Mind your Business
Greens up
Now that the battle lines have been drawn for a snap poll, there is already
a buzz in the stock market, probably anticipating a green victory
And the unkindest opinion came from the big state-run institutional
investors who have been buying up shares in large volumes, hoping for a
mini poll Bull Run.
The honourable Finance Minister may not approve of these sentiments
but then it only makes sense to make rupees and cents.
Happy hoteliers
And more in the same vein: the crisis-ridden hotel sector is looking fighting
for survival and is on the lookout for solace from any quarter.
That is why some leading hoteliers met green big wigs and discussed
ways and means of rescuing the industry if the latter came into office.
The greens did comment that it was putting the cart before the horse,
only to be replied that it was likely to be a one-horse race!
Budget blues
It's polling time and that often means it's time for bargains for the average
voter. So, even if there is no Budget next month, the promised bag of goodies
to appease the burden on the purse strings will be announced shortly.
While that includes a generous wage hike in the public sector, the possibility
of abolishing the GST also looms large, they say, especially since the
man who introduced it has changed colour.
New rules for migrant workers
By Feizal Samath
Sri Lankan authorities, along with foreign employment agencies, are introducing
new recruitment procedures to minimise problems relating to employment
in the Middle East.
These wide-ranging chan-ges, details of which were exclusively obtained
by The Sunday Times Business, are not being initiated due to concerns in
the gulf over the Afghan crisis but as a measure to solve some outstanding
problems in overseas labour markets.
"These are unprecedented changes and have been worked out between the
Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) and our association," noted
Suraj Dandeniya, president of the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment
Agencies (ALFEA).
After weeks of negotiations between the two sides, the authorities have
agreed to implement measures that include changes in salaries for skilled
and unskilled categories, adequate safeguards particularly for housemaids
in case of harassment or rape and quicker recruitment procedures.
There are nearly one million Sri Lankans working in the Middle East,
some of who have encountered problems like non-payment of wages and harassment.
An ALFEA document detailing the changes, which are effective immediately,
states that procedures regarding passport and visa cancellations have been
revised, providing some safeguards to licensed agents, who are often faced
with a last-minute reluctance to go abroad by would-be job seekers.
"Often men or women want to go abroad and then reverse the decision
at the last minute, after visas and other documents are obtained," Dandeniya
said. In such cases, applicants would have pay fees ranging from US $ 50
to US $ 200 for their passports to be returned by the job agencies.
The new rules also disallow non-licensed job agents from conducting
seminars, as a means of eliminating bogus agencies.
Anomalies between the salary received and salary stated in the contract
have also being addressed. Salaries of housemaids will be in the range
of US $ 100-130 (in Lebanon/Jordan), Saudi Riyals 400-450 (Saudi Arabia),
BD 40-45 (Bahrain), KD 35-40 (Kuwait), DH 400-450 (UAE) and QR 400-450
(Qatar).
In the case of males, the new salary range would be unskilled (Riyals
300-500), semi-skilled (Riyals 501-700), skilled (R 701-900), clerical
and allied (R 800) and professionals (negotiable).
The ALFEA note said that a receipt would be issued to applicants with
details of payments made to licensed agents. Payments sought by job agents
are in the range of Rs 65,000 to Rs 70,000 per worker and the services
include visa fees, air ticket, medical expenses, SLFEB charges and local
embassy charges.
"The SLFEB will hold educational programmes and publish a booklet about
the present conditions that prevail in the Middle East which in some instances
refrain from paying salaries within the first three months," the note said.
It said in cases of assault, rape, injury or other contingency, the
SLFEB will take immediate action with the Sri Lankan embassy abroad. The
licensees (agents) have also been requested by the SLFEB to take appropriate
steps to solve such problems but the bureau would be finally responsible
for the worker/s.
Dandeniya said these new procedures would dramatically revise the procedures
that are now in place for foreign recruitment.
"One of the most beneficial things that has happened is that the bureau
and the association are working together to help our workers instead of
working independent of each other," he said.
Markets, business upbeat over snap poll
By Ashwin Hemmathagama
Stockmarkets were upbeat and Sri Lanka's business community oozing with
confidence after the PA government dissolved parliament and called a snap
poll on December 5.
The Colombo stock exchange saw a major rally with many investors, who
have stayed on the sidelines for over a year or more due to depressed sentiment,
returning in hordes. The CSE all share index jumped by 58 points in the
three days to Friday, recording a 20 percent growth rate, while the Milanka
index soared by 74 points in the same period. Turnover on Friday was a
thumping Rs 304 million.
Brokers said the markets were on a roller coaster ride, putting their
faith on an UNP-led coalition victory. "The market is expected to further
gain this week," said one delighted exchange official.
Investment analysts said there was a wave of new retail investment.
"The general perception in business circles is that the UNP has done a
lot of groundwork and could pull off a win," one analyst said.
Political analysts were however more cautious saying the upbeat sentiment
in the stockmarkets was not unusual as the UNP is generally perceived as
pro-business and such sentiment has been evident even at past elections
including the last poll in October 2000.
"Things seem much in favour of the UNP now but we need to wait and see
when the campaign starts and is midway to make a real assessment, looking
at what happens in rural areas which matters more than the urban population,"
a political analyst noted.
Until the middle of last week, the stockmarket had been in the dumps.
Sriyan Gurusinghe, CEO at Ceylinco StockBrokers, said that the economy
was down and according to some reports at least four businesses were closing
down per day due to political uncertainty as well as economic reasons.
Other sectors like plantations and the garments were not doing well.
"It is very tough for us to earn our revenues. If you speak to any broker
in the market they have the same experience," he said in comments made
before Wednesday's announcement of a snap election.
Threats to oil palms continue
Village communities, backed by local politicians, are now threatening a
second plantation company in Sri Lanka's southern region against the promotion
of oil palms, officials said.
"Our estate is also under threat," Rohan Fernando, CEO of Elpitiya Plantations
Ltd which is part of the Aitken Spence group, told reporters last week.
The plantation community has expressed concern over an attack on an
elderly Malaysian oil palm consultant working for Watawala Plantations
Ltd by a group of unidentified thugs. The incident was exclusively reported
in last week's edition of The Sunday Times.
Hasan Bin Aziz Mohamed, a 62-year-old retired Malaysian planter training
Sri Lankan managers in palm oil production, was sleeping at the Stokesland
estate bungalow at Nakiadeniya off Galle when a group of men broke into
the house at 1.30 a.m. on Monday, October 1. He was beaten up and received
injuries in the eyes and back.
'They warned him saying - Go back, no palm oils – while leaving," said
Vish Govindasamy, Managing Director at Watawala Plantations in which Tata
Tea Ltd has a 49 percent stake. The company has been grappling with complaints
from the village that the oil palms have drained water resources and was
responsible a drought. Company and government officials have rejected this
assertion and said that oil palms don't affect water resources.
Other Watawala officials said the same group, which has been threatening
their plantations, damaged 200 seedlings (plants) on Wednesday. "They have
virtually killed the plants," one official said.
The Planters' Association called an urgent press conference to highlight
what it called a serious crisis in plantations and urged quick government
action.
"We have asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake
who is also Plantations Minister," said Mahendra Amarasuriya, chairman
of the association. But he had his doubts whether a meeting would be organized
due to the government pre-occupation with an evolving political scenario.
Govindasamy, asked what the company would do if the crisis goes on unabated
with no government intervention, said: "I don't know. We are at a loss
as to what to do. Our foreign partners are extremely worried about the
situation."
The attack on the Malaysian consultant, who flew back to Malaysia on
Friday, has affected oil palm plantations by other companies too. "We are
all extremely worried about the situation," said both Jit Gunaratne, Deputy
managing director at Namunukula Plantations and Raji de Sylva, CEO at Agalawatte
Plantations. Both these companies have also expanded into oil palm plantations.
Elpitiya's Fernando said the same local politicians and village community
involved in the protests against oil palms at Watawala's Nakiadeniya Plantations
were behind the protests at Elpitiya, which is about 20 kilometres from
Nakiadeniya.
Last Sunday, between 500 to 600 villagers held a meeting and protest
asking Nakiadeniya not to go ahead with oil palm plantations. Watawala
has stopped planting oil palms and security at its high-tech, state-of-the-art
nursery – which has 30,000 plants – has been stepped up with police help.
"Staff morale is very low," said Govindasamy. Officials of the Association
said the dispute appeared to be more to do with land use and not water
resources. "We feel villagers goaded by local politicians are trying to
grab land from the estates and are using the water crisis as an excuse,"
one official said. Officials said Watawala has had oil palms for the past
30 years but hasn't faced any problems from villagers until now. They said
that oil palms is a more lucrative crop than rubber which is economically
not viable now.
While Watawala is planning to raise its oil palms to 2,800 hectares
and an annual production of 7,500 tonnes of oil by 2005, the other three
companies are together envisaging planting 3,000 hectares by 2002 with
an investment of Rs 550 million.
Association officials spoke at length about the benefits of palm oil,
and urged the media to explain these benefits to uneasy villagers. They
also reproduced reports by government agencies that shows that oil palms
don't have any adverse impact on the environment. The association was planning
to send a delegation to meet local politicians and villagers and allay
their fears over oil palms. |
