Priority for Eastern development - President’s Secretary
COLOMBO:

The valiant Security Forces, with their victories in the East and elsewhere, are making every effort to create an environment where all communities can live in harmony sans fear and suspicion, Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga said yesterday.
Addressing a function held at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday to express the gratitude of the Nation to the Security Forces, Weeratunga said their immense dedication will help build a peaceful, prosperous country.
He said the Government had an enormous task ahead to rebuild the East and turn it once more into a prosperous, developed region. Terrorism has rendered it one of the poorest, least developed areas in the country but the Government was determined to change this picture for the better.
He noted that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had already started the Negenahira Navodaya (Eastern Resurgence) programme with this aim in mind and all Lankans should extend their fullest support to this programme irrespective of petty political and other differences.
This endeavour will make the Security Forces’ sacrifice more meaningful.
He also recalled the services rendered to the East by Chief Secretary Herath Abeyweera, who was assassinated by an unknown gunman in Trincomalee. It is an irreparable loss for the Eastern people. “The biggest tribute we can pay him is continuing the development plans he envisaged for the Province.”
He assured that the Government would develop the Eastern Province and all other backward provinces through an accelerated programme

Credit for creating split in LTTE
Saturday, July 21,2007 COLOMBO:

UNP MP Lakshman Seneviratne said in Parliament Friday that Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe should be held in high esteem for creating a split in the LTTE through peace initiatives. Seneviratne noted this matter while speaking during the debate to pay tribute to the security forces for the liberation of Thoppigala from the Tigers.He said that Karuna broke away from the organization under these circumstances, and therefore everyone should give credit to Wickremesinghe.“I would like to request the JVP to keep that in mind before making allegations against him,” he said.He asked as to why the LTTE prevented people from exercising their franchise at the last Presidential Election if there was a deal between the UNP and them as alleged by some elements. He said security forces who have been injured during the operations in the East should realize they were injured by the bullets which were bought with the money given to LTTE by the present government. Seneviratne charged that the SLFP led PA government of 1994 sacrificed the entire East just to secure 4 percent of the LTTE held area in the North. He said President Mahinda Rajapaksa who gave money to the LTTE is considered a hero, while the Opposition leader who did not give a cent to them is considered a traitor. Quoting former Indian Prime Minister Javaharlal Nehru he said ‘the false patriot is more dangerous that any one else’. UNP MP Johnston Fernando said over Rs 40 million had been spent for the ‘Eastern Rising’ programme which was held at Independence Square on Thursday. He said the UNP would come up with all the relevant details of this wastage of public funds soon. The UNP also alleged that officers of the security forces, who were sent to schools to talk about their success, have been instructed not to talk of past military operations in the East.

Sun, 22 July 2007 1:48:40
LBO >> Commodities Food Business 21 July 2007 06:13:47
Sri Lanka offers state land to agribusiness in profit sharing deal

July 21, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka is ready to give free land to agribusiness companies for cultivation on a profit sharing basis, a government minister said Friday.
Minister of Agriculture Hemakumara Nanayakkara said the government was keen to meet the long-standing request by agribusiness for land from the government.
State Land
"The private sector is in the process of getting a great deal of land from the Nuwara Eliya district (in the central hills)," he said in a speech at the opening of the Ag-Biz trade fair for national agribusiness.
The trade fair and exhibition, organized by the National Agribusiness Council (NAC) and the Sri Lanka Food processors Associations (SLFPA), opened on Friday at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Centre.
The organizations represent entrepreneurs involved in planting and growing, to processing and packaging and machinery and equipment and service providers.
The trade fair covers a range of products and services from food and beverage products, food ingredients, and bakery products to retailing. Nanayakkara invited entrepreneurs to contact the ministry to get their land requirements fulfilled.
"There are government farms with large extents of land which are not cultivated. We are ready to help the private sector and to give these lands on a profit sharing basis."
No lease rentals will be charged so a company, during the gestation period of its business project, will not incur large sums of money, he said. The government proposes to get into agribusiness joint ventures with the private sector.
The government will not get involved in management since it believes management of business is best left in the hands of the private sector, Nanayakkara said.
The government expects to get 51 percent of the net profits of such joint ventures with the private sector retaining the balance.
"The government will provide land and infrastructure and the private sector will have to supply the capital and labour."
Win Win
Nanayakkara urged agribusiness companies and food processors to visit farms before the monsoon rains and meet farmers before they begin cultivation and land preparation and tell them the type of products required, the quality and quantities.
The private firms would have to provide seed and other inputs. It was important to maintain high quality levels, Nanayakkara also said. "If not our products would get routed by foreign competition."
Food processors and agribusiness firms should strive to give farmers, who make up 80 percent of the population and are the poorest of the poor, a better deal, Nanayakkara said.
"If we give them a fair deal they will do a better job – be more dynamic and produce high quality farm products."
Private companies doing food processing should enter into formal trade agreements with farmers.
"I am interested in forming farmer companies, not farmer co-operatives," Nanayakkara said, giving the example of how in Canada the price of lettuce is determined by farmer companies.
"Here farmers are at the mercy of traders and middlemen," he said.
Though middlemen-bashing is a favourite political ploy, analysts say they form an important link by taking rural farm produce to the cities from cultivators.
They run enormous risks as prices fluctuate between the time of purchase from the village to the time of delivery in a city wholesale market.
Government attempts to get into agro marketing through various organizations such as the Paddy Marketing Board, Marketing Department and the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment ended in bankruptcy and high cost to the tax payer.
Retail Direct
But now the situation was changing with companies like Cargills going to the farmers' fields to buy their produce, eliminating the middlemen.
Nanayakkara also said the high cost of production of all agricultural produce was a serious problem.
This was because input costs such as seed, fertilizer and transport are very high.
Even India subsidises seed and planting materials, and fertilizer, and some states provide free electricity to farmers.
The government would like to offer similar subsidies but cannot do so because of the high cost of the war if not for which a lot more funds would be available to support agriculture, Nanayakkara said.
Lowering the cost of food production would lower retail prices for consumers and perhaps reduce regular trade union demands for pay hikes, he added.
Sri Lanka's inflation rose to 20 percent last year as the government printed 38.5 billion to bridge the budget deficit, giving state workers a hefty pay rise costing 40 billion rupees.
The Central Bank said the real wages of all agricultural sector workers dropped 0.3 - 5.4 percent in 2006 and 6.6 - 12.9 per cent in the previous year.
The salaries of government sector workers rose by 30.5 percent, almost 10 percent over inflation in 2006.
After causing the inflation, authorities raised minimum wages in early 2007.
At one time Sri Lanka nationalized private tea, rubber and coconut plantations and later privatized them after they started to make losses under state ownership.
Meanwhile poor farmers who own paddy land are also banned from shifting land to more lucrative uses under Sri Lankan law.

Sun, 22 July 2007 1:55:21 LBO >> Finance Nobody Told 21 July 2007 13:42:27
Sri Lanka's sacked ministers yet to complain says terror-finance

sleuths July 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's terror finance sleuths said two former ministers who had made claims about money being paid to Tamil Tigers are yet to complain to the unit that is charged with probing terrorist finance. "We are not aware what these transactions are that have been transpired," said Joan de Zilva, consultant to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a specialist office setup to counter terrorist finance and money laundering.
She was responding to questions at a public forum whether the unit was probing allegations made by sacked ministers Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Sooriyarachchi that cash had been paid by the ruling party to Tamil Tigers to prevent people in the areas under their control from voting in the last presidential polls.
The inability of Tamils in north-eastern areas under Tiger control to vote is seen as having helped President Mahinda Rajapakse to win the poll by a narrow margin.
The Tamil voters had been seen as being more sympathetic to Rajapakse's main rival, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The FIU, which is a part of Sri Lanka's central bank, held a seminar Friday to educate the public and the banking sector and others who may gain information on terrorist finance or money laundering to report suspicious activities.
"I am not sure even if they are aware of their obligations to report," de Zilva said. "This is a public awareness seminar to create awareness among the public." Officials said persons could report suspicious activity in writing or email if they were satisfied that a transaction was suspicious and they acted in good faith.
Representatives of Sri Lanka's Attorney General's Department who are helping the unit prosecute offenders, said suspicious information that persons come across in the course of their professional work have to be reported to authorities.
This will allow them to avoid charges of helping illegal activities later.