The Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered the economic growth forecast for Sri Lanka due to weak industrial performance and fiscal consolidation. In a summary of growth in South Asia, the Asian Development Outlook 2016 Update said, “While Bangladesh and Pakistan now see slightly faster expansion in 2016 than anticipated, growth prospects for Sri Lanka edge lower on weak industrial performance and fiscal consolidation.” Noting Sri Lanka’s high external debt, the report added, “For Sri Lanka, where a significant share of debt is external, additional pressure is likely to come from the interest...
Kandyan dancers inaugurated the opening of a basketball court at a Sri Lankan army camp in Vanni last week, as the military continues to construct new buildings within its bases in the Tamil North-East.
The leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya party and Member of Parliament for Sri Lanka’s Colombo District, Udaya Gammanpila called for the arrest of the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran for his involvement in a mass Tamil demonstration that occurred on Saturday 24 September. Speaking to press in Colombo on Monday, Mr Gammanpila said that CV WIgneswaran was one od the chief organisers of the Tamil rally last week and should be arrested for spreading racism, reports adaderana.lk. The Ezhuga Tamil rally which took place in Jaffna on Saturday saw an estimated 10,000 Tamils...
The United States, encouraged Sri Lanka to institutionalise the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for investment in development projects, reprots Colombo Page. Speaking at Sri Lanka’s National Conference on Public Private Partnerships, US Ambassador Keshap said governments across the world are emphasising the use of PPP’s to help deliver public services, adding, “By providing training and capacity building in the areas of public private partnership[s and electronic government procurement we will be helping to create a stronger PPP enabling environment which will encourage future private...
Tamils gathered by the destroyed memorial to Lt Col Thileepan in Nallur on Monday evening to mark the 29th anniversary of his death. Laying flowers and lighting candles of remembrance, local people as well as the leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi, Mavai Senathiraja, the Northern Provincial Council chairman, CV Sivagnanam and other NPC members including the agriculture minister, P Ayngaranesan honoured Thileepan's memory in two events held during the day. Several other events were held across the North-East in recent days to mark the anniversary of his hungerstrike. The memorial which...
Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera on Thursday stressed that he would not allow the European Union's ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to be lifted despite the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recommending the ban should be dropped. “I worked hard to bring this ban in 2006 when I was the foreign minister, with the full backing of the US amid lot of struggle. We will do the same in the future to keep the LTTE ban on," he said in an interview to Ceylon News . Stating that the 10 year ban "cannot be removed so easily", Mr Samaraweera said, "there are many who are...
Hundreds of students the University of Jaffna on Monday remembered the 29th anniversary of the death of Lt Col Thileepan. Lighting candles of remembrance, students gathered to pay their respects to Thileepan, who died after 11 days hunger striking in protest at Sri Lankan state actions.
The Tamil National Alliance spokesperson, M A Sumanthiran on Sunday distanced the party from the 'Ezhuka Tamil' mass rally, in an interview with BBC Sinhala . Mr Sumanthiran said the rally, which saw thousands of Tamils marching through Jaffna demanding their rights, was unhelpful at a time when the new constitution was being drawn up and argued it would be misunderstood by the Sinhala people. Stressing that his party had advised the Tamil people against it, he reiterated that the TNA had no part in it. TNA constituent parties, including EPRLF and PLOTE did however take part in the rally,...
Sri Lanka is not afraid of a Tamil uprising in the North-East the country's state minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene told reporters a day after thousands of Tamils took part in a mass rally in Jaffna, 'Ezhuka Tamil'. Describing the demonstrators as belonging to "some extremist groups", Mr Wijewardene rejected their demard to demilitarise the North-East, stating "the government will not remove our army camps". “A harthal was organized by Northern Province CM and some extremist groups demanding the Army camps be removed. The protesters demand us not to build temples and settle foreigners...
Marking the 29th anniversary of the death of Lt. Col. Thileepan who fasted to death on hunger strike, the Tamil National Alliance held a memorial event in Kilinochchi on Sunday. The TNA MP S Sritharan took part in the event along side the TNA youth wing leader. Thileepan, a former medical student, was the political wing leader of the Jaffna district for the LTTE. On the 15th of September 1987, Thileepan took to a podium around the historic Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. Over 100,000 people had gathered to hear Thileepan outline 5 demands to the Indian government: - the release of all...