News
Sri Lanka Ambassador-Designate to Japan assume duties

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador-designate to Japan Sanjiv Gunasekara assumed duties on January 6 in Tokyo. He is the 17th Sri Lankan Ambassador to Japan during the past 69 years of bilateral relations of the two countries.
The event of the assumption of duties of the Ambassador-designate included the invoking of blessings by Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic and Christian dignitaries.
The chief incumbents and other Buddhists monks of Sawara Lankaji Temple, International Buddhist Centre – Hachioji, Fuji Sugatha Senasuna and Tsukuba Sri Sambuddhaloka Temple attended the event. Sri Sarujan Sathyamoorthy, Abdulla Lathif and Dr. Nimfa Jayamanna conducted the blessings of Hindu, Islamic and Christian faiths respectively. Senior office bearers of the all Associations connected to Sri Lanka in Japan also participated in the event followed by an alms-giving to the Maha Sangha and other religious dignitaries organized by the staff of the Embassy.
The Ambassador-Designate Gunasekara explained his objectives during his period which were assigned to him by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Further increasing and expanding bilateral relations of two countries and especially exploring strong economic relations are key priorities of his work. Ambassador-designate explained his strong intentions to find more Japanese investments in Sri Lanka, increase employment opportunities in Japan, Japanese tourists to visit Sri Lanka and increase exports to Japan.
Mr. Gunasekara is a businessman by profession and runs several businesses in the Los Angeles in the US. He also had been a team leader of many charitable engagements in both in the US and Sri Lanka.
He has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics & Management and Bachelor of International Relations from Beloit College Wisconsin and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from California State University.
News
Domestic debt restructuring will cripple EPF, ETF – JVP

By Sirimatha Rathnasekera
The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) will lose about 600 billion rupees during the proposed domestic debt structuring, Co-Convener of the JVP affiliated National Trade Union Centre (NTUC) Wasantha Samarasinghe claimed.
Samarasinghe is of the opinion that the government is planning not to pay 20 to 25 percent of the loans it has taken from domestic sources. Successive governments have borrowed significantly from the EPF and ETF, he said.
Samarasinghe said that due to the depreciation of the rupee, the real value of EPF and ETF funds had decreased by half. “In such a context, can these institutions take a 20 percent haircut? This might be a big problem to the workers,” he said.
The NTUC Co-Convener said that a number of domestic banks, too, had lent to the government and domestic debt restructuring might lead to a collapse in the banking system.
However, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe says that they are confident of reaching debt sustainability without re-structuring domestic debt, which would lead to problems in the banking sector.
“There have been concerns among domestic bond investors about rupee debt/internal debt to be restructured following comments made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to the effect that financial advisors were looking at domestic debt. However, there has been no request to restructure domestic debt. We are confident that we can make debt sustainable without restructuring domestic debt,” Dr. Weerasinghe told the media at the CBSL’s 6th Review of the Monetary Policy stance for this year, at the CBSL head office auditorium, in Colombo, on Thursday.
News
Powerful CEBEU says yes to restructuring but on its terms

Sri Lanka will experience periodic power cuts until 2027 if the government did not take steps to increase electricity production, the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union (CEBEU) said yesterday.Due to electricity shortages, the Norochcholai Power Plant had been operational non-stop, sometimes even without scheduled maintenance, CEBEU President, Saumya Kumarawadu said.
“A generator is down. We will get it back online within 14 days. We had started maintenance on another plant in June and it was to be back online in September. But it has been delayed till November,” he said.
Kumarawadu said there would be 10-hour power cuts without Norochcholai. However, the power cuts could be reduced in two weeks when the generator was restored, he said.
He added that while they support restructuring of the CEB, they oppose de-bundling and selling the CEB to various private actors.
“Power cuts might have to go on till 2026 or 2027 unless new plants come up. A proposal to build an LNG power plant is still languishing in the Cabinet,” he said.
The CEBEU President also said that the electricity tariff was last increased in 2012. In 2014, the tariff was reduced. Without increasing electricity tariffs, the CEB will have to get increasing amounts of money from the treasury.
“The government should have increased the tariff at regular intervals. We haven’t increased in a decade and suddenly we have increased by a large amount.That’s why it has come as a shock to people,” he said.
News
SJB opposes blanket privatisations

… questions logic of selling cash cows like Telecom and Insurance
The SJB was opposed to the privatisation of profit-making government entities, Chief Opposition Whip, MP Lakshman Kiriella, said yesterday, in Colombo.Kiriella said that President Ranil Wickremesinghe had told The Economist magazine that they are thinking of privatising Sri Lanka Telecom and Sri Lanka Insurance.
“These are two institutions that make a profit. What is the point in privatising these?” he asked.
MP Kiriella said that they are not opposed to privatizing SriLankan Airlines, which has been making losses for years.
“We can talk about these things in Parliament. Even when we privatize loss making entities we have to take a number of things into consideration. What will happen to the workers? How will we compensate them? How will we re-skill them? We have to talk about these things openly before doing anything,” he said.
The Chief Opposition Whip said that one of the main reasons why people oppose privatization is because everything is done in secrecy.
“People wonder why things are hidden from them. We need to be open and transparent when we restructure,” he said.
-
News6 days ago
Wide ranging rackets benefiting CEB engineers
-
News4 days ago
Thanks to QR code expenditure on fuel drops from USD 500 million to USD 230 million a month
-
News5 days ago
Delisting of Tamil Diaspora groups irks some; explanation sought
-
News3 days ago
SJB alleges Prez under SLPP pressure to give up power to dissolve Parliament
-
Sports6 days ago
Mathews regrets Mankading of Buttler
-
News3 days ago
Wimal blames Gota’s naivety, Basil’s arrogance for current situation
-
News2 days ago
State sector reforms: Herath endorses Ranil’s agenda
-
News4 days ago
Jugglery alleged in Constitution making process: SJB, Gevindu make strong case against jumbo Cabinet