News

Over 400 engineers leave country; 300 more to follow

Published

8 months ago

February 10, 2023

editor

About 300 engineers are already making arrangements to leave the country due to heavy taxes imposed by the government, Association of Public Service Engineers (APSE) President S. P. C. Sugeeshwara said.

Speaking to the media, he said that the total number of engineers in the government service was 1,536, of which 436 have already left the country.

He warned that the engineering service in Sri Lanka will face a serious crisis from mid-2023 and the development activities including construction of roads, irrigation canals and buildings especially belonging to provincial councils and local governments will be hampered by about 50%.

He pointed out that engineers have decided to leave the country due to unfair taxes, increased interest rates for bank loans, unbearably high prices of essential consumer goods, and increased prices of medicines.

He said that there is a risk of complete collapse of large-scale constructions from next year due to the shortage of engineers. “It is also uncertain whether those who left the country will send foreign exchange into the country, which will lead to a setback in achieving the government’s target,” he said.

Mr. Sugeeshwara said that some engineers are preparing to leave the country with their families including their children in order to give them better education.

News

Govt. to set up mechanism to prevent & control forest fires

Published

10 mins ago

September 26, 2023

editor

Taking into consideration the number of forest fires reported in the recent past, the Cabinet has approved a proposal to implement a programme to prevent the occurrence of forest fires and extinguish forest fires.

Government said that there is a rapidly increasing risk of forest fire caused by man-made fires around forests, especially during dry weather conditions.

“This situation is common in Badulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Monaragala, Polonnaruwa, Kurunegala, Puttalam and Rathnapura Districts. The number of forest fires reported so far this year is about 150. As a result, around 2,600 hectares of forests have been destroyed,” it said.

Accordingly, the Cabinet approved a proposal presented by the Forest and Wildlife Conservation Minister to implement a programme with the support of the government and other relevant parties from the national-level to the rural-level to prevent the occurrence of forest fires and extinguish forest fires.

News

Cabinet approves proposal to obtain USD 200mn from ADB

Published

16 mins ago

September 26, 2023

editor

The Cabinet has approved a proposal to obtain an amount of USD 200 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) subject to an annual interest rate of 2%.

Initial discussions between the ADB and the Sri Lankan Government were held to obtain two loan facilities worth USD 200 million each based on policies to implement two sub-programmes under the economic stabilization and reformation programme.

It has been proposed to implement accelerated reformations to enhance the conflict management framework and the stabilization in the finance sector under the first sub-programme while it has been proposed to develop an all-inclusive resistant finance system under the second sub-programme.

Accordingly, the proposal submitted by the President as the Minister of Finance, to enter into a loan agreement with the ADB to obtain USD 200 million with a repaying period of 25 years inclusive of a grace period of 05 years in relation to the first sub-programme, was approved by the Cabinet.