Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Oil fell to the lowest level in almost five months amid growing speculation that Greece may leave the euro currency union and as Saudi Arabia`s oil minister said prices should decline further.

Futures dropped 1.4 percent after Greece failed to agree on a unity government and European Union officials considered the country`s possible exit from the euro. Saudi Arabia wants crude prices lower than they are now, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said yesterday in Adelaide, Australia. The kingdom is pumping at its highest rate in almost three decades, OPEC data show.

The ongoing tug of war between the Treasury and Board of Investment (BOI) designed to be a `one stop shop` for investors, is hindering Sri Lanka`s efforts to attract US$2 billion in foreign direct investment targeted for this year, official sources said.

Having been absorbed by the Economic Development Ministry, the BOI is still in a transition without a Chief Executive Officer proposed in 2010 and included in November when the 2011 budget was presented, to issue clear direction on investment promotion.They said the BOI top management has failed to perform up to expectations in spite of Treasury instructions towards revitalizing the country`s premier investment agency.

A massive Rs.125 billion has been written off as bad debts by the two state banks during the past ten years, Parliament was informed yesterday. This was much higher than the government`s allocation for health, education and economic development sectors.

The government usually allocates amounts ranging from Rs.40 billion to Rs.75 billion for each of those sectors every year.

The Bank of Ceylon has written off Rs.116.5 billion while the People`s Bank has written off Rs.857 billion.

The Cabinet has decided to allow the dredging and transporting of sand without a licence from 6.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m., Environment Minister Anura Priyadharashana Yapa told Parliament today.

He said these laws were being relaxed for the greater convenience of the people and with the intention of keeping the sand prices stable.

The minister said the laws were relaxed in January but this was not found to be sufficient and therefore the law was being further relaxed. An individual is now allowed to dredge and transport sand from his or her own land without a licence while allowing the transport of sand from a building material store to building site.

Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga told Parliament yesterday that the government should resign from office if it accepted the contents of the report by the Committee on Public Enterprises as being true.

Participating in the adjournment debate on the COPE report, MP Amaratunga said that the report was nothing but a mirror which reflected the corruption and inefficiency of public institutions under the purview of the ministers of the government. At the helm of those institutions, listed as corrupt, were the ministers of the Cabinet. They should resign enmasse if they had any shame, he said.

SRI LANKA - Sri Lanka will step into hydrogen fuel era shortly, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce announced yesterday.

`Interestingly, the entry will be through the small scale SME sector rather than large scale motor transport. UNIDO is planning the pilot project in Galle where hydrogen powered three wheelers supported by a mini hydrogen filling station. This will show us how to implement this new technology in across the entire country,` said Nawaz Rajabdeen, UNIDO National Director for Sri Lanka.

The Central Bank today forecast a higher inflation rate and lower growth for this year stimulated by negative local and global economic factors but added that the situation was under control.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo, CB Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said the year-end inflation rate would remain higher than the mid-single digit level.

Commenting on the sharply depreciating rupee against the dollar Mr. Cabraal said the exchange rate behavior in the recent past has been highly speculative and current depreciated value was not in line with the fundamentals.

PARIS (AP) Socialist Francois Hollande defeated conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday to become France`s next president, heralding a change in how Europe tackles its debt crisis and how France flexes its military and diplomatic muscle around the world.

Exuberant, diverse crowds filled the Place de la Bastille, the iconic plaza of the French Revolution, to fete Hollande`s victory, waving French, European and labor union flags and climbing the column that rises at its center. Leftists are overjoyed to have one of their own in power for the first time since Socialist Francois Mitterrand was president from 1981 to 1995.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has become the focus of attention over the recent dispute over a Muslim mosque located within the Dambulla sacred area and the onus is on party leader and Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem to ensure a peaceful settlement of the issue.
Meeting The Sunday Leader at his office located at the premises of the Carnival ice cream parlor in Colpetty, Hakeem took some time out of his busy schedule to respond to queries on the latest situation with regard to the Dambulla mosque issue and his role in an ultra nationalist government.

(Lanka-e-News-03.May.2012, 6.30PM) `If the Govt. says it is stabilizing the country politically and economically , then it must come to the select committee , and as opposition we are prepared to give support to it by our participation , but it is the Govt.`s responsibility to provide the necessary environment conducive to it. On the other hand if the Govt. addresses us as `Tigers`, then that environment cannot be created` , the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe for the first time expressed this sentiment today.

Sri Lanka has paid a heavy price for the lack of cohesion as it was essential to project an image of unity rather than that of discord as the country prepares for important appointments at the UN Human Rights Council, said Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka`s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva.

She mentioned this in a May 1 datelined letter sent to External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris rejecting an offer to be transferred to another station.

Your proposal to move me out only nine months after assuming duties as PR in Geneva, will suggest instability in our diplomacy and an ad hoc character, when, in a multilateral Mission, it is essential to display cohesion, unity and stability if we are not to be continuously on the defensive. If I were to accept your proposal, Sri Lanka will be the only country to have had four Ambassadors in three years, which is normally the minimum period of postings for envoys of other countries, Ambassador Kunanayakam said. Removing one of the very few Tamils heading diplomatic missions abroad will allow questioning of the bona fides of the Government`s commitment to reconciliation, will reinforce extremist elements on all sides, and validate the argument that mine was only a token appointment.

May 04, Colombo: Sri Lanka`s main opposition United National Party (UNP) says the person who had waved a LTTE flag at the joint opposition May Day rally in Jaffna had traveled in a state-owned vehicle belonging to a state-owned electronic media institution.

Hu Jintao said on Thursday at the start of annual U.S.-China talks.

The Strategic and Economic Dialogue gets under way in Beijing as China and the United States attempt to resolve a thorny dispute involving the fate of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng.

China has sharply criticised the actions of U.S. diplomats, who sheltered Chen in the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

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China-US deal over dissident sours, Chen fears for life
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International conspiracies will be resoundingly defeated
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May 2 (DN) President Mahinda Rajapaksa stressed that he will not permit international conspirators to create disputes and destabilize the country, under any circumstances. He said Sri Lanka is one of the oldest democracies in the Asian region and honours all kinds of democratic norms and practices. We will never deny the people`s right to change govts through Universal Adult Franchise, he said.

Sri Lanka`s sovereign rating could be at risk if global oil prices continue to increase, Standard and Poor`s said yesterday (April 30), warning that subsidies would have to be adjusted accordingly in order to avoid a possible downgrade.

A Standard and Poor`s report titled `The Asia-Pacific Sovereign Seesaw: If Oil Prices Soar, Some Ratings Could Fall` said that oil subsidies can weaken fiscal and external indicators underpinning sovereign creditworthiness despite the support they lend to economic growth. Lowering subsidies, on the other hand, may risk political instability for some sovereigns.