An Indian delegation led by the Ministry of Mines, comprising representatives from leading Indian public sector mining companies, visited Sri Lanka’s key mining sites and met the island nation’s top officials as it explored potential collaborations in the mines and minerals sector.

The delegation met Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development.

The members of the delegation also held discussions with the Chairpersons of key Sri Lankan mineral sector State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), including Kahatagaha Graphite Lanka Ltd., Lanka Mineral Sands Ltd., Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB), and Lanka Phosphate Ltd., among others, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement.

They also met with the Director General of the Board of Investment (BOI) and other senior government officials.

“The purpose of the visit was to explore investment and collaboration opportunities, promote technical cooperation in advanced mining technologies, and discuss joint initiatives for value addition in the mineral sector,” it said.

The visit was after the initial meeting between India’s Union Minister of State for Coal & Mines Shri Satish Chandra Dubey and Handunnetti held on 15 February 2025 in New Delhi on enhancing cooperation in the minerals sector.

“The Indian delegation also undertook site visits to key mining locations in Sri Lanka, gaining valuable insights into the operational landscape and exploring areas for future collaboration.”

According to the state-run Board of Investment (BOI) data, Sri Lanka has 7.5 million metric tons (MT) of Ilmenite/Rutile/Zircon deposits in both Eastern coastal town of Pulmudai in Trincomalee district and Northwestern coastal town of Puttalam, 45,000 MT of graphite, and 60 million MT of Apatite.

Both India and Pakistan are given market access to the deposits with duty concession under Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISLFTA) and Pakistan-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (PSLFTA) with 100 percent duty free for any machinery related to the mining business.

The previous government attempted to finalize 10 mining companies which have been looking to invest in the island nation’s mining for a long time with some changes to the mining regulation, but it could not complete the process before its electoral defeat in September 2024.

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Cabinet in August 2023 approved several proposals aimed at promoting foreign and local investment in the country’s mineral industry to boost revenues in a sector which has been long dragged by corruption.

The previous government changed a key regulation which said companies given mining approval should start value addition from day 1.

The regulation changed to allow mining companies to export the minerals either for 24 months or a maximum 30 percent of the grids without value addition. The licensee then could put up a value addition plant.

Sri Lanka exports the minerals to the United States, United Kingdom, China, India, and Pakistan. The island nation earned around $25 million in 2024, less than half it exported in 2022, Central Bank data showed.

India has been eyeing Sri Lanka’s mineral resource rich port district for decades.

A mineral sand deposit in Sri Lanka’s northern part contains Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, Monazite, Garnet, Sillimanite, and other heavy minerals, Export Development Board (EDB) data shows.

In a letter addressed to R.M.A.L. Rathnayake, Chairman of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka,
political analyst and columnist Kusal Perera has accused the Commission of deliberately stalling the long-overdue Provincial Council (PC) elections under the guise of legal ambiguity.

The letter, sent on Tuesday, follows a report published in The Morning (link:- PC Polls: Government yet to consult EC) on 20 May, which quoted Chairman Rathnayake as saying that the PC elections could only be held if either the delimitation process is completed or the existing election law is amended to revert to the old system.

Perera, however, contends that this interpretation misrepresents the current legal framework.
Referring to the still-active Provincial Councils Elections Act No. 02 of 1988, he argues that there is no legal void preventing the Commission from proceeding with the elections.

“This argument is an old and invalid one that was also used by your predecessor, Mahinda Deshapriya, to align with the political agenda of the ruling government. It is not the responsibility of the EC and its Chairman to intervene in making new law. Their responsibility is to deliver on existing law. That’s precisely what the EC is not doing,” he noted.

Perera pointed out that Parliament’s failure to pass amendments or conclude the delimitation process does not nullify the existing legislation. “It is common knowledge that until a new law is enacted and signed by the Speaker, the existing law remains valid,” he said.

The delay in holding PC elections has been a point of contention for years, with no elections held since the terms of the councils lapsed in 2018.

Critics argue that the postponement undermines democratic representation at the provincial level and disenfranchises millions of voters.

Calling on the Commission to act independently and uphold its constitutional mandate, Perera urged the Election Commission to announce a date for the elections without further delay. “As an ‘independent commission,’ your responsibility to the taxpayer… is to ensure his or her sovereign right is not infringed upon, on invalid arguments and for political interests.”

All political parties and independent groups have been requested once again to promptly provide details of all elected members for local government bodies based on the results of the recently concluded election.

Chairman of the National Election Commission R.M.A.L. Rathnayake noted that once the relevant information is received, steps will be taken to publish the names of the elected members in the Gazette according to the respective local government bodies.

Meanwhile, Chairman R.M.A.L. Rathnayake also stated that all candidates, political parties, and independent groups who have not submitted their income and expenditure reports related to the local government elections should submit the relevant documents before May 27.

In the wake of the Sri Lankan government preparing for offshore petroleum exploration , a leading Norwegian expert in the field , said that it is a risky investment when the world is moving towards renewable energy sources more and more.

In an interview with Daily Mirror, he said Prof. Peter Mosby Haugan who is the Policy Director of Institute of Marine Research and University of Bergen in Norway, struck a note of caution against investment in the upstream petroleum development. He arrived in Sri Lanka to attend an international seminar organized by Pathfinder Foundation.

“It is a risky investment. It takes time. That also takes time to develop. You invest in infrastructure which only requires you to use it for a long time. If you invest in an oil platform or if you invest in a pipeline, it is very (19:48) costly. Then you are trapped a little bit. In that economy, this will still continue,” he said.

And at the same time, he said renewable energy and solar panels are becoming less expensive.

“We see solar panels and other renewable energy becoming less expensive. So, I would be careful in investing in petroleum,” he said.

Earlier, the government said that it would go for international biddings for investment in offshore petroleum exploration. The government is looking for a marketing consultant ahead of starting a new licensing round for offshore oil and gas exploration blocks in Mannar basin. Cabinet approval has also been given in this regard.

An exploration and drilling conducted by Cairn Sri Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Cairn India (Private) Company, in 2011, found 2 natural gas deposits and the existence of a viable hydrocarbon system in the M2 exploration block of the Basin.

The Sri Lankan Government has been urged by Human Rights Watch to stop pretending domestic initiatives are working and instead demonstrate its commitment to accountability by backing a UN resolution on Sri Lanka.

Last weekend, Tamils in Sri Lanka gathered to commemorate those who died or went missing in the country’s civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2009. As they have for the last 16 years, they also called for justice.

“Despite overwhelming evidence gathered by the United Nations and human rights groups of war crimes and human rights abuses by state security forces, successive governments have failed to launch any credible accountability process. Meanwhile, Tamil activists and victim communities continue to face repression and other violations,” Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Meenakshi Ganguly said.

The war between the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government was marked by widespread violations by both sides.

“As the Sri Lankan military closed in on the LTTE, eventually defeating them on May 18, 2009, soldiers committed summary executions, rape, and forcible disappearances of hundreds of surrendered combatants. The military indiscriminately shelled civilians who were trapped in the combat zone by the LTTE, which used them as human shields,” Human Rights Watch said.

In last year’s elections, many Tamils voted for Anura Kumara Dissanayake for president, hoping he would break from previous administrations and address the legacy of repression and discrimination. They have been disappointed.

The Dissanayake government has backed failed initiatives of previous governments, including the Office on Missing Persons, the Office for Reparations, and the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation, which have made little if any progress. These institutions have been rejected by many victims’ families, who see them as part of a pattern of failed promises, HRW said.

Meanwhile, the government has kept in place the abusive Prevention of Terrorism Act, long used to target Tamils. The government had pledged to repeal this draconian law, including to the European Union as a condition to keep tariff-free access to the EU market under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+).

The UN Human Rights Council mandated that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report and monitor progress on accountability, and establish the Sri Lanka Accountability Project to gather evidence of international crimes for use in future prosecutions. Those mandates are due for renewal in September. Given the lack of progress in Sri Lanka, renewal is vital to hold perpetrators of international crimes accountable. The Dissanayake government has opposed the council’s intervention as “divisive and intrusive.”

HRW said that instead of pretending that discredited domestic initiatives are working, the government should demonstrate its commitment to accountability by backing the resolution to renew the Accountability Project, and work towards delivering justice at last

Longstanding apparel manufacturer and buyer NEXT has announced the closure of its Katunayake production unit with immediate effect citing high operating cost.

The closure will result in 1,416 redundancies overall. Despite shutting down the plant at Katunayake Export Processing Zone, NEXT will continue operations at two of its other plants in Andigama and Nawgaththegama. The embellishment and product development plants, which are also based in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone, will remain operational but with reduced numbers of employees Colombo sourcing office and operations will not be affected too.

NEXT Manufacturing is the leading supplier of high quality knitted and woven wear to parent company, next PLC UK, one of Britain’s high-street fashion retailers. The company has been in Sri Lanka since 1994.

“After much careful consideration, we are very sad to announce the immediate closure of the NEXT Manufacturing Katunayake Production Plant, Sri Lanka. This has been a very difficult decision for the Company and has been taken after exploring all alternative options,” NEXT Manufacturing Director David Reay said in an announcement.

“At the heart of this decision is the increasingly high operating cost of the Katunayake Manufacturing Plant. For some years now, the plant has been unprofitable, and despite our considerable efforts to rectify the situation, we have been unable to make the factory economically viable. Recently, it has become clear that there is no prospect of this changing,” he added.

“We would like to reassure our remaining colleagues that no further redundancies in Sri Lanka are planned or foreseen by NEXT Manufacturing,” Reay assured.

According to him, NEXT will be working to help those leaving the company to find alternative local employment. To this end, NEXT will be contacting other local production sites to help find alternative employment opportunities for those affected.

In recognition of NEXT Manufacturing history in Sri Lanka, the company intends to meaningfully enhance the statutory severance package it will pay to those made redundant, this payment will be subject to an agreement being reached. This means that employees who are made redundant will get a minimum of 2 month’s pay in addition to their other entitlements.

The formula used to calculate the Termination of Employment of Workmen (Special Provisions) Act entitlement depending on the number of years of service. The company has also proposed additional ex-gratia payment made for each service band. The TEWA payments are subject to a cap of Rs. 2.5 million.

In addition NEXT will pay the following to those leaving:

1. Payment up to the last working day of May 2025, with no need for departing employees to attend between now and the end of May. This will be paid as usual on the due dates;

2. Payment of all outstanding holiday pay;

3. Payment of all production and attendance bonus (where applicable); and

4. Payment of all gratuity

“On a personal note I would like to add that I am very sad that we have had to make this decision after so many years of working with colleagues in Katunayake. I would like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues affected for their service to the Company over the years and wish them well for the future,” Reay said in the statement.