{"id":55249,"date":"2016-06-03T11:07:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T18:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=55249"},"modified":"2016-06-03T11:07:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T18:07:30","slug":"open-letter-to-hon-malik-smarawickrama-and-center-for-development-bureaucracy-and-lethargic-attitude-of-state-agencies-is-an-impediment-to-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/06\/03\/open-letter-to-hon-malik-smarawickrama-and-center-for-development-bureaucracy-and-lethargic-attitude-of-state-agencies-is-an-impediment-to-development\/","title":{"rendered":"OPEN LETTER TO HON MALIK SMARAWICKRAMA AND CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT Bureaucracy and lethargic attitude of\u00a0\u00a0 state agencies is an impediment to development \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.."},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Main Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n

After returning from \u00a0UK leaving a very lucrative job in Oil and Gas Industry to work in Sri Lanka I \u00a0sought \u00a0approval from SLPA to establish a shipyard in Galle Harbour to undertake repair and building of Yachts ,Pleasure Crafts and other small boats ,under the Master Plan of Galle Harbour development .<\/p>\n

After two years of struggle with the state Bureaucracy, from 2011 to 2013 to get all state approvals and we signed the Business Agreement with SLPA with an Investment from Saudi Arabia .<\/p>\n

Due to various incidents happening in the country against Middle Eastern people ,investor pulled out and a new investor in Sri Lanka has expressed interest to continue with the project .<\/p>\n

A local blue chip company has undertaken to invest 25 million dollars and sought approval from SLPA to revive the project with blessings from the BOI .<\/p>\n

It is almost another one year since the revival program was submitted and the government is dilly dallying in granting permission to re-commence the investment program.<\/p>\n

Reason given by SLPA is that new management is planning to hand over the harbour to a new investor to start a marina and the shipyard land given to our investor\u00a0 \u00a0is included in the new proposal.<\/p>\n

One wonders how can SLPA survive on charging few dollars from Yacht owners ( who survive on Malu Paan from Chun Pan Tuk Tuks\u2019s) coming in few numbers to the Gall Harbour ??<\/p>\n

Another Issue <\/strong><\/p>\n

We have also\u00a0 \u00a0acquired a 100 perches of land outside the Galle Harbour Shipyard Project Land ,with a different investor and under new company \u00a0to commence some boat\u00a0 building until the Shipyard project materialises.<\/p>\n

When the building approval plans were submitted to Galle Municipal Council ,we have been told to get approvals from following agencies.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Central Environment Authority ( CEA)<\/li>\n
  • Coat conservation Department ( CCD)<\/li>\n
  • Sri Lanka Ports Authority ( SLPA )<\/li>\n
  • Urban Development Authority ( UDA)<\/li>\n
  • National Building Authority ( NBRO)<\/li>\n
  • Fishery Corporation<\/li>\n
  • Road Development Authority (RDA )<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Even though most of the above agencies have no real relevance to the approval and the Land is outside SLPA premises except CEA ,These agencies impose rules to delay the project and not \u00a0to allow such an investment to go ahead and taking many weeks to consider approval .<\/p>\n

    I got EDOB ( ease of doing business ) under the Minister Ravi Karunanayake to intervene regarding RDA involvement but notyhing substantial happened<\/p>\n

    Dear Minister<\/p>\n

    We have written many letters and attended meetings but nothing is materialising.<\/p>\n

    This is a project of national importance which will provide many jobs and generate much needed foreign currency.<\/p>\n

    Can you Centre for Development call a meeting and help us to proceed with the investment<\/p>\n

    Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dr Sarath Obeysekera Main Issue After returning from \u00a0UK leaving a very lucrative job in Oil and Gas Industry to work in Sri Lanka I \u00a0sought \u00a0approval from SLPA to establish a shipyard in Galle Harbour to undertake repair and building of Yachts ,Pleasure Crafts and other small boats ,under the Master Plan of Galle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}