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"Gamata Light" opens new world in rural Sri Lanka
An entirely new world opened up for Pushpa Samarawickrema and her three children in a remote Sri Lankan village when her home was lit by solar power.
"I never realised that the sun could also shine at night and give us light," she said adding, "It was the beginning of a new life for us."

Thousands of homes like Samarawickrama's across Sri Lanka which don't have access to electricity from the national grid have been provided solar power under a World Bank-aided five-year project since 1997 titled "Gamata Light".

The Energy Services Delivery (ESD) project scheduled for completion this year has so far seen the installation of 18,619 solar systems in homes with an aggregate capacity of 875 kW and 56 mini-hydro village projects with an aggregate capacity of 574 kW benefiting 2,900 homes, both by the end of June this year.

Some 300 solar units were installed in northern Jaffna alone in the past few months after peace returned to the region following a ceasefire between the government and the LTTE. The success of the project - the first time the private sector has been involved in delivering energy to the people - provided some valuable lessons for the bank, said Brad Herbert, operations advisor at the World Bank office in Colombo.

"There were important lessons learnt from this exercise like the successful partnership between the bank and the private sector and good communications used by the corporate sector in marketing the product," he said at the recent Colombo launch of another mega power project - Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development (RERED).

Herbert said some of the fundamental pillars of the ESD which would be useful for RERED are the role of the state in creating an enabling environment for the private sector for the service delivery of utilities and the partnership between the state and the private sector plus good communications in product marketing.

RERED involves an estimated investment of $ 133 million inclusive of a World Bank-led International Development Association (IDA) credit of $ 75 million and a Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant of $ 8 million. The 1997-end 2002 ESD project was built around a $ 19.7 million credit line from IDA and a $ 3.8 million grant from GEF.

An official statement said the new project will foster rural economic development and improve the quality of life through access to electricity, while at the same time, expand the commercial provision and use of electricity generated from renewable resources.

The project envisages providing electricity to 100,000 remote households and 1,000 rural small and medium enterprises and public institutions through off-grid community based and household based projects utilising technologies such as hydro, wind, biomass and solar. "These projects will actively encourage the productive use of electricity to increase rural household income and improve the quality of life in rural areas through better services such as health and education.

Only 59 percent of Sri Lanka's 19 million population has access to power but the government, according to Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya, has an ambitious target of raising this to 80 percent in the next five years.

"It is the dream of the prime minister (Ranil Wickremesinghe) to provide power to all and not a privileged few. Power is a basic human right of the people and the government has a moral responsibility to provide this service," he noted.

For those like Samarawickrema who hails from Puttalam, the solar power in her village home not only helped her three children in their studies but also protected the property from marauding wild elephants. "Wild elephants don't come now because of the solar powered light outside."

The economic situation in her village, she says has improved tremendously. For instance villagers like her are able to get up by 4 am and milk the cows compared to 6 am earlier - which was the earliest they could start work outside because of the danger of wild animals. Livestock, farming and sewing have improved in the village.

The use of solar power has also reduced the number of bottle lamp accidents which has caused a lot of misery in villages. "The most interesting thing was that while Colombo was in darkness during the power cuts, we had lights and were able to see all our favourite television shows," she said in lighter vein.

Saliya Ranasinghe, CEO of SEEDS (Sarvodaya Economic Enterprises Development Services), one of the participating credit institutions in the project, said the scheme has paved the way for the successful commercialisation of the energy delivery services.

"There were doubts at the beginning that the private sector may not deliver. All that is now history," he said adding that RERED is well structured to create entrepreneurship opportunities across the country.

"We also see this as a empowerment process - giving power to the people to make their own decisions," Ranasinghe said. He said SEEDS plans to reach out to 80,000 households in the next five years with a network of credit officers who would visit village homes with a palm top computer and approve instant loans at the doorstep.

Coach transfer for SriLankan passengers
SriLankan Airlines recently inaugurated a special coach service transporting passengers direct from Antwerp/Brussels to Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport Terminal 1, with a view to attracting increased passenger traffic from Belgium to Colombo and the Maldives.

Prior to this, the only Brussels/CDG link was the SN Brussels twice-daily air service and the Thalys train, which arrived at Terminal 2. The latter necessitated passengers to transfer their baggage to Terminal 1, (from where SriLankan Airlines flies to Colombo), thus making Paris CDG the least popular airport in Europe for transiting Belgian traffic, the airline said.

The coach service will also be provided for passengers returning from Colombo to CDG and having onward journeys to Brussels and Antwerp.

SriLankan Airlines' Manager for France, Southern Europe, Benelux and Scandinavia Rajeewa Jayaweera said that all passengers in possession of a valid SriLankan Airlines ticket purchased for travel from Antwerp or Brussels to CDG are now automatically entitled to transport vouchers issued by the respective travel agents or the SriLankan Airlines general sales agents' offices in Antwerp and Brussels.

This gratis offer of surface transport is on till November 30, 2002.

After that date, customers will be charged Euro 25 for one sector and Euro 50 for a round trip.

Jayaweera said he was confident that with SriLankan Airlines flying out of Paris CDG, this new coach service would enhance the possibility of attracting and increasing passenger traffic on the Brussels/Paris/Colombo/Male route, especially this forthcoming winter season.

SEC should be vigilant
It is time for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to look at stock market transactions closely. In recent years, the market was very inactive; share prices were low and price fluctuations minimal.

However, in the days when the stock market was very active and heated, there were many incidents of insider trading, front running and so on.

There were people who took advantage of the situation to fool unsuspecting investors, especially the smaller ones with no knowledge of financial markets.
One of the main reasons why most small investors were chased away from the market, making it difficult to reactivate it, was the fact that people lost confidence in the market.

They got played out. Even big investors were getting fed up with the system and the lack of interest shown by the SEC, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and other authorities responsible for ensuring clean transactions and a level playing field.

There were a few instances where bigwigs of the SEC and CSE got hold of a few brokers on minor matters and went to town to show the world that they are doing an honest job. However, the big fish had a field day.

The SEC, CSE and other agencies should keep their eyes and ears open to catch the offenders.

They should monitor transactions closely, the quantities traded, and price fluctuations while taking note of comments of financial analysts and other press reports including letters to the editors.

SEC and CSE officials should catch the thieves and bring them to book before they ruin the market and small investors again.

T.M. Jinadasa
Kottawa

FCCISL to hold VAT, Debits seminar
The Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) is holding a seminar on VAT and Debits Tax on August 16 at the Colombo Hilton.

A statement said many businesspersons have commented that they are not quite familiar with the new scheme of taxation and are facing difficulties in charging the requisite amounts. Resource personnel from the Department of Inland Revenue and a recognised chartered accountancy firm will be conducting the seminar.

Ceylinco Life tops Rs. 1.1 billion in 1st half 2002
Ceylinco Life's premium income has exceeded Rs. 1.1 billion for first half of 2002, the first time the company has topped billion rupees in a six-month period.

This record performance reflects a 24 percent growth in premium income in the period under review, from the Rs. 888 million achieved in the first half of last year.

Ceylinco Life's Director/General Manager R. Renganathan said the company was confident it would for the second year running surpass the Rs. 2 billion mark in premium income by the end of the year.

He said the company's Life Fund, the largest among private sector insurers, had reached Rs. 5.98 billion as of June 30, 2002.

The world's biggest hydro power scheme
The Three Gorges (3G) Project, the largest water conservation project in the world, located on the Yangtze River in the Hubei province of Central China is implementing a total plant management solution from IFS Applications.

Aimed at improving flood control, producing electricity and improving navigability on the river, 3G will, upon completion, be the largest hydro plant in the world, with a total installed capacity of 18,200 MW (26x700 MW, well ahead of Brazil's 12,600 MW Itaipu installation) and an annual output of nearly 84.7 billion kWh, (roughly one-tenths of China's electricity consumption), an IFS press release said.

IFS Applications, the component-based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution developed and marketed by IFS (Industrial and Financial Systems) is being used by over 3,000 medium and large-sized organisations globally. In Sri Lanka companies like Toyota, DSI, AES Kelanitissa, and SLT are using IFS Applications with Suntel signing up last month.

IFS is the only ERP vendor with a direct presence in Sri Lanka, and has the largest R&D Centre in Colombo. The Regional Support Centre and the Global Support Centre for IFS are also located in Colombo. IFS has been the fastest growing ERP vendor in the world for the last four years consecutively and is expanding its operations in Sri Lanka.

New CEO at CTC
Paul Hilterman has been appointed as the new CEO of Ceylon Tobacco Company with effect from August 1, taking over from Fred Combe who moves to a new posting as Managing Director of British American Tobacco (BAT), Indonesia.

Paul Hilterman, 48, is Dutch and started his career in the tobacco industry in 1988. He has been the General Manager of BAT Switzerland for the past six years and brings in a wealth of knowledge and experience, a company statement said.

Combe joined CTC in January 2000 and over the past 2 1/2 years has strengthened the culture and change management capability of the organisation through a leading example of "winning in our world." In the same period CTC became the first company in the world to achieve MRP II class A version V certification and launched Sri Lanka's first Social Report.

"I am leaving CTC with mixed feelings and am very proud to have been the CEO of such a dynamic organisation and a great bunch of people," said Combe.

Hilterman, who is looking forward to his new role, said: "It is nice to work in Sri Lanka at a time when peace is returning. I look forward to starting work at CTC and take the company towards further success."

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