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WB urges GoSL to stay the course on reforms for recovery

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World Bank Managing Director for Operations, Anna Bjerde, concluded her four-day visit to Sri Lanka today, encouraging the Government of Sri Lanka to stay the course on reforms for recovery and sustainable growth. 

She also underscored the World Bank’s continuous commitment to investing in people, strengthening human capital, and creating jobs.

Bjerde met with Sri Lanka’s President and Minister of Finance – Ranil Wickremesinghe, cabinet ministers, representatives of opposition parties, civil society, private sector, development partners, and World Bank project beneficiaries.

She participated in a roundtable hosted by the President with key ministers, private sector representatives, and development partners—including members of the MDB+ platform, which includes Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and bilateral development partners. The platform enables member institutions to coordinate their engagement with Sri Lanka. The roundtable focused on Sri Lanka’s progress on structural reforms, mobilizing private capital for development, supporting job creation, human capital development, and regional cooperation.

As Sri Lanka recovers from a series of unprecedented shocks with devastating impacts, it is crucial to stay the course on sound and timely reforms in order to stabilize the economy while fostering economic growth that can attract investment, generate jobs, protect the poorest and most vulnerable, and build resilience to future crises. But equally important is the need to strengthen governance, citizen engagement, and social cohesion, a must for inclusive growth,” said Bjerde.

Her trip included visits to World Bank-supported projects in the Northern and North Central Provinces related to agriculture, health, climate change, private sector development, and financial inclusion for women.

“During my visit, I heard about the challenges Sri Lankans face. Skilled professionals are leaving the country, farmers are struggling to cope with a changing climate, and entrepreneurs are constrained by a lack of investment and access to credit. But I also saw huge opportunities to scale up climate-smart agriculture, harness renewable energy, boost entrepreneurship, promote competitiveness and regional connectivity,” added Bjerde. “The World Bank will continue to support Sri Lanka on its journey to recovery, connecting farmers to markets, strengthening access to healthcare, boosting innovation, pursuing transformation through infrastructure investments, and creating quality jobs for women and youth.”

The World Bank has been a partner to Sri Lanka for more than 70 years, providing financial and knowledge support to the country.

At the onset of the economic crisis in May 2022, the World Bank moved fast to help protect the people of Sri Lanka—particularly the poor and vulnerable—from the worst impacts by repurposing funds from the existing portfolio. In addition, the World Bank was one of the earliest responders to the crisis and initiated a coordination platform with the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to align emergency assistance to help sustain basic services and commodities.

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UK’s relaxed trade rules to boost SL exports

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The Government of the United Kingdom (UK) has unveiled a package of reforms to simplify imports from developing countries like Sri Lanka after upgrades to the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS).

The changes, announced as part of the UK’s wider Trade for Development offer, aim to support economic growth in partner countries, including Sri Lanka, while helping UK businesses and consumers access high-quality, affordable goods.

New measures include simplifying rules of origin, enabling more goods from countries such as Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and the Philippines can enter the UK tariff-free, even when using components from across Asia and Africa.

These changes are expected to be in place by early 2026.

This move strengthens Sri Lanka’s position in its second-largest apparel market, supporting exports, jobs, and economic growth.

The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Andrew Patrick, said: “This is a win for the Sri Lankan garment sector, and for UK consumers. With the UK being the second largest export market and garments making up over 60% of that trade, we know manufacturers here will welcome this announcement.

“We want Sri Lanka to improve the utilisation of the UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme for a wider range of goods, not just garments. With the Sri Lankan government’s ambition to grow exports, and with the simplification of rules of origin for other sectors too, we strongly encourage more exporters to explore how they can benefit from the preferences offered by the DCTS. The UK remains committed to working towards creating shared prosperity for both our countries.”

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Pakistan police arrest 149 including 2 Lankans in ‘scam call centre’ raid

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Pakistan police have arrested 149 people in a raid on a scam call centre, the country’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) said on Thursday.

The agency told the BBC it acted after a tip-off about the network, which was operating in the city of Faisalabad.

It said the centre was involved in Ponzi schemes and tricked people into handing over vast sums of money in the name of fake investments.

Those arrested included 78 Pakistanis, 48 Chinese nationals, eight Nigerians, four Filipinos, two Sri Lankans, six Bangladeshis, two Myanmar nationals and one Zimbabwean national.
Eighteen of the 149 were women, the agency added.

A copy of a police report said victims of the alleged scam would initially receive a small return on their first investments, before being persuaded to hand over larger sums of money.

“The charged individuals ran WhatsApp groups where they lured ordinary people by assigning small investment tasks like subscribing to different TikTok and YouTube channels,” the agency said.

“Later, they shifted them to Telegram links for further online tasks requiring larger investments.”

Pakistani citizen Muhammad Sajid told BBC Urdu that he was added to a Telegram channel with tens of thousands of members and was impressed by the company’s work. He said he gave them more than 3.138 million rupees ($36,600) in various instalments.

The raid, which took place on Tuesday, saw authorities seize hundreds of computers, servers, cryptocurrency exchanges and foreign SIM cards from the site.

On Wednesday, 149 suspects appeared in court, 87 of whom were handed over to the NCCIA on a five-day physical remand.

A further 62 suspects have been transferred to the district jail on judicial remand until 23 July.

The agency said the raid was at the residence of Malik Tehseen Awan, the former head of Faisalabad’s power grid, who has not been arrested.

(BBC News)

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Milk tea price upped by Rs. 10

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The All Island Canteen and Restaurant Owners’ Association has announced a Rs. 10 increase in the price of a cup of milk tea.

Association President Harshana Rukshan stated that the decision was made in response to the recent rise in the price of imported milk powder.

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