Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Follow the china calender instead of the tamil's....

prices of which have already gone up, are big onions, tinned-fish, sugar, dhal and potatoes.

Hambantota to be free port
New laws passed to give sweeping tax exemptions no customs duties, no exchange control, no regulations

Laws permitting free trade -- exempt from customs, exchange control and import-export regulations -- have been passed in Parliament. The areas where free trading could take place have not been specified so far, but will be gazetted, according to the amendments made to the Finance Act on Friday.
The move comes in the wake of comments by Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Chairman Priyath Wickrama that Hambantota would be a free port with no tax involvements.

Sri Lanka is not among the eleven countries exempted by the US last week from Iran oil sanctions, despite Petroleum Resources Minister Susil Premajayanth recently claiming that a concession was granted.
The countries that escaped new US sanctions are Japan, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the US State Department said. The reason given is that they have already significantly reduced their Iran oil purchases.
The actions taken by these countries were not easy, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is quoted as saying. They had to rethink their energy needs at a critical time for the world economy and quickly begin to find alternatives to Iranian oil, which many had been reliant on for their energy needs.
Major importers of Iranian oil including China, India and South Korea did not earn exemptions. A CNN report said President Obama had to make a final decision by March 30 as to whether the other countries have or have not met the requirements to significantly reduce Iran oil purchases. If the president determines any countries have not, the countries banks will face sanctions starting at the end of June.
A news report quoted Premajayanth as saying last week that the US has asked Sri Lanka to scale down crude oil imports from Iran for the current year only by 15 per cent. However a spokesman for the US embassy said, no final decision has yet been made and these discussions are still ongoing.

that couldr emedy the dire straite Sri Lanka Lanka in at the moment. Do you agree that we are now beyond redemption and we are daily sinking, sinking and sinking. You could be the one who could resurrut us from this impending doom

Kshenuka to be sent to Paris to replace Dayan

The President has decided to appoint Additional External Affairs Ministry Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne as Sri Lanka s ambassador to Paris to replace Dayan Jayathilleke with immediate effect.

Supervising MP of the External Affairs Ministry, Sajin Vass Gunawardena had revealed this detail during a meeting summoned at the Ministry on March 30th.

Sajin has said that comments and statements made by Dayan Jayathilleke, who is a close friend of External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, to the local and foreign media about the UNHRC resolution and the government s approach have placed the government in difficulty.

He has asked Kshenuka to draft a letter calling for explanation from Dayan over the comments made by him.

Sajin had summoned the meeting without informing the External Affairs Minister or the Ministry Secretary Karunaratne Amunugama and has included only a few officials including Kshenuka.

Sajin had referred to the Minister as Panuva (worm) at the meeting. He had said that the worm had continuously given D-ropes to the President.

He had added that the President has decided to remove GL from the External Affairs Ministry.