President Ranil Wickremesinghe convened a discussion at the Presidential Secretariat on Thursday afternoon (08) to address the Action Plan for Reconciliation and  instructed the relevant departments to expedite the drafting of legislation necessary for the plan’s implementation.

The progress of initiatives within five key areas -legislation, institutional activities, land issues, prisoner release, and power decentralization, was also reviewed.

The discussion encompassed several important topics including the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the establishment of a National Land Council and the formulation of a National Land Policy.

Additionally, the President emphasized the need for enhanced operations of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), including digitization efforts and the issuance of Certificates of Absence for individuals who had previously disappeared without trace.

In an effort to accelerate trade facilitation commitments and bolster the business landscape in Sri Lanka, a high-level review of the National Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC) was conducted at the Presidential Secretariat on Wednesday (7).

The review focused on assessing the progress of trade facilitation commitments and scrutinizing the performance of the NTFC Secretariat. The private sector also voiced their views on expediting actions to ensure the completion of measures ahead of the projected timeline of 2025-2030.

In order to streamline compliance and optimize performance, several directives were issued during the meeting. Firstly, it was decided to establish the NTFC Secretariat under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance. Secondly, immediate measures to be taken to address the staffing requirements of the Secretariat and lastly, the budget allocated for the NTFC Secretariat in 2023, currently under the Department of Customs, was to be transferred to the Ministry of Finance to prioritize pending actions such as the development of the NTFC website and progress reporting system.

During the meeting, deliberations took place concerning the proposed National Single Window, a system aimed at simplifying and expediting trade processes. The participants agreed to expedite the submission of the proposal in a sequential manner to ensure its swift implementation.