Category: Watch Tower
Entrepreneurs in Jaffna? Take a look in Ammachi!
By Jekhan Aruliah Soon after I moved to Jaffna in 2015 I heard rumours of this fantastic food court run by war widows. Friends driving North from Colombo said they found it somewhere on the A9 near Killinochchi in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. It was a year before I actually got round to visiting the […]
Opinion: Sri Lankan rupee under pressure – How not to crack
By Economic Intelligence Unit of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce The Sri Lankan currency (LKR) has weakened against the US dollar in 2018 (9.4% as at 26 September 2018) with close to 4% of the depreciation being recorded in the last two weeks.Currencies like the Indian rupee, Indonesian rupiah and Philippines peso have also seen steep […]
OPINION: 90,000 Northern families in shanties or homeless. What happened to Govt. promised housing?
By Jekhan Aruliah In October last year I had the privilege of participating in the blessing of a new water well in the Killinochchi District of the Northern Province. Its construction had been funded by the UK based charity Child Aid Lanka. The family on whose land the well is built, together with neighbours who […]
Opinion: A response to article “Pulling back the curtain on privatization of plantation sector”
By Devaka Wickramasuriya I have read with much interest the recent article where Dr. Romesh Bandaranaike has shared his “unique perspective” of Sri Lanka’s plantations. At the outset, I totally disagree with Dr. Bandaranaike’s contention that privatization was necessary as the plantations were the biggest source of political patronage in the country. While some political interference […]
OPINION: The Sri Lankan tourist industry’s ignorance of the North starts at the top
By Jekhan Aruliah I must first congratulate the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority (SLTDA) before I criticise it. Just a few days after the publication of my article in June 2018 complaining their “Sri Lanka Tourist Attractions” map showed nothing in the Northern Province other than Jaffna’s airport, the SLTDA replaced that barren old map. […]
Opinion: SOAR’ing through the Cloud in Sri Lanka
By Chandita Samaranayake, Head of Application at Oracle – Sri Lanka, Indochina, and the Maldives The cloud, since its inception, has expanded and evolved into one of the biggest paradigm shifts in the computer age. It is changing how businesses run and people work, it is creating new categories and disrupting existing categories, and it is […]
Opinion: Northern Province Tourism? Is there more in the North than just Jaffna’s airport?
By Jekhan Aruliah According to the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority’s (SLTDA) map of “Tourist Attractions” at the time of writing this post, the only attraction in the Northern Province is the airport in Jaffna. I suppose we should be grateful the map at least has the airport. The SLTDA map shows the rest of the […]
Opinion: Importance of Financial Reporting for Transparency
By Nishan Fernando Corporate Reporting Bushman, Piotroski and Smith (2003) identified that the availability of information was considered to be a key determinant of the efficiency of resource allocation decisions and growth in an economy. Availability of information is linked to corporate transparency, defined as the widespread availability of firm-specific information to those stakeholders outside […]
Opinion: How China is turning bad loans into strategic investments
China’s Debtbook Diplomacy: How China is Turning Bad Loans into Strategic Investments Belt and Road is not the Marshall Plan: it’s comprised of loans, not grants, and China expects a return for its money By Sam Parker and Gabrielle Chefitz Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China is extending hundreds of billions of dollars in […]
Opinion: Towards a Common Future: a revitalised & relevant Commonwealth
By James Dauris – British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka The recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London brought together leaders representing the interests of 2.4 billion people, nearly one third of the world’s population. Sri Lanka is no stranger to CHOGM. It hosted the meeting in 2013 and President Sirisena led the delegation to […]
Opinion: In defence of international values; Salisbury was a lawless attack
By Tom Burn (Acting High Commissioner, British High Commission Colombo) On a quiet Sunday in one of Britain’s most beautiful cathedral cities, a father and daughter were struck down by the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War. Sergei and Yulia Skripal are still lying stricken in hospital. […]
Opinion: Northern poverty and poor health reduced by lessons from wartime foraging
By Jekhan Aruliah The British author Charles Dickens created a character, Mr.Micawber, who was permanently in debt. Translated into a Sri Lankan context, Micawber famously made the point: “Daily income Rs1,000, daily expenditure Rs990, result Happiness. Daily income Rs1,000, daily expenditure Rs1,010, result Misery”. Simply put, Micawber said if your income is more than your […]