News

Indian automotive major Mahindra and Mahindra Limited will open a vehicle assembly plant in Sri Lanka with an investment of $ 50 million on August 17 this year with an eye on the export market.

The trial run is set to kick off on the 29 July, and they are hoping to complete it before 15 August, right before the launch of the plant. The plant will be inaugurated in the presence of CEO of Mahindra and Mahindra, Dr Pawan Goenka

The plant located in Welipanna in the Kalutara District, will be a joint venture between Sri Lanka’s Ideal Motors Limited, and Mahindra and Mahindra group to set up a to assemble vehicles with an investment of over US$ 50 million.

Mahindra Automobiles Chief of International Operations Arvind Mathew said that this would be the first Mahindra assembly plant built outside India.

Ideal Group Founder and Executive Chairman, Nalin Welgama said that production at the vehicle assembly plant at the factory complex in Welipenna, Kalutara will commence within the next few months carefully considering the 2019 budget impact on the industry.

One of the newest SUV models of Italian-based Pininfarina’s automotive design prowess will also be considered for assembling here in Sri Lanka under this joint venture with Mahindra and Mahindra, a part of the US$19 billion Mahindra Group based in India, he disclosed.

Mahindra will hold a 35 per cent stake in the JV while Ideal Motors will have 65 per cent, he pointed out adding that it has over 30 per cent of value addition in Sri Lanka.
It has been planned to produce several vehicle components including tyres, batteries, seats, seat covers, rubber parts, etc locally.

With the aim of manufacturing import substitutes for vehicle industry, Ideal Motors will provide facilities for local automotive components manufacturers to produce items of international standards under the global expertise of Mahindra.

An Automotive Vendor Park will be established at the Welipenna factory complex with the aim of exporting vehicle components for the international market specially the vast Indian market, he disclosed.

The company will assemble around 2,000 vehicles per year for the South Asian export market, Mr. Welgama opined.

He said that the total investment for the project would be close to Rs. 3 billion and it would have the ‘Made in Sri Lanka’ tag in it. “We hope to market the KUV100 vehicle at around Rs. 3 million.”

It has been initially planned to market KUV100 vehicle assembled in the island with the ‘Made in Sri Lanka’.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by President Maithripala has decided to take the necessary steps to hold provincial council (PC) polls before the presidential election.

The decision was reached by the SLFP central committee (CC) last evening when the committee met under the patronage of the President.

SLFP General Secretary, MP Dayasiri Jayasekera has said the party intends to seek a Supreme Court order on holding the presidential election before the provincial council elections. He has further noted that steps would be taken to expedite measures to hold the provincial council elections at the earliest possible time.

According to Jayasekera, it was also decided that the party leadership would discuss the formation of a new alliance with former President, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and to reach a conclusion on the matter.

The Online Job Bank established by Marketing Division of Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) to assist foreign job seekers in Sri Lanka fails to fast track the procedures in finding overseas job vacancies for local applicants.

The aim of establishing Online Job Bank was to facilitate the registration of Sri Lankan job seekers for foreign employment.

They have been given an opportunity to register themselves directly through the SLBFE website or through Head office or any branch office through the Job Bank facility.

An application is valid for a maximum of 02 years from the date of submission to SLBFE Job Bank.

Although this programme is aimed at facilitating prospective employers /Agents to find job seekers through SLBFE Job Bank, it has failed to live up to expectations, a government audit inspection claimed.

17,663 persons had been registered there in the year 2016 and 2017; and the information of persons registered in it had been reviewed in 120,462 instances by job agencies.

However 1,368 from registered persons had only been received opportunities for foreign employment.

The amount registered in job bank had been increased by 8405 (182 per cent) in the year 2017 as compared with the year 2016.

However 9 per cent had only been in abroad from the amount registered in the year 2016. That percentage had further been increased up to 07 per cent as at the end of the year 2017, audit report observed.

Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment is currently constrained in terms of promotion – it lacks sufficient personnel, time and resources to carry out promotional activities.

Job Bank management has little or no contacts outside the Middle East and officials have difficulty in ensuring that the job orders and employers are genuine/legitimate.

There is a lack of capacity to supply skilled and professional categories. The skills on offer by Sri Lankan migrants do not match up to the skills demanded by destination countries.

There is a lack of cooperation among licensed agencies because of the intense competition in the market pushing SLFEB’S Job Bank into non entity and making it ineffective, official sources said.

Sri Lanka needs each and every company and each and every businessman and woman to be setting and sticking to principled standards and practices, and needs them to be holding their employees, customers and suppliers to these.

Competition stimulates innovation and efficiencies, it feeds ideas, it encourages product innovation and higher customer service standards.

These companies and these business leaders should take the lead to help move free trade forward, not hold it back.

This was stated by British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka James Dauris when he addressed the launch of Trade Research Book on Bilateral Trade between Sri Lanka and the UK CBB in Colombo recently.

These companies should hold the politicians and officials they talk to and work with to the same high standards he said,

He urged business leaders and chambers to use their public authority and influence with the government to help press down on permit mentalities and to support the liberalisation of laws and regulations that hold business development back.

He added that the business community needs companies that are leading in their fields to help take forward these changes and support the government with efforts to liberalise the market and make it easier to do business.

Senior business managers and leaders, have key roles to play in holding the government and others to account he said adding that hand in hand with this responsibility goes a responsibility for supporting the government, for sharing the good advice on wise decision-making,.

Commandant of the Special Task Force (STF), Senior DIG M. R. Latheef says the STF received only part of the intelligence prepared by the state intelligence units and that the STF is not included in the country’s intelligence coordinating meetings although the force provides security to the President, Prime Minister and other VIPs.

Senior DIG Latheef has made this statement before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter Sunday attacks yesterday (25).

The Senior DIG has told the PSC that while he was excluded from all intelligence discussions, he was invited for the National Security Council meeting only after the Easter Sunday attacks.

He has noted that he had received the state intelligence chief’s letter on April 9 warning of impending attacks along with a single annexure which had identified the Indian High Commission and main churches in Colombo as possible targets.

However, Latheef had subsequently learnt that there had been other annexures that had been shared with other agencies with more details and that those annexures had contained more specific details about the organisation, what they are up to, specifics about their group and addresses.

The Senior DIG has noted that he had then realised that there was information on the terrorist organisation and individuals with the security organisations which could have been used to take preventative action.

The STF Chief has said that after receiving the letter from the intelligence chief, he had taken the initiative of checking with the Indian High Commission, but nothing was done about the churches since there were no specifics and request for the STF’s assistance.

Latheef has noted that when there is a requirement the IGP or Senior DIGs request for assistance from the STF after which they attend to it.

“I was under the inference that the territorial policing will attend to churches and that if they required STF assistance for additional security or searches or any other requirement, they would have made a request,” he has said.

However, neither the IGP nor the Senior DIG of Western Province had made any request from the STF for assistance.

The Senior DIG has added that he knows that every Tuesday the country’s intelligence and various organisations meet to review on many things and that if the STF was an important component the STF Commandant or a representative from the STF would definitely be invited for the review meetings.

According to Latheef, the intelligence coordinating meeting is a very important meeting, but the STF has never been a part of that meeting in spite of the fact that at previous other meetings at Police Headquarters statements had been made to the IGP that the STF would like to be in that meeting specially because they are providing security to the President, Prime Minister and other dignitaries.

“Intelligence coordinating meeting I have never been invited to date, but national security meeting on the 23rd of July after the attack I was invited and then I shared what I knew.”

Latheef has said he was never invited to Security Council meetings before the attacks.

Sri Lanka’s drug addict rehabilitation programmes are being carried out in snail pace without giving it a priority, despite President Maithripala Sirisena’s action to intensify the combating of drug menace.

President Sirisena is now all-out to eradicate the drug menace from the country threatening drug king pins and narcotics mafia but no action has been taken to revitalize the rehabilitation of drug addicts from its current sorry state, civil society activists said.

A survey by the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board has revealed that 30,000 drug addicts have to be rehabilitated with immediate effect.

The survey revealed that there are about 80,000 drug addicts in the country of which the majority of them are from the Western province.

Colombo and Gampaha districts have a higher number of drug addicts than Kalutara.

The majority of these drug addicts are residents of the North-Western province and along the coastal belt of the island, Survey data showed.

A proposal to set up non-residential rehabilitation centres is still to be implanted although the President is keen to hang drug traffickers and conduct raids to size narcotics and combat drug dealers following the Philippines example.

It has been revealed that the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board had conducted 06 camps for the rehabilitation of drug addicts recently without proper medical guidance.

The Board has obtained the service of a Medical Officer who had not fully registered or temporally registered in the Medical Council for 03 camps.

Analysis of samples of biological specimen for performance enhancing drugs in sports, providing scientific service for judicial proceedings and providing technical service for the Sri Lanka Customs had not been carried out in the year 2017, Auditor Generals report revealed.

Out of these activities, only one activity had been carried out in the year 2016. The analysis carried out to test whether new adulterants are contained in heroin available on the “Street”, was less than 50 per cent, audit report observed.

Education programmes provided by the Drugs and Crimes Prevention Office, preparation of field test kits for the law enforcing institutions in order to identify narcotics and psychotropic substances had been in a very weak level , the report exposed.

The Kurunegala Magistrate’s Court this evening (25) granted bail to Dr. Mohomad Shafi Sihabdeen, who served at the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital, when the controversial case was taken up for hearing today.

Dr. Shafi was arrested by the Kurunegala Police in May this year for allegedly accumulating wealth in a questionable manner. However, the doctor was later accused of maintaining links with terrorist groups and conducting illegal sterilization of women during childbirth.

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) took over the investigation on Dr. Shafi from the Kurunegala Police and conducted an extensive probe into the allegations. When the case was taken up previously on July 11th, the Kurunegala Magistrate ordered to further remand Dr. Shafi to date despite claims there was no evidence to support allegations against Dr. Shafi.

Appearing on behalf of the Attorney General, Deputy Solicitor General Thusith Mudalige had said on July 11th that the three-month detention order against Dr. Shafi was withdrawn on July 10th after the Ministry of Defence was informed that the evidence against Dr. Shafi was inadequate to prove that he had received funds from a terrorist organization to promote their activities.

The CID that conducted the investigation has informed court that there was no evidence to support any of the allegations leveled against Dr. Shafi.

The CID also informed the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter Sunday attacks that there was no evidence against the accusations faced by Dr. Shafi despite claims by some media institutions, lawyers, politicians and Buddhist monks.

In a latest development, the British government has launched an investigation after Sri Lankan authorities said they would send back more than hundred shipping containers because they appeared to contain human remains disguised as recyclable metals, The Telegraph reported.

Officials at the port of Colombo made the grisly discovery while investigating a strong smell emanating from 111 containers which have been arriving at the docks over the past two years.

Inside the crates, customs officials found the “extremely hazardous” materials mixed in with mattresses, plastics and clinical waste.

It was also reported that human organs and body parts were inside the container, but said it was yet to be approached by the Sri Lankan authorities.

Sri Lanka Customs is also conducting comprehensive investigation into illegal waste along with discarded stock of mattresses importation into Sri Lanka under entrepot trade regulations introduced during previous Rajapaksa regime in 2013 which allows re-exporting rackets of unscrupulous exporters to enjoy tariff relief, customs officers emphasized.

The gazette notification No. 1818-30 issued during the Rajapaksa regime has provided provisions for import and re-export goods without the control of Customs Ordinance, Exchange Control Act, and Import – Export Control Act etc.

These regulations indirectly paved the way for racketeers to exploit its loop holes in manipulating entrepot trade without considering the country’s economic prosperity and environment.

Customs media spokesperson Sunil Jayaratne noted that the main stakeholder is Hayleys Free Zone Private Limited and this company also has the right and legal capacity to enter into agreements with third parties.

He added that as per that contract they had come to an agreement with a company by the name of ETL Colombo Private Ltd and a 4th party by the name of Ceylon Metal Processing Corporation Ltd was also involved.

He revealed that the ETL Colombo Pvt. Ltd was the actual importer of consignments. .

The deal maker was Vengaads in the UK and it is owned by Venkadesha Muthurajan who brought down the waste material from the UK to Sri Lanka.

It has been revealed that Hayley’s Free Zone Company has given subcontract to Metal Processing Corporation Private Limited whose owner is Shashi Kumar Muthurajan.

130 containers have been imported 12 times with 2488 tonnes of waste material and the material is sent back after removing metal and several other things.

The waste material dumped in the port were also to be sent to where the garbage containers were sent in the previous instances.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera has ordered the Director-General of Customs to carry out an investigation and provide a report regarding the waste containers. According to a media release issued by the Finance Ministry, the Minister has made this order today (July 23) after returning to the island.

The media release says if a certain party has violated any law or regulation when it comes to the import of these containers stern action will be taken against those parties.

It has been revealed that certain delays that had taken place at the Attorney General’s Department have been blamed by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) as the reason for the delay in arresting National Thowheed Jama'ath (NTJ) Leader Mohammad Zaharan Hashim.

Testifying before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter Sunday attacks, TID Inspector T.R.K.R. Pathirana has blamed the failure on the delays in the Attorney General’s Department in responding to a query by the TID to arrest Zaharan.

Pathirana has said the TID had made an inquiry from the Attorney General’s Department on obtaining a warrant to arrest Zaharan.

“We were monitoring Zaharan and we found that has was engaged in promoting extremism, which is why we wanted action taken against him as well as get the NTJ banned,” IP Pathirana has informed the PSC.

He has further stated before the Committee that the Attorney General’s office had informed him that the file was not in order.

“By the time we got the files in order, the April 21st attacks had already taken place,” IP Pathirana has observed.

According to IP Pathirana, while attempts were made to get the NTJ Facebook page banned, authorities handling the social media network had said they did not understand the content posted on the page since it was in Tamil.

However, the NTJ Facebook page as blocked just 10 days before the Easter Sunday attacks.

The Permanent High Court at Bar has ordered the Attorney General to submit an affidavit before August 09, citing grounds if any, for the request made to issue an arrest warrant on former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Arjuna Mahendran.

Mahendran is one of the key suspects in the Central Bank Treasury bond scam case.

The three judge bench comprising Judges Sampath Abeykoon, Sampath Wijeratne and Champa Janaki Rajaratne of the Special High Court has delivered this order.

Appearing on behalf of the AG, Additional Solicitor General Priyantha Nawana had requested the court to issue a warrant to produce Mahendran before court as summons cannot be handed over to him.

Following the request made by the Additional Solicitor General, Special High Court Judge Sampath Abeykoon has stated that certain requirements need to be fulfilled to issue a warrant for a defendant of a case at the earliest opportunity. The judge has made this statement citing Article 73 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The bench of judges of the Special High Court has ordered the Additional Solicitor General to submit an affidavit citing the reasons for issuing a warrant to arrest the first defendant of the case.

However, the bench of judges has ordered to issue summons to the 10th defendant of the case, Ajahn Gardiye Punchihewa, who is currently living in Singapore and allegedly absconding the court.

Meanwhile, defence attorneys have requested court to issue English and Tamil translations of the indictments filed against Arjun Aloysius, Geoffrey Aloysius, Chitta Ranjan Hulugalle and Muthuraja Surendran citing that their mother tongue is not Sinhalese.

Additional Solicitor General Nawana has also informed court that he would submit the translations requested by the defence.

Sri Lanka has granted approval to issue on-arrival visa to tourists from countries, including India and China, aiming to revive its flagging tourism sector after the deadly Easter bombings.

On July 10, the Sri Lankan government planned to revive the visa on arrival and free visa programme for 39 countries with effect from August 1. But the programme then, however, excluded Sri Lanka's top source markets, namely India and China, according to Colombo page.

The countries included, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Switzerland.

But on Wednesday, Sri Lanka's Tourism Ministry approved the pilot project to issue a free visa on arrival to 10 additional countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Philippines, Russia, China, India and England.

The visas-on-arrival pilot programme was part of a larger initiative to increase tourist arrivals to the country during the six month off-season period from May to October.

However, the initiative remained suspended indefinitely following the Easter Sunday attacks that rattled several high-end hotels and churches across the country on April 21.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has granted waivers for Sri Lanka’s nonobservance relating to the performance criteria on the primary balance of payments and net official international reserves.

Sustaining policy discipline remains critical to strengthen resilience, given still sizable public debt and low external buffers, and support strong and inclusive growth. IMF pointed out.

Government has been directed to take measures focusing on liberalizing trade, improving the business environment and promoting investment, strengthening governance, encouraging female and youth labor force participation, enhancing social protection, and improving crisis preparedness to natural disasters.

Prompt action to advance fiscal consolidation

The Executive Board of the IMF says that despite setbacks, the government took prompt action by advancing fiscal consolidation through a well-targeted 2019 budget, rebuilding reserves, while maintaining a prudent monetary policy under greater exchange rate flexibility, and reviving structural reforms.

"Sustained revenue mobilization is needed to place public debt on a downward path, while making space for critical public investment and an expansion of the social safety net under well-defined selection criteria," the IMF suggested.

Strengthening the selection and appraisal process of large-scale investment projects and assessing their fiscal affordability is critical, given Sri Lanka’s high public debt. Stronger fiscal rules and a medium-term debt management strategy will support medium-term fiscal consolidation and debt reduction efforts, it added.

The IMF urged government authorities to renew their efforts to strengthen SOE governance and transparency, including by advancing a restructuring plan for SriLankan Airlines and completing energy pricing reforms, building on important progress with the implementation of the fuel pricing formula.

Efforts to build reserves should be sustained, under greater exchange rate flexibility, to protect the economy against shocks. Harmonizing regulation and supervision of financial institutions, strengthening the macro prudential policy framework, and enhancing the crisis-preparedness toolkit will help further strengthen financial sector stability. Furthermore, the continued implementation of structural reforms is essential to support strong and inclusive growth.