial means to pursue higher education?", Samaraweera inquired. 

The government will set up four vocational training facilities at Anuradhapura, Badulla, Kandy and Trincomalee with German and Swiss financial backing within the next three years to provide wider opportunities to these youth, especially in the technological sector, he said. 
Furthermore, Samaraweera pointed out that he had allocated LKR 1000 million through Budget 2018 to set up the aforementioned vocational training institutes.

The Minister also stated that steps are already underway to establish a technological university in Matara with German assistance.