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Addressing the forum, Minister Gunawardena opined that a golden opportunity has arisen for Sri Lanka to solve its foreign exchange problems with the special emphasis President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has given to promote organic agricultural exports.

Commenting on the negative sentiments expressed by various parties about the Government’s plans to completely move away from chemical fertilisers, he pointed out such things are quite natural whenever a novel idea or concept is proposed.

“At the time I was Education Minister, I faced a lot of opposition when I proposed to establish a secondary school in Homagama. So called experts were claiming that it was not going to succeed. However, contrary to the pessimistic predictions of doomsayers and naysayers, Homagama Mahinda Rajapaksa College has today become one of the most sought after schools in the country, producing top results in A/L and O/L examinations. Hence, we must not get discouraged by the criticism of cynics," he said.

The Minister also said that plans are underway to establish a chain of retail chains selling organic food products – Sathosa Organic Supermarket – in twenty-five (25) main cities across the country including Colombo’, the Minister remarked.

Chairman of National Organic Control Unit (NOCU) Advisory Committee, Dr. Sarath Ranaweera providing an overview of the nation’s organic agricultural exports during the occasion, disclosed that nearly 400 companies and 30,000 producers are involved in organic agriculture currently with 60,000 hectares of land being used for cultivation.

“Even during COVID, supermarket shelves reserved for organic food items went empty in the USA, as people are becoming quite health-conscious during this day and age’, he noted.

Addressing the event, EDB Chairman Suresh de Mel observed that a huge demand is anticipated for Sri Lanka’s organic products and there is potential to earn high incomes from the sector.

A large number of exporters involved in organic agriculture took part in the forum. The absence of adequate accredited laboratory facilities for inspection and testing within the country and rejection of products due to cross contaminations were expressed as the main impediments that restrict the progress of the sector by the participants.

EDB Additional Director General – Development, Malani Baddegamage in her vote of thanks conveyed her appreciation towards the officials of the Ministry of Trade, Department of Agriculture, Department of Export Agriculture, SLAB, Sri Lanka Standards Institute, Industrial Technological Institute, National Science Foundation, and National Fertilizer Secretariat for their presence and active participation in the forum.

Ministry of Health says that 20 to 30 percent of COVID-19 infections reported from the Colombo District can be of the Delta variant.

Deputy Director-General of Health Services Dr. Hemantha Herath said that this is revealed through the testing of samples collected from reported infections.

“We find information on the variants only through the samples. We don’t carry out gene sequencing on every positive PCR result. Therefore, we don’t receive information on every COVID-19 patient identified.

The universities have given us an estimate that 20-30 percent infections from Colombo are of the Delta variant.”

Dr. Herath points out that it can be concluded that the Delta variant has spread to all areas of the country seeing as reports of the variant are received from even North.

A donation by the United States of America, these vaccines are given at no cost to the Sri Lankan government as part of America’s commitment to ending the global pandemic and our enduring partnership with the people of Sri Lanka.  

"They will help Sri Lankans get back to work and to stay healthy, a gift we make in reflection of the long-standing friendship between the United States and Sri Lanka,” said Alaina Teplitz, the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives.

“Our partnership with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and other global COVAX partners to deliver these vaccines is critical to controlling the pandemic, slowing the emergence of new variants, and helping to restart the global economy,” she added.

This vaccine delivery builds on the United States government’s ongoing leadership on global vaccination efforts as the world’s largest donor to COVAX.

The 1.5 million doses delivered to Sri Lanka today are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to providing equitable global access to safe and effective vaccines.

The United States has worked closely with Sri Lanka since the pandemic began to protect public health, providing over USD 8 million in emergency supplies and critical services, plus an in-kind donation of 200 ventilators, to support the Sri Lankan Government’s response to the pandemic.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, this assistance has reached millions of people in all 25 districts and nine provinces of Sri Lanka to control the spread of COVID-19, address the urgent health needs of the Sri Lankan people, mitigate the pandemic’s negative economic impacts, and ultimately save lives.

Accordingly, it is reported that the Ministry of Finance has instructed all state institutions to immediately stop incurring additional expenses.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance has instructed state institutions to halt recruiting new employees, the report said.

The Ministry of Finance has taken this step in view of the drastic reduction in government revenues with the spreading of coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa has summoned all provincial governors and district secretaries to Temple Trees last week and instructed them to limit spending.

The Minister of Finance has instructed them to cut the additional expenses of government institutions and not to increase the number of employees.

The joint statement signed by China, Belarus, Bolivia, DPRK, Iran, Russia, Sri Lanka, Syria and Venezuela urged the UK Government to face up to its human rights problems, immediately stop all human rights violations, address the root cause of racial discrimination and hate crime, and carry out thorough and impartial investigations into cases of unlawful killings of civilians and other crimes, bring the perpetrators to justice and provide victims with remedies.

The party said that these comments by the government will only serve to jeopardise Sri Lanka's vaccination programme especially at a time when the U.K. government has pledged their excess Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to countries around the world who are facing shortages.

While the country is desperately in need of these vaccines as 600,000 citizens are awaiting their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the UNP requested the U.K. government to not withhold the supply of these urgently required vaccine doses due to the comments of a few individuals.

Meanwhile, former Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that Sri Lanka is the only democracy that has signed the joint statement initiated by China.

He said that by adding our country's signature, Sri Lanka has thrown in its lot with the last vestiges of oppression and repression left, exposing the regime's innate contempt for democracy.

A total of 43 more COVID-19 related deaths that occurred yesterday (22) were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services today pushing the death toll to 4,002.

According to the Government Information Department,17 females and 26 males are among the deceased

Rear Admiral Gurcharan Singh CSO (Ops), Western Naval Command, Indian Navy, Rear Admiral PS Mahawithana, Director General Operations, Sri Lanka Navy and Colonel Hilmy from Maldives National Defence Force were among the senior officers that participated in the inaugural session of TTX-2021 on 14 July.

The exercise is being coordinated by the Maritime Warfare Centre, Mumbai.

TTX-2021 is aimed at enhancing mutual understanding and exchange of best practices/ procedures for countering common trans-national maritime crime like curbing narcotics and assistance in Maritime Search and Rescue in the region. The exercise gains additional relevance in light of the successful Operation Sagar Aaraksha 2 executed in support of MV X Press Pearl.

The seamless cooperation achieved between the Navies was the result of continued engagements like the TTX to evolve common SOPs.

TTX-2021 exemplifies the deep trilateral engagement between India-Maldives-Sri Lanka which has strengthened immensely in maritime domain over the past years.

Interaction between the three neighboring counties in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has also grown significantly in recent years, in consonance with India’s policy of ‘Neighbourhood First’ and vision of ‘Security and Growth for all in the Region (SAGAR)’.

It may be recalled that India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives agreed to focus on ways of enhancing maritime security cooperation in the IOR at the fourth National Security Adviser (NSA)-level trilateral meeting held in Colombo in November last year. The meeting was attended by India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Defence Secretary General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne, and Maldives' Defence Minister Mariya Didi.

On June 16, several Members of Parliament representing the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) signed a 10-point motion of no-confidence against Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila, citing the recent ‘arbitrary’ increase in fuel prices.

Accordingly, The no-confidence motion brought against the Energy Minister was defeated yesterday (20) by a majority of 91 votes with  61 MPs voting in favour while 152 voting against it.

Speaking to media at his ministry, the Minister said that once the vote on the motion against Minister Gammanpila would be taken the entire world would come to know that the government still commands its undisputed power in Parliament.

"This would build confidence in the government by many foreign nations and other international bodies. Apart from that it would also prove that parliamentary democracy is fully-functioning here while many other countries could not even cope with the global pandemic.

We are a democratic alliance of parties with various ideologies. Our alliance is so democratic that the alliance members could voice their opinions even sometimes to the level of expressing their unhappiness of some decisions that we make. But that does not mean our members would go and vote with Sajith Premadasa and his group," he said.

The vote on the motion against minister Gammanpila would also show the world how disorganised the opposition parties are, Minister Fernando said.

“The UNP says that it would vote for a motion against the government and not against Minister Gammanpila. It seems that the UNP would not vote with others in the opposition. The JVP says that the SJB’s motion would end up in a loss boosting government’s confidence. Then some SJB members say that the motion is not against the minister but against the fuel hike. Likewise their opinion is divided. They are in disarray and have nothing meaningful to do. So they resort to this type of political nonsense,” the Minister added.

The EMA’s Handbook, lists out detailed safety and hygiene standards and protocols to ensure that all future events will be hosted in a responsible manner - minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission at events in order to avoid further shutdowns of an industry that is already on the verge of collapse after 14 months of closure.

The EMA represents the interests of an array of business segments, from event management companies, wedding planners, equipment rental companies (sound systems, lighting, LED, etc.) stage & set fabricators, furniture & infrastructure rental companies, and digital creatives companies to venues, florists, musicians, event support services, entertainers, dance troupes, artists, designers, technicians and many more. In total, the entire sector is estimated to contribute as much as Rs. 30 billion towards the national economy.

“We express our collective gratitude to the Government for taking a positive decision that will allow our members to earn a living after several painful months. While we welcome the opportunity for events to be hosted once more, extremely strict enforcement of comprehensive safety protocols is essential to avoid transmission of COVID-19 at events,"  Roshan Wijeyaratne, President, EMA stated.

“Many event companies have made massive investments into infrastructure, equipment, and development of skills with investments ranging from Rs. 10 Mn to Rs. 800 Mn per business. They are now on the brink of collapse and are struggling to pay wages and meet financial commitments. Without assistance, they face impending bankruptcy. This will affect 130,000 direct and 600,000 indirect jobs and the people and families who depend on our industry for their livelihood,” Sajith Kodikara, Vice President, EMA.

Events are considered essential to businesses as a vital tool of ‘live communication’ which enables a cross-section of industries to present new products to the market and generate sales. In that regard, a high frequency of corporate events is often correlated with a healthy economy.

For countries that are beginning to emerge from COVID-19, face-to-face meetings and events are a priority feature of work they are looking to restart. A study of 125 New Zealand-based organisations found that 97% are planning to hold a business event in 2021 – up from 94% of respondents to a survey conducted in May 2020 . Another recent study found that business travel has increased by 55% since restrictions eased while 37% of respondents expect to resume travel in 2021.

“Another crucial factor to consider is the potential for Sri Lanka to be positioned as a ‘safe event hub’ for MICE and destination event tourism which will accelerate Sri Lanka’s economic revival. That is provided we are able to get the health crisis under control with a scientific approach and a sustainable way forward for the industry. If we delay, we will most certainly lose out on business to other countries in the region,” Nishan Wasalathanthri, Treasurer Member, EMA.

In emulation of global best-practices adopted as a solution to ensure compliance of guidelines, the EMA Handbook proposes the appointment of ‘safe-event ambassadors’ tasked with reporting on non-compliance of guidelines.

“The handbook is created to simplify the organisers’ tasks of planning and hosting events and to mitigate the risk of weaker standards being applied. While the guidelines are already comprehensive, we expect to update it with additional information shortly,” Minha Akram, Committee Member, EMA added.

The Association also expressed its support for the Government’s efforts to control the pandemic and re-start the Sri Lankan economy.

“As with many sectors of the economy today, our industry is in dire peril. There is however a light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of mass vaccination. We take great encouragement from the Government’s emphasis and continuing rollout of vaccines to the public and request the prioritization of vaccines for industry members.

“In order for all sectors of the economy to scale up activity, and have a meaningful chance at recovery, we need to achieve 60% vaccination as soon as possible. Only then will we be able to see larger scale events take place. We also take this opportunity to urge the public to continue cooperating with public health measures to speed our progress to recovery,” Gerry Jayasinghe, Advisory Counsel, EMA said.    

The EMA handbook will be available online on www.emalk.org from 19 July 2021.

It has been imposed provisions by the 12th section of the constitution as no citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, cast, sex, political opinion, place of birth or anyone of such grounds.

However, the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, which governs Muslim marriages and divorces, has included specific provisions that discriminate against women, and various women's organizations belonging to the Muslim community and Muslim law scholars have pointed out the need to repeal such provisions from the law.

Therefore, under the common law governing the marriage and divorce of the citizens of Sri Lanka, it has become appropriate to provide them with alternative opportunities to govern the marriage and divorce of people of the Muslim community as well.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal tabled by Justice Minister Ali Sabry to amend the Civil Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code which contained the Marriage procedure enabling to govern under the said act on condition that persons who believe in Islam intend to get married under the Marriage Registration Ordinance.

Addressing the press at the JVP Headquarters, he said that Cabinet approval had been obtained on Monday to hand over 40% shares of the Yugadanavi Power Plant to a US Company.

"The Treasury Secretary had signed an agreement with the New York-based gas-to-power developer New Fortress Energy to construct a new offshore LNG terminal," he disclosed.

Currently, its shares belong to the Treasury and four other state institutions.

The Kerawalapitiya Power Plant consists of 300 MW in operation today and is ultimately expected to grow to over 1,000 MW by 2025 according to this plan, Dissanayake said, adding the power plant will eventually become the largest in Sri Lanka and 40% stake is to be given to a US firm.

“This is the latest instance of the government selling off the country’s assets to super powers. This has become part of the foreign policy of the incumbent government. It sells off the assets to China, India and the US from time to time. The Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act which was recently passed in the Parliament has given a lot of power to a Chinese company and now there are discussions ongoing to hand over the oil tanks in Trincomalee and its Harbour to India," he added.