Photograph: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica

The European Commission announced it is to sign two new support programmes worth €38 million to support ‘rural development’ in the Central and Uva Provinces of the island.

The announcement was made as EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, arrived for a three day visit where he is to meet with senior government officials.

A European Commission press release quoted Mr Mimica as saying the “EU has made an important contribution in providing humanitarian assistance and reconstruction support to help Sri Lanka recover from the war and the tsunami”.

“Now our focus is on providing long-term support towards poverty reduction and local economic development,” he added. “We have a new opportunity to support governance and reconciliation efforts and help address the root causes of the conflict in Sri Lanka.”

€30 million will go towards a single project entitled ‘Integrated Rural Development in the Most Vulnerable Districts of the Central and Uva Provinces’, which is designed to “improve livelihoods and household incomes, as well as access to drinking water and healthcare services for the most vulnerable of the population in Sri Lanka”.

The remaining €8 million “will go towards trade related assistance to help Sri Lanka reap the benefits of further integration into the global and regional trading system,” said the press release.

Meanwhile Lanka Business Online quoted Mr Mimica as saying it was the “correct time” to help the Sri Lankan government regain the GSP+ tariff preferences.

The Sri Lankan army oversaw Tamils in Jaffna who held a religious ceremony at a temple located in a High Security Zone (HSZ) earlier this month.

Hundreds of devotees, including TNA MP Mavai Senathirajah, were boarded onto military buses and escorted to and from the Manampirai Pillayar Temple and Naga Temple, situated within the Palali Army Cantonments.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has questioned the countries downgrading by two major credit rating agencies over the past weeks.

Standard & Poor's ratings agency lowered the outlook on Sri Lanka’s 'B+' long-term sovereign credit rating to negative from stable, citing rising fiscal and external imbalances, earlier this week. The downgrade came after Fitch also took the step to downgrade outlook to B+.

According to the Sunday Times, the PM's reaction to the renewed blows to the country's stumbling economy was,

“There were dead bodies scattered around. How did they not discover this earlier? Why such ratings now?”

Sri Lanka to impose new taxes after credit rating downgrades (14 March 2016)

Another ratings agency downgrades Sri Lanka (11 March 2016)

Sri Lanka finance minister dismisses Fitch Ratings downgrade (01 March 2016)

A government minister said the inclusion of foreign judges in a judicial mechanism to address accountability, as laid out in a resolution by the UN Human Rights Council, would be "unconstitutional".

Skills Development Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said President Maithripala Sirisena had ruled out any foreign participation and insisted that there could not be any doubt over this. The minister accompanied President Sirisena during his European tour last month and is known to be an informal advisor on foreign affairs to the president.

Getting adequate foreign direct investment (FDI) of the right types has eluded the country for many decades. While former communist countries like Vietnam have attracted sizeable amounts of FDI, Sri Lanka continues to get an inadequate flow of FDI.
The statistics of the amount of FDI received are flawed as they contain other capital inflows. Even the exaggerated figures are low and inadequate. The country has reached a turning point when the attraction of much higher amounts of FDI is vital to sustain the growth momentum.

Obtaining much higher amounts of the right types of FDI will determine the pace of economic growth in the next decade. Much higher FDI is essential as the country’s investment resources are limited and technological capacities have to be augmented to capture export markets.

DMK President M Karunanidhi said the Indian government must act on the issue of Tamil Nadu fishermen being arrested by the Sri Lankan navy, in a statement on Tuesday.

"When compared to India, Sri Lanka is a small country,” said Mr Karunanidhi.

“Should not the big country India put an end to the atrocities of the Sri Lankan navy. Where there is a will, there is a way.”

The Sri Lankan army ceremoniously declared open a Buddhist shrine in Kilinochchi with a religious ceremony in the Tamil North-East on Monday.

An official military website boasted that the shrine had been built “within a short period of time” following the planting of a branch of a Bodhi tree at the military headquarters on January 2nd 2016.

“In this invaluable religious programme was arranged under the direction of Commander, Security Forces - Kilinochchi and opening ceremony were lined with a religious event like Perahera and Bodhi Pooja Pinkama,” said the website.