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| Plantation
industry to revive with Tea Estate Application system “The plantation industry now has access to a very high standard of service and quality state-of-the-art software, equipping it to perform even better than that of the rest of the world,” said Samantha de Silva, the Project Manager of SSP. “The demand for advanced technology business solutions by the rapidly modernising plantation industry, mainly the tea, rubber, and coconut plantations, makes SSP’s Plantation Management Application the correct choice for Sri Lanka,” said Priantha Fernando, a Director of SSP. “SSP’s TEA System is the solution for Sri Lanka’s tea industry, and SSP’s ability to provide customers the possibility of evolving using the true component-based TEA System, which will provide businesses a significant strategic advantage” said Sumedha de Silva the IT Advisor to the BOI. The SSP business concept is to increase their customer’s competitiveness by offering integrated solutions consisting of standardised business components. The TEA System consists of over 40 different components covering all aspects of Plantation Management such as Bought Leaf, Check Roll, Inventory Control, Factory Operations, Sales, Cultivation, Finance, and Management Information. No
need to be alarmist, bankers say Bankers said that they would be left with no option but to increase lending rates in order to minimise the impact of VAT on the bank’s financial position. CEOs of several banks met Finance Minister K.N. Choksy and several other treasury officials in an effort to repeal this proposal. The CEOs had highlighted the adverse implications of this move and explained to the minister that the proposal to levy VAT on all increments given to bank employees was unreasonable. Bankers said that the Minister had promised to look into the matter, though a final decision was still pending. “Despite the economic crisis last year, banks were one of the few sectors that really performed well, and therefore I highly doubt that the government would discard an opportunity to earn more revenue,” said a private sector banking official. This year has been an eventful year for the banks, and the recent Pramuka fiasco has created growing concern as to whether the public was beginning to lose faith in the banking sector. Ceylon Bank Employees’ Union (CEBU) President M.R. Shah says that the Pramuka fiasco has only highlighted the failures of privatisation. “Banks must be run in a proper way so that not only can the corporate sector benefit from its services, but the public at large. Unfortunately private banks are profit motivated and as in the case of Pramuka, it shows how these private institutions have catered only to the business community, and therefore have failed.” When asked whether such incidents would discourage the public from the banking habit, Shah said that though there were irregularities in the private banking sector, there was no reason to be concerned, as 55 percent of the total banking community were dependent on state banks. “From 1992, various quarters including the government have made several allegations against the functioning of state banks, but from the rural farmer to the entrepreneur, state banks have operated for the benefit of the people.” Shah was also confident that once the budget proposals took effect and all banks are liable to a 10 percent levy on VAT, that unlike the private sector, the state banks would not pass on the burden to the customer. Shah also stressed the importance of the Central Bank as a financial market watchdog. He pointed out that recent actions taken by private banks have threatened the job security of banking employees. Shah was referring to the events that unfolded following the merger of Standard Chartered Bank and ANZ Grindlays, in which Standard Chartered Bank is attempting to arbitrarily retrench 99 of its employees. Shah said that the Central Bank should have addressed the concerns of the employees prior to their approval for the merger to take place. “We have made so many appeals to the Central Bank and various other authorities to intervene in this matter, but no one has taken any action.” Shah was also concerned about the increasing recruitment of casual employees by private sector banks, and was of the view that once the Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe presents the new Termination of Employment Act in Parliament shortly, retrenchment would be possible at any time, and the redundant employees would only be able to claim compensation. Shah further added, “If we lose our state banks, the public will only have to face disastrous consequences, which would signal the end of the Sri Lankan economy.” A cross section of bankers were of the view that there was no necessity to panic with concerns over the situation of the 23 existing commercial banks, as they were highly monitored and strictly regulated by the Central Bank. They were of the view that since Pramuka was a specialised bank, which operated under different circumstances, there was no reason why the public should adopt an ‘alarmist’ view. When quizzed about the extent to which the Central Bank had control over the events that take place within the banking sector, they said that banks were subject to two regular regulations. The ‘off-site’ regulations are that which require a bank to submit a report containing information such as its returns and profits, and is carefully studied by the Central Bank. However, since the report is just figures on a paper, the Central Bank would carry out ‘on-site’ regulations every six months, in which the Central Bank would have access to the bank’s books and the staff, and could pose any questions and matters which need clarification. The bankers commended the role of the Central Bank, and said that the public should not expect the Central Bank to play a detective role. Interestingly, a senior banker who did not wish to be quoted said the Banking Act clearly specified that the Directors of a Bank should be ‘fit and proper persons’, which meant that if the Central Bank had investigated the background of Pramuka chief Rohan Perera, they could have averted this disaster, which has caused considerable inconvenience and anxiety to the 15,000 depositors of the bank. The GM/CEO of Pan Asia Bank Ltd Daya Muthukumaran said, “The Pramuka crisis has not affected our bank or any commercial bank. The general banking environment is quite good except for some anxiety in the minds of a certain number of people.” He further said that the common belief is that the commercial banks were better monitored than specialized banks, due to the tradition of commercial banks having their customers introduced. ‘Introduced’ means having an account in another bank or being introduced by another customer, he said. “In the case of specialised banks there is no such procedure in most of them.” Commenting on the reduction in lending rates by the Central Bank, he said “This step reduces the inter banking money market rate and that in turn indirectly forces the banks to reduce their interest rates thereby creating competitiveness among the banks.” Central Bank officials denied reports that they had begun inspecting financial records of smaller financial institutions and commercial banks, and said that besides the routine surveillance maintained by the bank supervision department, there was no special investigation being carried out. The officials said that at present, all commercial banks were stable. Students
win Information Technology awards Certificates were also granted for the winners of National Information Technology competitions (2001/2002) and for the successful students of the National Examination in Information Technology 2002. International Olympiad organises international level competitions in the fields of Information Technology, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Mathematics and Astrology. Olympiad competitions were initiated in 1989 with the participation of 13 countries and Sri Lanka joined in 1992. The CINTEC, an institution under the purview of Ministry of Economic Reform, Science and Technology, participated in these competitions 11 times. For the 14th competition 79 countries and 280 technologists participated. The bronze medal winners of this year and the winners of the previous year were given their awards at this occasion. Sri Lanka has won two gold medals, four Silver medals and nine bronze medals so far. The CINTEC organises
these competitions annually in order to develop the information
technology sector in Sri Lanka, to attract the new generation to
this sector, and to provide international experiences in this sector. |
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