SRI LANKA NEWS IN BRIEF – FEBRUARY  2019) – Compiled by Victor Melder

State Finance Minister Eran Wickramaratne, Guest of Honour at the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka ( NCCSL) AGM recently said the political coup of October 26 last year cost the country in excess of 21 billion rupees. Reflecting on current economic developments he said that considering some reparation action taken by the government to correct the position of revenue which was 33 percent of GDP in 2008, this was drastically reduced to 12.6 percent of GDP by 2015. Wickremeratne added – ‘Inflation from 8.8 percent was brought down to 1 percent in November 2017. Financial progress was badly affected by the political coup of October 2018. The country faced the largest debt repayment in those few days amounting to 5.9 billion dollars. The impact of those few weeks was being consistently evaluated. Conditional loan repayment of 1.3 percent continued but a sharp rise in unconditional loan repayment amounted to 54 percent. Such was the impact of what happened in October last year. ‘Irrespective of the downgrading impact of politics the government is determined to ensure a viable financial position as quickly as possible. ‘The value of the dollar, a subject mentioned by the incumbent President of the NCCSL Asela de Tissera was governed by outside influences. For instance, fiscal action taken by US President Donald Trump strengthened the dollar. This was felt in most financial markets. Although the rupee against the dollar saw some stability, we are not out of the woods. ‘Sri Lanka’s advantage is its location and human resources. Its physical position is the gateway to the Indian subcontinent and substantial market conditions stand open to us. This advantage must be exploited. Our human resources are under developed. This needs urgent attention if we are to get ahead economically. This is the only way our country could progress. ‘Conspiracies to destroy the country would never work. Action  (Daily Island, 2.2.2019)

Overall computer literacy reported in 1st half of 2018 for Sri Lanka is 27.5 percent, a new survey shows. This is a decrease of 0.8 percentage points from 2017 (1st half) to 2018 (1st half). When the digital literacy is considered two out of every five (aged 5 – 69) has digital literacy, the Census and Statistics Department said. Digital literacy is higher than computer literacy for all disaggregated levels, showing the drift from Personal Computer to smartphones/tablets. The Urban sector shows the highest computer literacy rate (38.4 percent) among residential sectors. In 1st half of 2018, at least one computer is available in 22.9 percent of households in the country. That is more than one out of every five households owns either a desktop or a laptop computer. This percentage is 39.5 percent in urban sector. The rural and estate sectors show 20.3 percent and 4.9 percent respectively. The highest availability is in the Western province (33.4 percent) while the lowest availability is reported from the Uva province (10.7 percent). Computer literacy rate for rural and estate sectors are 25.9 percent and 11.1 percent respectively. Among the provinces the highest level of computer literacy is reported from the Western province (36.1 percent) while the lowest percentage is reported from the Eastern province. The computer literacy rate among districts show variations ranging from 8.6 percent (Kilinochchi) to 42.6 percent (Colombo) and shows the still prevailing digital divide.  (Sunday Island, 3.2.2019)

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Sri Lanka, next to cardiovascular diseases. Of the natural deaths in the country, 10% is due to cancer, says Dr. Sudath Samaraweera, Director, Cancer Control Programme. He said that 29,843 new cases of cancer were identified in Sri Lanka in 2018, but the increase has remained marginal over the past few years. Addressing a news conference in Colombo to mark World Cancer Day on February 4, Dr. Samaraweera noted that there are 23 hospitals in the country which offer cancer treatment to patients. (Sunday Island, 3.2.2019)

Five Slovakians, arrested while attempting to smuggle out samples of flora and fauna from the Sinharaja Forest range, over the weekend, were remanded till Feb. 06 by Ratnapura Acting Magistrate, Priyanka Gunawarnasuriya. Magistrate Gunawarnasuriya  also issued a warrant authorising police to search the hotel, where the suspects had been staying, to find out whether there were other samples of flora and fauna obtained from the Sinharaja Forest range. The Magistrate ordered the police to document the live animal samples and release them back into the wild. When questioned by the Magistrate, the suspects said that they had arrived with the intention of collecting samples of flora and fauna. Bio piracy has been a major threat faced by developing nations. During the past decade a large number of foreigners who had tried to smuggle out animals and plants were arrested in Sri Lanka.  Some countries are obtaining valuable genetic resources and other materials that could lead to pharmaceutical breakthroughs,” environmentalist, Sajeewwa Chamikara said. (Daily Island, 4.2.2019))

The Anuradhapura Conference on Environmental Conservation, which is a part of President Maithripala Sirisena’s National Environment Conservation Programme (Punarudaya), will commence at the Salgado grounds in Anuradhapura, on February 14. The state minister said that the Environment Ministry, under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena, was on a mission to create younger generations sensitive to the environment as well as sustainability. The ministry, as a part of the National Environment Conservation Programme, will focus on deforestation, policy changes, reforestation, waste disposal, the animal-human conflict, clean beaches, and gene theft, he added. “The institution is new, and we are still finding our footing. We expect a lot of foreign funding for the institution,” Mannapperuma said. He added that the government aims to increase the forest cover in the country from 29 percent to 32 percent by 2020. He said that following the intervention of President Sirisena in environmental affairs, deforestation had dwindled to one percent. He also said that the annual forest growth in the country was around four percent. “Even though we say we have a 29 percent of forest cover in the country, we need to remember that 60 percent of that percentage is concentrated in the North and East, which were unharmed due to the war. Therefore, we cannot brag about the forest cover we have. The forest cover should be uniform throughout the country,” State Minister Mannapperuma said. He added that the government aims to make the registration of all chainsaws compulsory in the coming months. “We request owners of chainsaws to contact the nearest police station about them between February 15 and March 15. We shall then commence the registration process, where chainsaw owners will be provided with licences to use them,” he said. “Following the limitations on cutting trees for timber requirements, the importation of timber has increased at a very high rate. We spend about Rs.13 billion on timber imports,” the state minister said. “Therefore, we need to find a solution for this issue as well. At the moment, we are exploring the possibility of making forestation a compulsory part in tender agreements when allowing commercial tree plantations, such as pine, in the country.” State Minister Mannapperuma added. D/N, 12.2

The Slovak Government paid a fine of Rs 10.85 million imposed on five Slovak nationals found guilty of illegally collecting endemic animal and plant species from the Sinharaja Rainforest. Environmentalists say the fine is the largest ever imposed under the Fauna & Flora Protection Ordinance. Slovak Government Officials, who were present in court on behalf of the five men, paid the fine imposed on them and secured their release. The officials had come from the Slovak embassy in New Delhi. Kalawana Magistrate Dulan Weerawardena imposed the fine after the five men pleaded guilty to 37 charges filed against them under the Fauna & Flora Protection Ordinance. However, the Magistrate rejected a request made by the Wildlife Conservation Department to impose an order prohibiting the Slovaks from entering the country again. The department requested that a travel ban be imposed on the grounds that the five men’s professions had not been established.   The Magistrate rejected the request for a travel ban, stating that the court had no jurisdiction to do so, and directed the department to make its request to the relevant authority. In addition to the fine, the Magistrate also imposed three months rigorous imprisonment, suspended for 10 years, on each of the accused. Among the species found in the possession of the five Slovaks were 771 butterflies, 46 beetles and several spiders. Wildlife Department’s Kalawana Sector Ranger Lakshman Rathnaweera told court that the nature of the equipment and chemicals used by the accused to collect and store the plants and animals native to Sri Lanka, indicated that they could be a group of zoologists and botanists. Mr Rathnaweera also said it was suspicious as to why the accused were not forthcoming about their professions. It was also revealed that one of the accused had visited Sri Lanka previously in 2016. The Magistrate ordered the confiscation of their equipment, except for one personal camera. He also granted a request by the Wildlife Department to hand over the animal and plant parts recovered from the accused to the Department of National Museums. (Sunday Observer, 17.2.2019)

A government move to hand over 8,500 acres from Kandakaduwa and Thrikonamadu Forests, in Polonnaruwa District, adjoining the reserves located along the Mahaweli forest will aggravate the human-elephant conflict, environmentalists warn. Twenty seven out of 38 villages in the Mahaweli B Zone are already troubled by wild jumbo invasions. In 2018, 23 elephants and six humans were killed in Welikanda Divisional Secretariat area alone. Things will take a turn for the worse when a large swath of forest area is cleared to make room for cultivations by agro companies, said Sajeewa Chamikara of Movement for Land and Agriculture Reform (MONLAR.) “The government is planning to hand over these lands to large scale commercial agricultural and animal husbandry projects. Around 300 elephants live in these forest areas and once they are deprived of their natural habitat they will invade villages in Welikanda, Serunuwara, Lankapura, Medirigiriya, Thamankaduwa and Dimbulagama divisional secretariat areas.” Those forest areas were meant to ensure that animals displaced by the expedited Mahaweli Project had a sanctuary and the catchment areas of the Mahaweli Ganga were protected. These forest areas include the Wasgamuwa national Park, the Gangadaara nature reserve, the Flood Plains National Park, the Minneriya – Girithale Nature Reserve, the Minneriya National Park, the Kawdulla National Park, the Somawathie National Park and the Thrikonamadu Forest reserve. “The decision to release the 8,500 acres for commercial activities was taken late last year as a part of ‘Pibidemu Polonnaruwa District development Programme. This was a done according to a Cabinet proposal by President Maithripala Sirisena himself. He vowed to protect the environment and to increase the forest cover of the country to 32% in his election manifesto for the 2015 Presidential Election. The project at issue will decrease the forest cover further.” The environmentalist added that a large number of elephants displaced during the construction of Moragahakanda and Kalu Ganga irrigation projects, carried out under the guidance of Sirisena, had moved into the aforesaid two forest areas. (Daily Island, 23.2.2019)

Sri Lanka’s tea export volumes for the month of January 2019 totalled 23.6 M/kgs, showing a gain of 2.7 M/kgs from the same period last year, a new report showed. Tea bags and Packeted tea have shown a growth during the period under review, whilst Bulk tea has shown a decrease, Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers said in their new report. Total revenue realized been Rs. 20.1 B, show an increase of Rs. 3 B vis-à-vis Rs. 17.1 B of January 2018. The report is as follows:  A total of 6.54 M/kgs came under the hammer this week. High & Mid Grown Small Leaf teas witnessed selective demand, whilst Low Grown Large Leaf teas continued to meet with good demand. Ex-Estate offerings totalled 1.0 M/kgs. Overall, quality of teas from the Westerns were irregular, although a fair selection of all-around teas were on offer. Considering the available quality, demand was disappointing particularly for a selection of brighter BOPF, which remained unsold due to lack of any suitable bid. Teas at the lower end met with much less demand and often declined Rs. 20-30/- per kg. Nuwara Eliya – few select invoices appreciated substantially following special inquiry, whilst the others barely maintained last levels. Udapussellawas – prices were irregular following quality. Uva BOP/BOPF had on offer a selection of teas that sold at firm to dearer rates, whilst the others were often lower by a similar margin. Liquoring Leafy teas continued to sell well although at slightly easier rates. Low Growns comprised of approximately 2.7 M/kgs in the Leafy/Tippy catalogues. There was good demand. In the Leafy catalogues, OP/OPA’s sold at fully firm to dearer rates. Better BOP1/OP1’s too were generally firm on last. Others, where quality was not maintained, prices declined marginally. PEK/PEK1’s were generally firm to dearer. Here again, teas where quality was not maintained were generally easier. In the Tippy catalogues, select best FBOP/FF1’s together with the cleaner secondaries were fully firm. Others were lower following quality. In the Premium catalogue, well made teas were fully firm, whilst others were irregular. There was good demand from shippers to CIS, Turkey, Iraq, Libya, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. (Sunday Island, 24.2.2019)