Next three years will be the developmental phase of the government – PM

Courtesy - Ada Derana


Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that the next three years would be the developmental phase of the government. He also stated that President Maithripala Sirisena will declare the plan that is to be implemented by the government on Monday (4)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


No Clues what would be the development

ShaneMc wrote:
No Clues what would be the development

I think during this phase we may see several well developed Ministers.

PATHWAY TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT:'SLOW BUT STEADY'

brother government has no money for development ! what the government earns it pays for the loans ! barely has money to survive !

Govt launched its latest economic policy document titled ‘Vision 2025’, which lists out the proposed eight-year economic development plan of the country. Since coming into power in 2015, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government has presented several economic policy documents.

Can anyone say whats in this plan? Still clueless even after its launched....

This drama government cannot do any thing. What have they done last years ???? Poor start always will be a poor end...so I believe no fools to trust these idiots blindly...as I said earlier market will crash till INDEX drops to 5700. Those who invest now , will cry tomorrow in current scenario.

Budget of 2018 to be presented in Parliament on the 9th of November - Min of Finance Mangala Samaraweera - Courtesy (Newsfirst)

Rare appearance by Paski at Colombo forum
By Bandula Sirimanna
View(s): 1423

Sri Lanka’s private sector progress has been hampered by lack of coordination between state agencies, delay in decision-making by top officials and difficulty in arriving at a consensus on business matters by the two ruling political parties, a powerful advisor of the Government has said.
However, R. Paskaralingam, advisor and close aide to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in a rare public appearance on Thursday, told a group of local businessmen that a proper system in decision-making is gradually evolving for the betterment of the country.
The veteran, soft-spoken bureaucrat revealed that he is acting as a conduit at the moment to co-ordinate and work with all government development agencies in order to accelerate the pace of economic growth.
Mr. Paskaralingam was chairing a business forum in Colombo organised by the National Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka, where he took immediate action, contacting relevant officials and arranging one-to-one meetings with them to assist at least 25 businessmen to sort out their business issues.
Neatly dressed, calm and cool but sharp minded, the influential one-time Finance Ministry Secretary showed his efficiency and ability to analyse issues by directing top officials to evolve on the spot solutions to grievances of businessmen attending the forum.
Displaying his power over the country’s bureaucracy, he contacted the heads of RDA, BOI, Treasury and several other state agencies over the phone directly to find ways and means to settle issues of businessmen.
These included the heavy cess levied on maize imports affecting the poultry industry, insurance company listing issues, road construction payment problems, gem industry grievances, investment and heavy taxes imposed on industrial ventures at the BOI Meerigama Investment zone and tender issues, etc.
He revealed his close connections with Ministry Secretaries and the officials who have worked with him in the public service and also young officials to get their co-operation to settle official matters.
In an upbeat note he expressed the belief that private sector as the engine of growth could be revitalised creating a suitable and conducive environment and level playing field in the ease of doing business in the island nation.
He noted that he looks forward to work with the private sector and to put forward their issues and concerns and assist in the swift development which the country desperately needs.
He emphasised the need of cutting bureaucratic red tape while allowing bureaucracy to take decisions without the fear of consequences for taking the right decisions.
True to his words, Mr. Paskaralingam contacted several ministry secretaries, chairman of state agencies and some top officials over his Android mobile phone to find instant solutions to certain issues put forward by businessmen at the forum.
During the discussions, he revealed that the government cannot make huge investments in new mega infrastructure development projects like express highway in the next five years due to current financial constraints and heavy debt burden.
This is a vicious cycle that must be broken if consistency and predictability is to be restored to the tax system. This is possible if the government adopts proper policy making, he commented.
President of the National Chamber of Commerce, Sujeeve Samaraweera noted that they plan to hold this business forum as a regular event of the chambers to assist business to sort out their issues through Mr. Paskaralingam.

Powerful bureaucrat

R. Paskaralingam, the influential former Finance Ministry Secretary popularly known as late President R. Premadasa’s right-hand anchor man, is back after eight years in self-exile and playing a key behind-the-scenes role in the present regime as advisor to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe since 2015.He has avoided media publicity and generally not seen at public events.Paskaralingam, widely known as ‘Paski’ was a key player in the 1989-1993 United National Party government.He is currently entrusted with the task of co-coordinating and work with all government development agencies playing an advisory role without bounding various rules and regulations of the state bureaucracy.He was the Secretary to the mighty Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Construction and also the Chairman of the Urban Development Authority, entrusted with the planning and building of the new capital city arising out of the Diyawanna marshes and village reawakening programme during the Premadasa regime.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The real development is that Ranil should be in prison for stealing EPF, CBSL and BOC money in partnership with Perpetual treasuries under bond scam, what a shame?

Eradication Of Corruption: Ignoring Harsha’s Warning May Be Catastrophic To Yahapalana Government


[size=32]Facebook[size=32]Twitter[/size][size=32]Google+[/size][url=https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.colombotelegraph.com%2Findex.php%2Feradication-of-corruption-ignoring-harshas-warning-may-be-catastrophic-to-yahapalana-government%2F&title=Eradication Of Corruption%3A Ignoring Harsha%E2%80%99s Warning May Be Catastrophic To Yahapalana Government][size=32]Share31[/size][/url]
By W A Wijewardena –

Dr. W.A Wijewardena
A lamenting Deputy Minister
Dr Harsha de Silva, Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Development, in an emotion filled intervention during a live television discussion programme, blasted the whole administration system of the country. His charge was that from top to bottom and from one side to the other, known to strategic planners as viewing from a 360̊ dimension, has been marred with stinking corruption, waste and theft of public funds.




Hurling corruption charges at each other
He has confessed that he had been disgusted with the nauseating politics and the corrupt system that has nurtured it. Instead of using time, energy and resources for planning and implementing policies for the development of the country, everyone is engaged in hurling corruption charges at each other.
One politician is charging another that the latter is corrupt; the latter retorts immediately charging that it is the former who is corrupt. Thus, everyone tries to play the role of the good policeman believing that all others are at error. Harsha says that his intention in entering politics has not been to function as a policeman.
Corruption is everywhere
Instead, he has joined the political force to use his technical capability as an economist for the betterment of people. Yet, what he observes is widespread corruption everywhere, for example, from municipal councils to hospitals to private eating houses. One cannot have a building plan approved, charges Harsha, unless he is ready to pay a bribe to local authority officials. Even at hospitals, if one wants to get preferred treatment, one has to pay a bribe. His position is that this epidemic should be eradicated if Sri Lanka is to develop as a decent nation.




Fighting against corruption
Harsha has observed both the small and big picture of corruption profile of Sri Lanka. In his charge against corruption, he has been both angry and emotional. Angry because he has been such a small keg in the power-machinery of the country that he cannot direct bigger forces for building a clean society according to his ideals. He had been a vociferous critic, both in Parliament and outside, of the previous administration’s supposed to be corrupt deals and practices.
Failure to investigate corruption charges
Now, even after two years in power, these charges have not been conclusively investigated, specifically the losses incurred by the Central Bank on account of the alleged hedging deal and investment in Greece bonds. He had also charged the Central Bank on account of misusing funds belonging to the members of the Employees Provident Fund or EPF by the previous administration. Yet, nothing had happened about making formal inquiries into those allegations.
Expressing dissatisfaction in a public forum
His dissatisfaction was openly expressed when he questioned in a public forum the Governor of the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendtran, an appointee to that post by his government, about the wasteful investment of EPF funds in the stock market. After Governor Mahendran gave an irrelevant answer, he went on grilling him about the wisdom of EPF owning private banks.



Controlling private banks through EPF
This was a criticism levelled against the previous administration and when the new government came to power, it was expected to be rectified. But Governor Mahendran who appeared to be ignorant of the previous criticisms levelled by Harsha justified the investments in question on the ground that it would increase the return to members, albeit the published data had suggested the opposite.  This writer too in two previous articles called the government to divest the shares owned by EPF in private banks due to the potential conflict which it brings to the Monetary Board of the Central Bank.
Continuing to follow the previous administration
Yet the government continued to use the extraordinary privilege which it had inherited from the previous administration to control private banks by appointing its own members as board members. Thus, instead of ushering an era of good governance, it continued to practice the same malgovernance principles unabated.
Corruption charges against the present government
The present government was brought to power by people to eliminate corruption and create a law-abiding clean society. But its track record during the last two and a half years has been marred with similar corruption charges. Now Harsha sitting on the other side of the debate has been required to answer those charges in public. Naturally, he should be angry about the embarrassing position to which he has now been driven.
An ambulance service coming under attack
Harsha has been emotional not only when he has been too angry at injustice. He has been emotional when the fruits of his labour had produced the required results too. One such occasion has been the inauguration of the Indian government sponsored ambulance service in Sri Lanka. That service was the target of criticism by the Government Medical Officers Association or GMOA which had issues with India on account of the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement, popularly known as ETCA, with that country.
Hence, objecting to everything Indian, GMOA began a campaign against the service that it would pave way for unqualified Indian paramedics to play with the lives of vulnerable and voiceless Sri Lankan patients. It even raised a national security issue for Sri Lanka implying that those ambulances, manned by Indians, could have access even to the President’s residence. Thus, when the first batch of Sri Lankan paramedics was trained and recruited to the service, Harsha became too emotional to deliver his speech.



The exemplary track record of the ambulance service
The track record of the ambulance service since its inauguration has shown that it has indeed been a life saver for Sri Lankans, contrary to the demonic picture painted by GMOA. This writer can vouch for its excellent service with firsthand experience. The occasion arose when his elder sister suffered a massive stroke in the evening of a public holiday when no one was around at home.
With no other alternative available, Harsha’s ambulance service was contacted for help. Within five minutes of calling, an ambulance showed up at the residence staffed by paramedics and equipped with most modern first aid apparatuses.
The paramedics who were all Sri Lankans provided all the first aid necessary whilst in transit including the supply of life saving oxygen to the patient. They were constantly in contact with the hospital about the patient being transported and, therefore, the hospital staff was in readiness to receive her. The driver who was also a Sri Lankan navigated the vehicle expertly to reach the hospital within minutes.
Her life was saved because she could get the required medical attention in time. The central office of the ambulance service had later contacted the niece of this writer to ascertain whether she was satisfied or not with the service provided. Such customer satisfaction and suggestion seeking follow-ups with citizens are totally alien to the other public services in the country.
Institutionalisation of corruption in Sri Lanka   
The problem with Sri Lanka is that corruption has been institutionalised as a normal activity. It is a part of the value system of Sri Lankans. The public sector that includes politicians believes that it is their right to get illegal rewards from the public and pocket out them without disclosing to anyone.
The private sector believes that it is their obligation to award various forms of gratifications to those in power. Thus, touts flock around politicians when they come to power and function as middlemen soliciting unearned rewards from people when they want to get even legitimate services from the government.
If people do not oblige, papers would be unnecessarily delayed or even files would disappear without a trace. Papers would reappear only after the rates of unearned rewards are agreed upon and delivered.
Shadowy bodies around real administration bodies
Many have experienced that at every public sector regulatory body, there is a ‘shadowy body’ too and they have to first go through that shadowy body before their applications could be considered by the real regulatory body. Since time and inconvenience are costly, people choose the easy path of agreeing with the rate of reward to be awarded to the people behind the shadowy body.
At the lowest level, even getting a rates file transferred at a local body requires a citizen to face the reality of the shadowy local body if he is to have his request processed by the real local body. The normal modus operandi is that the citizen would be informed that the file is incomplete and therefore cannot be processed. If it goes on for some time without awarding the requested reward, the file would simply disappear to miraculously reappear once the reward is properly paid out.
At the highest level, many foreign investors have confided with this writer that their applications for approval of foreign investments had to be first tackled at the shadowy approving body before they were to be processed by the real approving body. This system is deeply rooted within Sri Lanka’s culture today. When it could no longer be tolerated, the citizenry changed the government in January 2015 to put a stop to it.
Increase in corruption perception after the new government came to power
However, after the new government came to power, instead of reducing the corruption levels, the overall corruption perception in Sri Lanka has increased over the last two years, according to the Corruption Perception Index being compiled by Berlin-based Transparency International annually.
In the corruption perception, if a country is extremely corrupt, its score is zero out of 100; if it is very clean, it can expect to have a perfect score of 100.
In Sri Lanka’s case, at the end of 2014, the country had scored 38 out of 100; that score had placed it at the 85th position out of 174 countries.
After two years of the new Good Governance Government, Sri Lanka’s score has fallen to 36 out of 100 lowering it the 95th position out of 176 countries. This deterioration has taken place despite the fact that only 20% in Sri Lanka believing that corruption has increased and 49% thinking that the government is fighting hard to eliminate corruption, according to a report published by Transparency International in March 2017.
According to this report, people have perceived that the Police has been the most corrupt institution followed by public bodies that issue permits, public schools, water and power authorities, and the courts system. Government hospitals have maintained less corrupt systems, as revealed in this report.
Don’t be complacent about small gains of corruption perception
Sri Lanka is still better than some of the countries in the region like Pakistan or India. In India, percentage of people who have paid a bribe to receive public services has been about 69% and in Pakistan, it is about 40%. Comparably, Sri Lanka’s percentage has been low at 15%. This is not a reason for the government to be complacent.
Government says it is committed to fighting against corruption
Corruption is still stinking and unless the government takes action to nip it in the bud, it infects the whole society like an epidemic. Sri Lanka is gradually moving to this level and it is not a good sign for a country which aspires to become a rich country by 2025, according to the vision of the present government.
Richness does not come through only an increase in income or material well being. It comes through a culture in which people recognise that seeking unearned incomes from fellow citizens is immoral and unethical. 
When the corruption levels are low, it gives incentives for people to work harder and enjoy the fruits of their labour. That is the system that is conducive for a country to attain a sustainable economic growth.
Thus, Harsha’s lamentation should be followed by concrete action to eradicate corruption. The government’s V2025 document has pledged that it is ‘committed to fight against corruption’ since it negatively impacts the country’s global outlook. This is a fair enough promise, but these words have to be converted to deeds if real results are to be attained on the ground.[/size]

Should set an example kicking all corrupted goons in former & current regime into jail sooner but not to prison hospital.

Rupee depreciated further...debt will increase and import bills will increase

If ordinary do not people feel some sort of comfort in daily consumption of goods it is the failure of government economic plans implemented in the past. Should prove that corruption meter is reversing anti clockwise. Corruption is the incurable cancer being spread in every nook & corner.

[size=48]Reforms ready to roll: PM
[/size]

---

[size]



Comments /  46 Views / Thursday, 21 September 2017 00:12
 0  0[/size]

---

[size=17]By Uditha Jayasinghe 

Targeting exports and investment, the Government will introduce several laws including possible new legislation to improve the ease of doing business, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.  

Speaking at the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) GEM Annual Committee, which was hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe acknowledged 2018 and 2019 would be crucial years for Sri Lanka but was upbeat over the economic prognosis due to reforms and expectations of increased investment.   

“We want a new monetary law which will have the Central Bank focusing on the essential items and not being involved in peripheral activity. Secondly, we have the liability management law and we are already working on creating a national debt office in the Ministry of Finance. We are already working on two laws, one for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and another on the demutualisation of the stock exchange, which have been approved by Cabinet,” he said.  
“These are in the draft process. We are also coming through on a program to encourage the ease of doing business, a new law may be necessary on how we deepen it.”
As Sri Lanka will squarely be at the centre of countries with expanding economies by 2050, the Prime Minister also called on the industry to map out how capital markets can be broadened to provide much needed capital for growth and investment.  

“A taskforce on investment, legislation on the single window clearance committee is also ready and being drafted. With this we are looking at exports and our competitiveness, our services, tourism and logistics sectors.” 

He also pointed out that the Government has enhanced the capacity of the Customs and Inland Revenue and Excise departments, bringing in new technical measures to increase revenue collection. This will be supported by a national debt management strategy that will provide a fixed timetable of when the State will come to the market to raise funds when repayments are due. Once revenue was at a stable level the Government will consider rolling back the corporate tax rate from the current rate of 28%-25% or lower. 

“We are on the right track. We have strengthened the external situation of our country to better face global market vulnerability. We are creating a series of measures to attract non-debt creating inflows, particularly for exports and FDI. We are entering into bilateral economic partnerships with a number of countries to enhance market access.” 

Steps taken this year will drive investment in 2018 Wickremesinghe said, highlighting the $ 1.1 billion from the Hambantota port and inflows expected for the Port City. A further $ 600 million is expected as investment for the harbour. He insisted these were positives despite the barrage of publicity the port handover generated locally and internationally. 

“We have received a lot of free publicity for the harbour and it requires no more, that is one advantage,” he quipped. “We told the joint venture we should be able to charge you for publicity.” 

“With the Mattala airport we would do the same and hope to have it off our balance sheets by next year. We also expect some basic investments to come into the area, including a dockyard, refinery, steel and cement plants and LNG plants. The latter will be one of three Government-to-Government plants with two more to come in Colombo and a tender for one more LNG plant. This is all money that will come in next year not looking at other investment, which includes $ 1 billion to come in from the next stage of the Port City,” he said. 

Nonetheless, Sri Lanka will continue to face challenges, the Prime Minister conceded, with climate change having an increasing impact on growth. As Sri Lanka has traditionally depended on good weather for its agriculture sector, continued extreme weather will put pressure on the economy to evolve into non-climate or climate resistant sectors, he said.   
 [/size]

NATO-NO ACTION TALK ONLY.
THEY SPEND MILLIONS BY PUTTING ADVERTISEMENTS IN PRINTED AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA.
THE SAME YOU HAVE QUOTED PAPER ARTICLE.
END RESULT IS ALMOST ZERO

IS THIS AN ALIEN'S DEVELOPMENTAL FACE?