Courtesy Hiru News IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said The International Monetary Fund welcomes the progress made by Sri Lanka in “decisive” policy actions and in obtaining financing assurances from all major creditors. IMF Chief said the IMF looks forward to presenting what will be the island nation’s 17th IMF programme to the international lender’s […]

Shenali D Waduge It is advised that people should not be too mesmerized by the word independent”. Who can be independent in this interlinked world. Even decisions in the halls of the UN end up determined by a simple threatening phone call. The arm-twisting methods used would shock most. When Funding/AID is tied to numerous […]

Sugath Kulatunga The Constitution of the country provides for the appointment of a Secretary for each Ministry,who is empowered to exercise supervision over the departments of Government or other institutions in the charge of his Minister.vide the following Articles of the Constitution. 52. (1) There shall be for each Ministry a Secretary who shall be […]

e-Con e-News The Sunday Times asked the question above of the much-promoted Shanta Devarajan, ‘Professor of the Practice of International Development at the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, US, advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka on the International Monetary Fund (IMF).’ ‘No comment,’ replies the much-promoted and seemingly mired professor. • What is the relationship between […]

Courtesy RTHK Sri Lanka’s president said on Tuesday that China had agreed to restructure its loans to the bankrupt island nation, clearing the final obstacle to a long-awaited International Monetary Fund bailout. An unprecedented economic crisis has seen Sri Lanka’s 22 million people suffer acute food, fuel and medicine shortages, along with extended blackouts and […]

By Shivanthi ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today Earlier this year, President Ranil Wickremesinghe pledged to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (13A) in full. Currently, it is in effect except for Police and land powers (granted partially), which are still exercised by the Central Government. This was a surprise announcement made on 15.01.2023 during the National […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island CIA Chief’s cloak-and-dagger visit: Pivuthuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader, Udaya Gammanpila, MP, yesterday (06) said that the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government and the US embassy in Colombo should come clean on CIA Director William Joseph Burns’ Colombo visit. The former Power and Energy Minister said so in response to The Island query whether the […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has welcomed the progress made by the Sri Lankan authorities in taking decisive policy actions and obtaining financial assurances from all major creditors including China, India and the Paris Club. In a statement, Kristalina Georgieva said she looks forward to presenting the IMG-supported program […]

Courtesy Adaderana The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said Sri Lanka has secured financing assurances from all major bilateral creditors, paving the way for the IMF board to consider approval of a long-awaited $2.9 billion four-year bailout agreed last year. The IMF said its board will meet on March 20 to review a preliminary staff-level […]

Courtesy Adaderana The All Share Price Index (ASPI) of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has increased by nearly 200 points during today’s (07 March) trading.  Accordingly, the ASPI increased by 198.02 points (2.10%) to close at 9,642.94 after today’s trading.  This is also the highest close of the index for the year so far, after […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Election Commission has deemed April 25 as the ‘most suitable’ date to hold the 2023 Local Government polls. The election body informed the Returning Officers that the local government election cannot be conducted on March 09 as scheduled due to unexpected and unavoidable reasons” pertaining to the printing of ballot papers. In […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) has appreciated further against the US dollar (USD) today (07 March) as the buying rate reached Rs. 318.30 and the selling rate recorded Rs. 335.75.  At the same time, the Middle Rate of the USD/ LKR SPOT Exchange Rate was recorded at Rs. 337.66. The Sri Lankan Rupee […]

Sufian Siddique Independent researcher and freelance columnist, Dhaka Pakistan’s economy is on the brink of bankruptcy like Sri Lanka’s. Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen below $3 billion. They have asked the IMF for a ‘bailout loan’ a long time ago, but the IMF is trying to impose strict conditions that Pakistan’s current ruling coalition […]

By Engr. Kanthar Balanathan DipEE (UK), GradCert (RelEng-Monash), DipBus&Adm (Finance-Massey), C.Eng., MIEE, Former Director of Power Engineering Solutions Pty Ltd, Consulting Electrical Engineers Political System The political system in Sri Lanka (SL) is in chaos. The prime factors, for this, are the fundamental, innate mindset of Buddhism, racism, jealousy, avidity, the shortfall in perception, non-flexibility, incapability […]

Senaka Weeraratna Had the Roman Empire under Constantine embraced Buddhism rather than Christianity we would have had a more peaceful Europe and a more peaceful world. Historically speaking despite all the rhetoric on Peace and Human Rights, Europe remains the same. The biggest battlefield in history compared to other continents. The track record of Europe is […]

 Lanka Lead News 13 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ගන්නා උත්සාහය සම්බන්ධයෙන් උතුරේ පීඩිත ජනයා දක්වන අදහස් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ලංකා ලීඩ් වෙබ් අඩවිය යාපනය සිවිල් ජනතා සංවිධානයේ කැඳවුම් කරු අරුන් සිද්ධාර්තන් මහතා ගෙන් කළ විමසීමකදී ඔහු මෙමගින් උතුරේ සිදුවන සැබෑ අර්බුදය පැහැදිලි කළේය. එහිදී ඔහු අදහස් දක්වමින්, මට තිබෙන ප්‍රශ්නය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ වැනි […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror While stressing that the date for the Local Government (LG) polls remain in the hands of the Treasury, the Election Commission (EC) ruled out yesterday the possibility of holding the election before the Sinhala and Hindu New Year which falls in mid-April. EC Chairman, Nimal G Punchihewa told Daily Mirror that […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s northern fishermen on Sunday said they fiercely oppose” the government’s plan to issue licenses to Indian fishermen to enter Sri Lankan waters, terming the move a serious setback” to their nearly 15-year-long struggle. On February 22, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told Parliament that authorities were looking into possibly issuing licences to […]

Courtesy Adaderana Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) has facilitated 11,926 international tourists in February 2023, says the Airport and Aviation Services Pvt. Ltd. of Sri Lanka (AASL). While Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has recorded 107,639 international tourist arrivals in the month of February 2023 with a growth of 11.5% compared to the month of February […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The opposition party is not showing any sign of commitment to resolving the current economic crisis, opposition MP Patali Champika Ranawaka said.  “One political leader who represents a certain political party said he will be able to convince the international community through his English language skills. Another says that they will […]

Lanka Lead News වර්තමානයේ විපක්ෂයේ ඇත්තේ ජනකාන්තවාදයක් බවත්, එක් නායකයෙක් ඉතා සංකීර්ණ ප්‍රශ්නවලට සරල විසඳුම් ඉදිරිපත් කරන අතර, තවත් නායකයෙක් විදේශ රටවල් සමග ගනුදෙනු කිරීමේ පිළිවෙල පිළිබදව හාස්‍යජනක කතන්දර පවසන බවත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක මහතා පවසයි. ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් පිටරටවල් සමග කතාකර තමන් මෙරට ආර්ථිකය ගොඩනගන බව එක් නායකයෙක් පවසද්දී, තවත් නායකයකු පවසන්නේ මැති ඇමැතිවරුන්ගේ […]

Sugath Kulatunga In June, 2016 (IMF) approved a 36-month extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with Sri Lanka for an amount equivalent to US$1.5 billion, The program aimed to provide a policy anchor for macroeconomic stability and structural reforms, while strengthening external resiliency in a challenging global environment” To achieve these objectives, the […]

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි  ශ්‍රී ලංකාව යනු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී, සමාජවාදී රාජ්‍යකි, ඒ ව්‍යාවස්තාවට අනුකුලවය. ඒත් මේ රාජ්‍ය තුල ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයවත්, සමාජවාදයවත්, රාජ්‍යත්වයක්වත් නැති බවත්, ඒ සියල්ලක්ම විනාශ කරන අද්බුත යමක් රටතුල දෝලනය වෙමින් පවතින බව මෙරට ජනතාවට ඉතා පැහැදිලිවම දැනිය යුතුය.. ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ඇත්නම්, පළමුව චන්ද බලයෙන් අගමැතිවූ ,ඩී. එස්. සේනානායක මහතාට, දෙවැනිව චන්ද බලයෙන් අගමැතිවූ ඩඩ්ලි සේනානායක මහතාටද, […]

Shenali D Waduge Arun Siddharth has an opinion & he has a right to his opinion. How many have listened to him or believe him? Why is his narrative different from the rest? What makes his narrative different from the rest? The UN/UNHRC/Western diplomats have for years felt comfortable in believing the lies of a […]

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS During the presidential election of 2019, many candidates and people publicly talked about education reforms.  Except for Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa, other candidates and the public have not expressed clear views on this subject and are reluctant to talk about what kind of reforms are needed for Sri Lanka. Education is a broader […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත් ඉදිරි වසර දෙකක කාලය සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට මූල්‍යමය වශයෙන් සහාය දීමට ලෝක බැංකුව එකඟ වී තිබෙනවා. >ඒ අනුව ඊට අමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 1.5ක මුදලක් ලබාදීමට ලෝක බැංකුවේ කළමනාකාරීත්වය එකඟ වී ඇති බවයි වාර්තා වන්නේ. එම මුල්‍ය ප්‍රදානය ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල සමග ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඇති කරගෙන ඇති ගනුදෙනුව අවසන් වූ වහාම සිදු […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් පසුගිය සමයේ චීනයෙන් කාබනික පොහොර නැවක් මෙරටට ගෙන්වීමට සම්බන්ධ ආයතනයේ ප්‍රධාන විධායක නිලධාරියා ජාතික ජන බලවේගය යටතේ මෙවර පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණ ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇති බවත් වාරිමාර්ග රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ශෂීන්ද්‍ර රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සඳහන් කරයි. ඔහු ජාතික ජන බලවේගයෙන් වත්තල ප‍්‍රාදේශීය සභාවට තරග වැදීම සඳහා නාම යෝජනා භාරදී ඇති බව ද හෙතෙම […]

Courtesy The National News IMF funding is often the sole financial lifeline available to countries in a debt crunch and key to unlocking other financing sources Countries in debt distress such as Zambia and Sri Lanka turning to the International Monetary Fund for financial help are facing unprecedented delays to secure bailouts as China and Western […]

Courtesy The Daily Star Sri Lanka’s decision to raise interest rates shows the crisis-hit country’s commitment to reducing inflation quickly towards single-digit levels, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Saturday. In a surprise move, the South Asia nation’s central bank raised rates by 100 basis points on Friday to battle inflation, which is at […]

By P.K. Balachandran/The Diplomat Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, March 4: The natural endowments and strategic value of Trincomalee harbor in eastern Sri Lanka have been well known for a long time. Yet, to date, very little concrete action has been taken to develop and use the port. There has been no dearth of reports and plans, […]