Business
CA Sri Lanka unveils exclusive 21st Century Board Leadership Masterclass

Future ready board members
The Business School of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) together with the Institute of Directors of Luxembourg launched a ground-breaking 21st Century Board Leadership Model Masterclass for the first time in the country. An exclusive training program aimed at developing skills and strategy of future ready board members, the masterclass targets corporate directors and c-suite executives, who aspire to go beyond their traditional scope and take on a more dynamic and challenging role as future ready leaders who possess the necessary vision and strategy to drive the organisations forward amidst mounting challenges. The masterclass was conceptualised and launched in Luxembourg and is currently offered by the Institute of Directors of Luxembourg to its European membership and is amongst the institute’s flagship programs.
The goal of the masterclass is to prepare young corporate directors and c-suite executives to be future ready 21st century board members, while inculcating the importance of creating a board response strategy and how to develop a company specific 21st Century Board Leadership strategy template. CA Sri Lanka President Manil Jayesinghe said that the COVID-19 crisis has helped professionals understand the increasing need to adapt with time, and also possess the ability to strategise towards the future, immaterial whether we are dealt with a man-made, natural or health crisis. “The masterclass by the CA Sri Lanka Business School is introduced at a very opportune time when business leaders and c-suite executives and even small and medium sized business owners to entrepreneurs need to understand the complex dynamics surrounding them and why it’s important to transition from 20th century leadership to 21st century leadership, if we are to overcome the challenges and navigate unchartered territories of the future, successfully,” he said.
The program will be delivered via seven insightful and interactive webinars covering a range of topics including introduction to the ‘21st Century Board Leadership’ model and strategy, climate emergency board response strategy, health and social emergency board response strategy, new technology challenges and opportunities, challenges and opportunities in geo-politics, economic emergency and the Board’s response strategy and governance and Board strategy advisory committee.
The ultimate goal of the program is that every participant takes back a proposal to their company Board/CEO to build on and create a 21st Century Board strategy based on what they have learned from the masterclass. The program will be delivered by an expert faculty comprising of Dr. Ravi Fernando and Raymond Schadeck. Dr. Fernando is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge and of INSEAD Business School, and Chairman of Global Strategic Corporate Sustainability Ltd., which operates in Europe, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. Schadeck is an Independent Director and Chair of The Board of Regents at Sacred Heart University Luxembourg, Jack Welch College of Business & Technology, as well as the Chair of the Board of Université dans la Nature, in Canada.
The CA Business School was established to develop business leaders who possess the ability to create, transform and sustain successful organisations. The CA Business School offers a range of courses relevant to professionals in accounting and finance as well as management and strategy. Among the programs it offers is an Executive Diploma, Postgraduate Diploma, a globally recognised MBA from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia (USQ) and short courses on pertinent business and finance topics. The CA Business School has also been instrumental in partnering with globally reputed business schools such as INSEAD, DUKE CE and Euromoney Training to offer internationally recognised executive programs for Sri Lankan professionals.
Business
SL needs laser-like focus on IMF programme implementation: Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy

‘If it gets suspended, it would have pretty dramatic consequences’
by Sanath Nanayakkare
There are three most important priorities for Sri Lanka in the wake of the IMF Programme; implementation, implementation and implementation of the agreed upon benchmarks of the programme. Last thing we need to suddenly find is that we have gone off the track of the programme and it is suspended, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka said on Friday.
He said so while giving the keynote speech at a Central Bank hosted webinar titled “What is next for Sri Lanka in the wake of IMF Programme?”
Deshal De Mel, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Murtaza Jafferjee, Managing Director, JB Securities, Bingumal Thewarathanthri, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank were the panelists at the forum where the moderator was Shiran Fernando, Chief Economist at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce
The following are a few comments made by Dr.Coomaraswamy.
The IMF EFF has now been successfully negotiated. This is in some way the beginning. There is lot more to do. It’s time to start thinking about what happens next. A little under a year ago, there were acute shortages of the most essential good. There were long queues and one or two people passed away while in queue. Prices were skyrocketing and exchange rate was collapsing, inflation was spiking and the Central Bank had to push up interest rates. All this happened only a few months from where we are today. The fact that things have stabilized to a significant extent clearly is a very favourable outcome but actually there is no room for complacency because the stabilization has happened at a low-level equilibrium.
It has happened when the economy experienced a 7.6% contraction last year. It was better than what was anticipated by the IMF and the World Bank, but still it is a very sharp contraction. And we need to get to a situation where we have macro-economic stability with a growth rate of about 4%. There is a lot to be done for this. But this is a very commendable place to get to after all. The Paris Club comprising G7 countries has endorsed our efforts to restore debt sustainability. The non-Paris Club creditors such as India and China also have endorsed and supported our efforts too. So the largest countries and creditors are willing to support Sri Lanka to get back on track in terms of debt sustainability. So this is not a bad place to be.”
“IMF programme implementation has always been a weakness on our part. This time we have already done a lot as prior action but there is more as you would have seen from the documentation tabled in parliament including structural reforms and institutional reform. So we have to have laser-like focus on implementation and move forward with the programme. If the programme gets suspended, it would have pretty dramatic consequences. So we need to keep it on track. We can’t give up the absolutely compelling need for fiscal discipline. What is next for us is; discipline and making the needed economic policy and implementing what e have agreed to do. During our past IMF programmes, the issue was lack of implementation by the Sri Lankan authorities.
Earlier this week Dr. Chandranath Amarasekare, Executive Director at the CBSL arranged for the Irish authorities to brief Sri lankan authorities on the implementation unit set up in Ireland when the global financial crisis hit Ireland which led them to go into an IMF programme. Ireland was meticulous in the way they set up the implementation framework. They identified all the action that had to be taken and assigned parts of it to relevant government entities to implement them. Ireland is back on track now. We need to have the same degree of laser-like focus on implementing the benchmarks. We have to figure out what needs to be done and ascribe responsibility for each action and monitor
carefully how we are going about it. We have to make sue we are hitting all the targets and structural benchmarks as we go along. These are embedded in the IMF programme. Last thing we need is to suddenly find that we have gone off the track of the programme and the programme is suspended. That will constrain the inflows to the country and it will affect the confidence beginning to build up now. All that will get undermined if the programme gets suspended because we are not able to keep it on track. So the Implementation Unit will need a very good authority to reach out to any part of government and get things done. We need this Implementation Unit to be well-structured and running well. And it should have the authority of the President behind it,”he said.
Business
Exterminators PLC opens a training and R&D center

Exterminators PLC, Sri Lanka’s premier pest tech and environmental tech company, opened a 5,000 plus square foot training, research and development center to enhance the quality of service via in-depth innovation to create a circular economy inorder to meet the growing demand in environmentally sustainable public health pest management, agricultural pest management, livestock, plantation and landscape pest management, sanitation and disinfection services in Sri Lanka and emerging and developing markets. The facility includes simulated environments for training in pest management, termite management, mosquito management, sanitation and disinfection, health and safety for new recruits and continuous professional training and development for existing employees.
The company plans to provide training for international pest management professionals in emerging and developing countries as well as serve as a training facility for its strategic franchising partners in the region.
Business
SLT-MOBITEL ‘Hosting Cub’ for MSMEs enables critical infrastructure and value-added hosting services

Understanding the importance of supporting Micro, Small, And Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to drive growth and efficiencies, SLT-MOBITEL, the National ICT Solutions Provider is offering its Hosting Cub – Shared Web Hosting service catering to vital hosting requirements.
SLT-MOBITEL provides hosting facilities for MSMEs with affordable pricing, easy expansion of MSMEs cyber presence and other value-added offerings via its Shared Hosting and Virtual Private Server (VPS) solutions.
The Shared Hosting proposal is offered as the most economical option available for hosting. The overall cost of server maintenance is shared, also catering to low traffic websites that do not require higher bandwidth such as smaller websites and blogs.
The Share Hosting solution is available via four levels – Stellar, Stellar Plus, Stellar Pro and Stellar Business. The ‘Stellar’ package 1 GB VSAN Disk Space to balance storage usage, monthly 20 GB Bandwidth, 2 Mbps speed, 10 websites allowed, secure connection through SSL, FTP Accounts to manage file transfers, Unlimited email accounts, Unlimited MySQL Database to manage data, Unlimited Sub Domains, Hosting in SLT’s state-of-the-art Data Centre and WordPress supported. The pack is priced at only Rs 7500 per annum.
Similarly, the Stellar Plus presents an enhanced package with 2 GB VSAN Disk Space, monthly 40 GB Bandwidth, approval of 15 websites in addition to all the other value-additions. It is priced at Rs 12,000 per year. The Stellar Pro delivers 3 GB VSAN Disk Space, monthly 100 GB Bandwidth and 30 websites allowed while the Stellar Business provides 5 GB VSAN Disk Space, monthly 150GB Bandwidth and 40 websites. All other features are also enabled. The costs for Stellar Pro and Stellar Business are Rs 16,500 and Rs 25,500 respectively, per annum.
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