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PM to launch e-Sri Lanka
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe will launch Sri Lanka's ICT Roadmap - aimed at taking IT to the village with World Bank support - on Wednesday, according to an official statement.

Titled "e-Sri Lanka", the roadmap is an initiative of the Minister of Economic Reform, Science and Technology, Milinda Moragoda consisting a five-pronged strategy that envisions the development of Sri Lanka's ICT sector. Extensive work has been carried out by the ministry over the last couple of months incorporating all stakeholders with the objective of taking ICT to every village, citizen and business, with e-Government as its mainstay, the statement from the ministry said.

The strategic plan was also discussed globally via a video-conference in August with World Bank officials, industry colleagues in Silicon Valley, India's software association NASSCOM and local ICT business leaders.

The e-Sri Lanka Action Plan envisions the creation and development of global markets for employment generation, deployment of e-government concepts with emphasis on productivity and competitiveness and enable socio-cultural integration of a united nation, revolving on the axis of developing Sri Lanka's economy, reducing poverty and improving the quality of life and opportunities for the people.

As previously described by Eran Wickremaratne, IT Advisor to the ministry, the roadmap is a 'big-bang' approach where it has the fullest support from all sectors including the government for its implementation.

e-Sri Lanka will look at the most critical and quickest measures to set the ICT roadmap on its way by setting up the implementation framework, the critical staffing, implementing much awaited telecommunications reforms and the enabling e-laws. The initiative will also commission necessary studies, provide technical assistance and capacity building measures that are critical to realize its objectives.

As emphasized the roadmap is expected to be along the lines of the government creating an enabling environment and partnering with private sector associations and NGOs to create the infrastructure, establish e-government services and brand "Sri Lanka Inc." as a hi-tech nation.

People's Bank to fight interference
"Many borrowers made use of a six-month moratorium offered by the People's Bank in January to re-negotiate their loans and repayment schemes have been implemented which were acceptable to both parties," said bank CEO/General Manager Derek Kelly.

The moratorium was given to small borrowers and enterprises to re-negotiate with the bank and agree on settlement programmes. "Those who did not make use of this opportunity were subject to recovery actions," he said in a statement, adding that the bank was-for the first time - not influenced politically on the recovery of debts and vowed to resist such influence, if any.

Commenting on media reports on the widespread advertising of mortgaged property for sale by the People's Bank and the fact that debtors were named was damaging and discriminatory, Kelly said in a statement:

"25 percent of People's Bank's advances are non-performing. We have been heavily criticised for not recovering our depositors' money leading the bank into heavy losses to the point that we now need new capital. Nobody will consider investing in the bank unless we can demonstrate that we can recover our debts. For this reason the board of directors has decided to move aggressively against our recalcitrant debtors who will not pay their debts.

After many reminders and negotiations with these customers often over a period of several years, which have not led to realistic evidence of commitment to repay, a large number of resolutions have been approved by the board and published in newspapers to auction the mortgaged properties of those debtors, according to the law."

"Anyone reviewing these publications will be able to confirm the comprehensive but indiscriminate approach of the bank, i.e. the bank has not differentiated small from the large or one community from the other, etc. What has particularly irritated these people and their traditional protectors is that this time they have not been able to go behind politicians in order to avoid repaying their debts.

Any such politicians who approach our regional or branch managers are reminded that our only responsibility is to protect our depositors' money. Particularly pressing politicians are invited to telephone me. Few do!"

"The bank is bound to recover its debts as a state bank on behalf of the government, its owner. If it does not recover such debts it will not be able to survive and the burden will then fall on the taxpayers and the broad sections of society that we have served so faithfully for many years.

It is the policy of the bank to explore realistic and alternate avenues before resorting to sale of mortgaged property. In the process, the bank has been able to minimise the number of auctions through negotiated settlements.

"We will continue to obtain recovery of our debts by whatever legal means are necessary without fear or favour from every defaulter irrespective of their community or 'connections' and will not tolerate any interference in this process."

SLFEB refutes allegations by director
Right of Reply
Susantha Fernando, chairman of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau has refuted allegations made by bureau director Suraj Dandeniya in a case that the latter (Dandeniya) has filed in the Colombo District Court.

Fernando, responding to a report in last week's Sunday Times FT section headlined "Major row over tender procedures at SLFEB" which carried extracts from the court petition, has in a letter clarifying some of the points, said:

"The appointment of an insurance broker was made since numerous complaints were being received of the undue delays experienced by the migrant workers in processing their claims. Therefore, a decision was made to appoint a broker with no additional cost to the Bureau.

The expenditure in relation to the special Airport Lounge for migrant workers too was approved at a board meeting and the actual expenditure was Rs. 3.1 million and not Rs. 4.5 million as claimed. This includes not only the cost of chairs as stated in your article, but the total interior décor, partitions, other furniture items, rental, etc.
A total breakdown of the expenditure was circulated to the board in this regard. Mr. Dandeniya was present at this meeting and he raised no objection.

It is the standard practice at the Bureau to issue a credit card to its chairman in order to facilitate expenditure in relation to business promotion and official entertainment purposes. This practice was initiated in order to avoid having different accounts and obtaining credit from various institutions for these purposes.

I must add, I have at no time requested for such a Credit Card and this was issued purely as a practice on assumption of duties as chairman. Mr. Dandeniya was not present at this board meeting but subsequently the minutes were circulated and ratified at the next board meeting.

"The National Awards Scheme for Foreign Employment Agencies was conducted in a transparent manner and was adjudged by an eminent panel of Judges, who represented key professions i.e. Finance, Marketing, Human Resources and Professional Associations. The bureau did not participate in any manner in deciding the winners."

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