Brunswick estate leads the way

Sri Lanka's estate sector population may still live in antiquated line-rooms built by the British but they are not deprived of access to the latest technology.

While plantation companies are trying to improve the social conditions on estates through better housing, schooling and health benefits, the plantation sector is caught up in government bureaucracy and politics leaving little room for the private sector to take the initiative in this sector.

"Housing is a problem and there is an urgent need to change the line-room concept but often our proposals get stuck in red tape and the politics of estate sector trade unions," one private sector official noted.

However, there are rapid advances in the use of new technology on the plantations with Brunswick Estate at Maskeliya going one step ahead of the others with a unique move - providing a free cyber café for children, estate staff and workers.
An excited management, led by Jit Gunaratne, Deputy Managing Director at Keells Plantations, joined by an enthusiastic Brunswick Superintendent, Manoj Pathiraja and his staff launched the cyber café on June 6 with schoolchildren and estate workers crowding into the little room to "see the world".

A single high-speed computer with a 24-hour Internet connection has been established at the cyber café - the first of its kind on a Sri Lankan estate. It would be open from 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm with an estate welfare officer in attendance to help users while a computer specialist from the nearby town has been assigned to train students and other users.

"This is the first time in Sri Lanka where schoolchildren would have access to a computer on an estate," said Pathiraja, speaking at a ceremony to mark the launch.
Gunaratne from Keells said the cyber café or e-learning centre had much more to offer than just a computer.

"We want to achieve a facility for information and education which is not restricted to age or category. All that students want to learn about the world is available on the Internet," he said, adding that estate staff and management can now also be part of the decision-making process. He urged people to send in their views and comments on the proposed National Employment Policy that has its own website and has invited public views and representation. "This affects you all and you should give your input. In such a case you would be involved in national policy-making decisions."

Maskeliya Plantations managed by R.P.K. Management Services Pvt Ltd and jointly owned by John Keells and Richard Pieris Ltd, also plans to create cyber cafés in other estates coming under its purview.

For Visvalingam Nirosha, a 15-year-old student at the local Bloomfield Tamil Maha Vidyalaya, the new facility would be of enormous benefit to children in the village.
"It would open a new area of information for us," she said as estate workers milled around the room, eager to see a computer - some for the first time. "We will be able to know what happens in foreign countries instantly," Nirosha said, adding that she would like to use the computer as much as possible to "learn many things".

Among the company's other benefits for staff is a monthly grant of Rs. 1,500 for children who are studying in Sri Lankan universities. There are not many children of estate staff who have reached these heights but for some like Velu Kandiah, a 55-year old field officer, the money comes in very handy. "The grant is extremely helpful for my daughter who is studying management at the Wayamba University," he said.
He said she plans to work on the estate after completing graduate studies. S.A.F. Xavier, Brunswick's medical officer, sees the Internet as an additional tool in the interaction between workers and management. "Many years ago, during the time of British colonial rule and immediately afterwards, the sight of estate workers and their children rubbing shoulders with management in one room would be a very rare indeed. That has changed in recent years and the introduction of Internet would further reduce the learning gap between workers and management," he noted.

Finland to invest once peace is secure
Finland is planning to invest in Sri Lanka following the resumption of the peace process, said Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of Finland, Caj Soderlund.
He said Sri Lanka's economic policies and future prospects are seen to be encouraging which has led to the Finish government planning to support any post-war economic development.

However, Soderlund made it clear that absolute peace was a prerequisite for external support. The councellor said the country's structural reforms appeared to be on track while there are plans to enter into a free trade agreement with Sri Lanka.
Under the Fin-Fund, which has been operational for several years, plans are afoot to fund Sri Lanka's small and medium sized enterprises. This would be mainly in the jewellery and design sectors. Finland, he noted, is part of a Norwegian-led group monitoring the peace process.

Rubber prices bouncing back
The price of natural rubber in the world market, which has dropped by nearly 50 percent since 1998 due to the South East Asian (SEA) currency crisis, is now seen rising sharply without showing any signs of collapsing in the near future, says Dr. l.M.k. Tillekeratne, Director of Sri Lanka's Rubber Research Institute (RRI).
In a statement, the veteran rubber scientist said:

With the decisions taken by the Tripod Alliance of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia to lower the production of natural rubber in each country by four percent and also due to the severe damage done to rubber trees by farmers in major rubber producing countries in Asia by overexploiting, rubber productivity in these countries have started declining sharply in the past couple of years.

This has created a shortfall of rubber in the world market, resulting in rubber prices shooting up. The RSS 1 price in New York is forecasted to rise by 8.8 percent this year and by 47 percent in 2003.

This situation was predicted by scientists of the RRI and repeated requests were made to plantation management companies not to neglect their rubber estates. But in many companies and in smallholdings, rubber cultivations have not been weeded, manured or maintained in recent years and they are now in a very sad state. Most rubber farms owned by estates and smallholders have not been tapped due to the low price of rubber over the past three years. Hence the productivity of rubber lands has fallen to about the 700-800 kg/ha/yr level now. The total rubber production in the country come down to 86,000 tonnes last year.

This low production has created a lot of problems for rubber product manufacturers who consume nearly 65 percent of the total production for value added products manufacture. In certain instances they were even compelled to import rubber from SEA countries where the price of rubber was lower by about Rs. 20 per kg on some occasions. Another reason for the importation of raw rubber by industrialists was the scarcity of good grades of RSS which are essential for the manufacture of certain products like cycle tyres and tubes for export.

But now the situation of local currencies affected by the SEA currency crisis has improved and hence the price of raw rubber and latex in those countries are either on par with the prices of rubber in Sri Lanka or higher.

There is a scarcity of rubber caused by the monsoon rains in rubber growing areas in Sri Lanka during the past couple of weeks and hence rubber product manufacturers will have to import not less than 5,000 tonnes of rubber during this month and next month at a higher price for the smooth running of their factories. The landing cost of latex from Thailand today is over Rs. 100 per kg while the local price of latex concentrate is only about Rs. 80-85/kg.

This situation could have easily been eliminated if the plantation companies and the smallholders followed the signals given by the RRI. Had they maintained their lands by weeding and manuring they would have benefited immensely from the increasing rubber prices that slowly started from last December and is now fast rising. Thai Traders have sold forward RSS good grades for above Rs. 75 per kg for December 2002 shipments. This is due to the price increase of rubber in the world market and not due to the scarcity of rubber caused by the bad weather.

This increase in rubber prices will continue for some time especially in SEA because the consumption there is fast increasing over that of Europe or America. This is because of the fast trend of moving industries from the developed west to the developing Asia.

Hence Sri Lankan farmers and plantations must at least now start an accelerated scheme of manuring and maintaining their lands to get the best benefit from rising international rubber prices. This would help them to recover losses incurred in the past three years. They must also use modern proven technology developed by the RRI to maximise this productivity. Rain guards must be used to recover crop losses of up to 40 percent in certain areas of the country.

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