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Avurudu fast foods!

Avurudu is here and it's time not only for prayer and reunions - but also for fun, food and games. Gone are the days when the womenfolk, especially in the towns, got together and prepared the traditional kavum, kokis and mung kavum at their own hearths. In keeping with the fast food culture in Sri Lanka, it now an era where sweetmeats are available in the markets in Colombo and the suburbs. Here a young mother takes her pick from the spread laid out by a 'kavum amma' at the Piliyandala market. Pic. by Athula Devapriya.

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Govt. seeks $800 mln for poverty work
The United National Front (UNF) government wants to raise between US $300 to US $ 850 million from the IMF, World Bank and other donors for a poverty reduction plan in which some of the groundwork has been done by the former People's Alliance regime.

"We are hoping to get IMF approval for a US $ 300 million facility under the poverty reduction and growth strategy (PRGS) policy. We could then seek further support from the World Bank and bilateral donors and build on this to about US $ 800-850 million over a period of three-plus years," noted Economic Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda.
Negotiations for the new programme began last year under the PA government when the IMF in April 2001 agreed to a standby facility of US $253 million as urgent balance of payments support and to prop up depleted foreign currency reserves. The PRGS was to follow on the successful conclusion of the standby facility, which ends in the two months - in June.

After an immediate tranche of US $131 million further disbursements were suspended as budget deficit targets and public spending limits went haywire with the government unable to keep to the IMF-government agreed performance criteria. The new reforms-friendly government has been able to convince the IMF to resume the programme.

Moragoda said the suspended facility would come up for fresh review by the IMF's board of directors on April 15-16. The minister said he would also be in Washington on April 17-18 for meetings with the World Bank president, managing director of the IMF and US treasury officials to lay the foundation for the bigger and cheaper poverty credit facility.

"Frankly the standby credit facility is not the cheapest access to funds. It is like an overdraft and costly. The then government sought it because of an emergency requirement. We need to pursue the PRGS which is long-term, cheaper and tied to real reforms not playing around with the numbers (budget deficit targets) game," he said.
Meanwhile the development forum or former aid consortium meeting of donors helping Sri Lanka will be held in Colombo for the first time, as against Paris which has been the venue for many years. The meeting is scheduled for June 5 and 6 and is expected to be opened by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, informed sources said.

Moragoda, who is also the prime minister's deputy in the ministry of policy implementation, said donors had agreed to the government's proposal to hold the meeting in Colombo instead of Paris. Government economists said that it was more practical to hold the World Bank-organised meeting in Colombo because the former aid group parley was no more a pledging conference. They said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has now become a much more important agency than the World Bank as it is the biggest donor to Sri Lanka.

The agenda at the Colombo meeting includes the presentation of the government's poverty and growth strategies and the triple RRR framework - rehabilitation, reconstruction and reconciliation - for the north and the east.

"The government would update the donor community on the peace process, explain the economic reforms that are taking place and most importantly, demonstrate our resolve to undertake these tasks," Moragoda said.

eRUNWAY to change its name
eRUNWAY, the Sri Lankan-founded global software company, is changing its name later this month giving it a new corporate identity and also because e-based companies are looked at negatively in the United States.

"We are looking at a new global corporate identity while the crash of dot com companies in the US which led to e firms being perceived in a negative sense, also prompted us to make this change," said an eRUNWAY spokesperson in Colombo.
She declined to give the new name of the company, saying an official announcement would be made in the next ten days.

The company founded in by Sri Lankan couple Kris and Tushara Canekeratne in 1995 in Colombo, is now headquartered in Boston in the US.

"We are changing our name to reflect an important transition in the company's history.
The new name represents both what the company is and what we aspire to be - a company that epitomizes engineering excellence," said Kris Canekeratne, co-founder chairman and CEO.

The six-year old company with offices in Colombo, Boston and Hyderabad, has seen tremendous growth. Tushara Canekeratne, co-founder and Executive Vice President Technical Operations was in Colombo recently to provide company staff with an insight into plans to meet the firm's unparalleled growth.

While many other service companies are laying off staff, eRUNWAY recently hired over 100 experienced technology professionals worldwide, mostly in Hyderabad and Colombo. "We are finding a tremendous need for our services," said Tushara Canekeratne, during her Colombo visit.

The company has a total of 500 staff of which 300 are based in Colombo.

Telecom IPO in the offing
The Public Enterprises Reform Commission (PERC) plans to list a small stake in Sri Lanka Telecom on the Colombo bourse shortly.

"We're seriously looking at a local IPO (Initial Public Offer) of about a 10-15 percent stake in SLT to increase private sector participation," PERC director general Dr. P.B. Jayasundara said. An international IPO, which had been planned earlier but put off repeatedly because of poor market sentiment, could follow later.

The telecommunications industry was being fully liberalised and licenses are to be issued to other international gateways while the powers of the regulator are being strengthened.

The privatisation programme this year includes "big revenue making agencies with fairly large valuations," Jayasundara said in an interview.

PERC had short-listed bids for the bunker supplier Lanka Marine Services and had started work on the National Insurance Corporation and Shell Gas Lanka, Jayasundara said. It is also evaluating bids for Sevanagala Sugar. Finance Minister K.N. Choksy said last month that the government intends to raise Rs. 21 billion through privatisation of state enterprises.

Jayasundara also said the government plans to create "multi-sector" regulatory agencies for different sectors such as finance, transport and power because having a regulator for each sector was not feasible. "The regulator is there to prevent unfair pricing, ensure quality standards, protect consumer interest and settle market disputes," he said.

With the pricing formula being a critical issue, the regulator would have to ensure "cost-based, reasonable, competitive pricing," Jayasundara said. "For privatisation to work well, you need transparent, debatable pricing formulae," he added.

Although there have been lengthy delays in setting up regulators, Jayasundara said that now "a lot of regulatory agencies are surfacing." Other changes in the regulatory framework include a new Companies Act and a Consumer Protection Authority.

The whole process of liberalisation, de-regulation and privatisation is meant to create competition, Jayasundara said.

Mainly for techies!
Next week's business section will have a special page dedicated to the IT industry. It will contain news, views, developments and events connected with the IT sector. The page appears on the third Sunday of every month. Book your copy now.


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