Ranil warns govt on remittance dependency

Ranil Wickremasinghe

Leader of the House and Minister of Irrigation and Water Resource Management, Nimal Siripala de Silva says that although Sri Lanka’s private sector has done very well in certain areas in the past, they lagged behind in areas such as social responsibility where they could play a wider role in helping the government reduce income inequality and human resource development.

Addressing corporate leaders at the Business Today Top 25 Awards ceremony held at the Colombo Hilton last week, the Minister noted that with the war being over, the island now faces a bigger challenge on how it could push the poor people, who are below the poverty line, to the middle income group.

Sri Lanka's big corporates lack export hunger - Hilmy

The head of international management consultancy firm, MTI Consulting, Hilmy Cader claims that one of the reasons why Sri Lanka does not perform well in its export industry is because the island’s big corporates lack hunger for exports. Addressing a forum  organized by the Exporters’ Association of Sri Lanka, Cader analyzing the top 40 CSE capitalized companies said that out of the top 40, only three companies have a significant dependence on International income whilst the others are not entirely dependent except for Carsons, Hayleys and Colombo Dockyard.

Tussle shifts to Deputy as Kalmunai Mayor bows down

Newly appointed KMC Mayor Nizam Kariyapper (extreme right) shakes hands with a little dejected former Mayor Siraz Meerasahib in the presence of SLMC Leader Rauff Hakeem and SLMC General Secretary Hasan Ali

The dispute for the Mayoral position in the Kalmunai Municipal Council (KMC) came to a grinding halt on Friday morning with the incumbent Siraz Meerasahib finally tendering his resignation letter to the Party Leader Minister Rauff Hakeem. Hours after Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader received the letter at his residence in Colombo, Minister Hakeem convened a press conference at 'Darussalam', the SLMC headquarters in Colombo elevating the Mayoral position to Attorney-at-Law and senior party member Nizam Kariyapper who had been functioning as the Deputy Mayor at the Council.

The SLMC was earlier planning to oust Meerasahib by defeating him at the forthcoming Budget to be presented at the Council as he was first biding time and then refusing to step down as requested by the SLMC Leader who then issued him an October 31 ultimatum.