Sri Lanka government to set up an industrial city in liberated Eastern Province
Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 20:58 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Oct 04, Colombo: Sri Lanka Ministry of Industrial Development has taken steps to set up an industrial city at Kappalthurai in the Eastern Province that was recently captured from the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The cabinet has granted its approval and the feasibility report has also been approved. The surveying of a 50 acre land belonged to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority is now being carried out to set up the industrial city.
The government is to allocate Rs. 254 million at the first stage and Rs. 92 million at the second phase of the project, said a spokesman of the Ministry of Industrial Development. Government expects to open 20- 30 factories that will grant direct employment opportunities to around 1,000 and indirect employment to around 1,500.
Samurdhi poverty subsidy recipients of the area are to be deployed as labor for the construction work.

Sri Lanka turns down UN envoy's request to visit Wanni
Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 14:26 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Oct 03, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has reportedly turned down a request by the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Louise Arbour to visit LTTE stronghold, Wanni during her forthcoming visit to the country.
It is learnt that Ms. Arbour had made a request to visit the Wanni to meet LTTE leadership and get first hand information on the ground situation there.
A local daily quoting sources said that the government has turned down the request on account of security concerns. Ms Arbour will arrive here on October 9 and will be in the country till October 13.
Ms. Arbour is expected to hold discussions with the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa and other government officials.

British High Commissioner says he would change the past Sinhala-only Law in Sri Lanka
Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 14:56 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Oct 03, Colombo: British High Commissioner in Colombo Dominick Chilcott recently has said that if he got a chance he would change the Sinhala-only law in the past and make English the working language of Sri Lanka.
Speaking at the Burgher Association annual meeting in Colombo Chilcott said that successive governments in Colombo after independence introduced measures designed to discriminate in favour of Sinhala speakers and against the minority communities.
“If my fairy godmother were to grant me the power to change one thing in Sri Lanka’s recent past it would be to prevent the Sinhala-only language law from coming into force and to make English the common working language,” he said.
Stressing on the importance of English, the High Commissioner said that in the last 50 years it has become even more important than before for Sri Lankans to speak, read and write good English. “English is the gateway to the world of ideas outside Sri Lanka,” he said.
High Commissioner admitted that the colonial British administrations favored the Tamils and Burghers over the Sinhalese people as an unintended effect of the meritocratic system applied by the British.
“It is true that the Burghers and the Tamils got more senior government service jobs in proportion to their overall populations than the Sinhalese did,” Chilcott noted.