Author: TELO Admin

China attended as an observer the first meeting of Sri Lanka’s creditor nations on Tuesday, offering policymakers some hope Beijing will become more engaged in talks to resolve debt woes of low- and middle-income countries across the world.

The meeting, within a new framework launched in Washington D.C. in April that creditors hope will serve as a model to resolve the debt difficulties of middle-income economies, was held online.

Japan, which initiated the launch together with India and France, invited all bilateral creditors, including the largest, China.

Masato Kanda, Japan’s top financial diplomat, told reporters after the meeting that China attended as an observer, adding he hoped it would participate as a full member in future meetings.

Last month, France, India and Japan unveiled a common platform for talks among bilateral creditors to co-ordinate restructuring of Sri Lanka’s debt.

Sri Lanka owes $7.1 billion to bilateral creditors, government data show, with $3 billion owed to China, followed by $2.4 billion to the Paris Club of creditor nations and $1.6 billion to India.

The government also needs to renegotiate more than $12 billion of debt in eurobonds with overseas private creditors, and $2.7 billion of other commercial loans.

Sri Lanka has kicked off talks to rework part of its domestic debt and aims to finalise a deal by May.

Source – Reuters

The coordination committee meeting between the TNA alliance parties of TELO,PLOTE,EPRLF,TPLK and Ex Militant party was held Saturday( 6-05-23)evening at Tilco Private Guest House in Jaffna.

In this meeting, the party’s constitution and district level activities were discussed

In addition, they said that the members of Parliament of Eastern Province should also be invited in the upcoming discussions on 11th, 12th and 13th, and if they are not invited, they will not participate in the talks.

This discussion is scheduled to be held focusing on resolving the ‘ethnic problem’ in the country and decentralising power.

10 United Nations Special Rapporteurs have written an official letter to President Ranil Wickremesinghe regarding the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill and Rehabilitation Bill in Sri Lanka. The letter highlights their concerns regarding the potential impact of these bills on human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Special Rapporteurs have raised several issues concerning the recently proposed ATA, published on March 17th, 2023. The ATA represents the latest development of the Sri Lankan Government’s legislative amendments in response to the challenges posed by the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979 (PTA) and the Rehabilitation Bill passed by the Sri Lankan Parliament on January 18th, 2023.

The Special Rapporteurs have called on the Sri Lankan government to employ definitions of terrorism that comply with international norms and to ensure precision and legal certainty, especially when this legislation may impact the rights of freedom of expression, opinion, association, and religion or belief.

The letter also calls for provisions and measures to prevent and prohibit arbitrary deprivation of liberty, the enforcement of measures to prevent torture and enforced disappearance, and adherence to non-derogable prohibitions. Additionally, overarching due process and fair trial guarantees are called for.

The letter was signed by the following Special Rapporteurs: Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Mathew Gillett, Aua Baldé, Irene Khan, Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, Mary Lawlor, Margaret Satterthwaite, Fernand de Varennes, Nazila Ghanea, and Alice Jill Edwards.

It is important to note that the revisions to the draft Rehabilitation Bill following a decision of the Supreme Court would not adhere in certain regards to fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and would place many of its provisions in direct contradiction with the international human rights law obligations of the Sri Lankan Government.

The World Bank has warned Sri Lanka of possible worsening of poverty if the crisis-hit island nation fails to address the needs of vulnerable groups when it implements painful adjustments in line with reforms for a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.

According to the World Bank report, poverty has already doubled last year with higher inflation and rising unemployment.

“The negative economic outlook for 2023 and 2024 and adverse effects of revenue-mobilizing reforms could worsen poverty projections,” the World Bank said in the latest report on Sri Lanka’s poverty situation released last month.

“Mitigating these negative effects on the poor and vulnerable will remain critical during the adjustment. At the same time, a recovery and expansion of wage employment in the services and industry sectors will be key to shift employment from lower-paying agricultural jobs and make a dent on poverty.”

The multilateral lending agency also said rising inequality is also a concern while poverty in Urban areas has tripled and rural areas doubled.

“Poverty is projected to remain above 25 percent in the next few years due to the multiple risks to households’ livelihoods,” it said.

The increase in poverty comes after the island nation declared an unprecedented sovereign debt default in April last year following two years of Covid-19 controls. The default cut off the island nation’s access to all external fundings and hit its external trade.

Nearly 13 people out of 100 have been under the poverty line in 2020, increasing from 12 in the previous year. The number rose to 13 in 2021 and almost doubled to 25 last year, the World Bank report said.

“This increase has added an additional 2.5 million people into poverty in 2022.”

It said many households were impacted from different fronts as prices rose by 46 percent last year, jobs in services and industry contracted, pushing workers to lower-paying agricultural jobs. The decline in remittances also had hit the income level.

The income from agriculture also contracted due to an overnight ban on chemical fertilizers by the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2021. The move, among many others, also led to mass public protests that led to ousting Rajapaksa.

The world bank data indicated that households experiencing food insecurity are reducing their spending on health and education, a move that could result in poor human resources in the future.

The rise in food insecurity has also led to increases in malnutrition and stunting – up from 7.4 percent in 2021 to 9.4 percent in 2022, the report said.

According to the Central bank data, the updated national poverty line for Sri Lanka surged to 13,777 rupees in 2022, registering an annual increase of 74 percent.

A World Food Program survey has revealed 85 percent of the population was estimated to be relying on livelihood based coping strategies, such as borrowing money, reducing spending on education and health, spending savings, or deferring due debt payments.

Sri Lanka’s main opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balavega (SJB) has decided to put forward a candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

This decision was taken at the party’s working committee meeting held today (08).

In order to ensure that candidate’s victory, it has also been decided to build a broad alliance led by the ‘Samagi Jana Balawegaya’ and to delegate power to opposition leader Sajith Premadasa for this purpose.

Meanwhile, it has also been decided meeting to vest the necessary authority with party leader Sajith Premadasa to take disciplinary action against any member who opposes the decisions of the party’s working committee.

The National Delimitation Committee has received almost 400 proposals from various parties regarding its interim report, according to its Chairman, Mahinda Deshapriya. He added that his team is currently analyzing and reviewing the suggestions and will soon share their observations with the relevant stakeholders.

In April, the interim report of the National Delimitation Committee was submitted to the Prime Minister, and the deadline for political parties, civil society activists, and other interested groups to submit their proposals on the interim report concluded on April 27.

The National Delimitation Committee will consider the proposals submitted by the stakeholders in the final report preparation. The committee’s final report is expected to be submitted around the third week of May, as per Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya.

The National Delimitation Committee was formed in 2020 with the objective of reducing the number of local government members to around 4,000. This move is expected to streamline the administration and ensure more efficient governance at the local level.