Another 21 spectators were injured Sunday, and hospitalized and at least four were critical, police said.

Thousands of people come to watch the Fox Hill Super Cross race, which is usually held in April, as large numbers of people head to the cooler climes in the hills.

According to footage taken by spectators one car overturned on the side of the track.

Sri Lanka’s Newsfirst television said Marshalls were waving flags to caution other vehicles, when another car went off the track and crashed into spectators. (Colombo/April21/2024)

“A grant of 1.5 million dollars was provided by the Korean export import bank to improve courses designed for workers going to Korea,” Minister Gunawardena said.

The Sri-Lanka-Korea National Vocational Training Institute in Orugodawatta, which was built with financial assistance of 2,900 million rupees by the Korea Export Import Bank, will offer the study programs.

Gunawardena said that within 16 months, courses including automotive mechanics, CNC manufacturing, welding, electrical, electronics, automation, and robotics courses would be provided to facilitate the worker requirement.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Education, Susil Premajayantha, has said that he plans to introduce foreign languages, like Korean, in schools.

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The need for labor in South Korea is fueled by the country’s declining birth rate, leading to a need for foreign workers, especially in the ship construction sector. (Colombo/Mar26/2024)

“Anyone can register to go to Israel,” Nanayakkara, who is currently on a state visit to Israel, said amid the wailing of sirens in a video posted on social media.

“We came to Israel to send workers to Israel and to check the condition of the workers living there.”

The minister said governments of both countries were able to reach an agreement regarding the ‘many’ employment opportunities available to Sri Lankan workers for vacancies in the fields of nursing, hotels, restaurants, construction and infrastructure in Israel.

Israel, funded mainly by the USA, is currently involved in a war it claims is against Palestinian group Hamas, but what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has determined is plausibly genocidal.

International and social media are full of videos of the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians by Israel’s occupying force. The UN has said Israeli restrictions on Gaza food aid may constitute a war crime.

Minister Nanayakkara though was full of glee at the ‘opportunities’ for Sri Lankan workers to contribute to Israel’s shrinking economy amidst the war.

“We had the opportunity to meet and discuss with five ministers, including the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Construction, the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Labor and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who are responsible for ‘PIBA’ in Israel.

Israel’s Population, Immigration, and Border Authority (PIBA) deals with the regulation of the legal status of citizens, residents, and foreigners and enforce laws regarding the residence and employment of foreigners.

“In the discussion with the Minister of Labour, we discussed about Sri Lankan workers, workers’ safety, work activities and salaries. We were able to speed up the dispatch of nurses. Also, only one test has been conducted for jobs in the construction sector. We will be able to conduct another test in May.

“There is a shortage of workers for all jobs in the hotel sector and restaurants. We were able to make agreements between the two parties to send our workers for all those vacancies and we were also able to make the necessary provisions and arrangements to send a certain number of women to the agriculture sector.

“In addition, in the construction sector, there are vacancies in the field of road carpeting and other infrastructure development.”

Israel and America are currently clearing the rubble of bombed Gaza to build a port and road.

Military conscription is mandatory for Israelis leaving the state with an acute worker shortage. Sri Lanka’s Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva told parliament last month that Israel was offering salaries of 800,000 to a million for workers, after he signed an agreement for direct flights to ‘expedite workers going to Israel’. (Colombo/Mar22/2024)

Sri Lankans are already seeking jobs in Japan and Korea where local language skills are a requirement.

“We are planning on introducing foreign languages such as Japanese, Chinese and Korean in order to create jobs for local people,” Kumar said to reporters Friday.

“When I met with the Japanese ambassador, he said he will give Sri Lankans jobs with a salary of 500,000 in Japan, however, they must know Japanese language.”

Sri Lanka, however, does not have enough foreign language teachers.

Sri Lanka has lost more than 5,000 teachers, after the latest currency collapse, according to reports.

Sri Lankan teachers are paid low salaries. At Sri Lanka’s salary scales with depreciating rupee, it is not possible to recruit foreign teachers.

“We can’t pay a foreign teacher 40,000 rupees,” he said.

Kumar said that the ministry wants to teach children foreign languages at school level so that they may study it at university and then go on to become foreign language teachers.

State Minister of Higher Education Suren Ragavan, has said that Sri Lanka plans to recruit foreign volunteers to teach English. (Colombo/Mar08/2024)

The scheme was implemented on the basis that Sri Lankan expatriates make formal bank transfers of foreign remittances through licensed banks in Sri Lanka.

The President received approval from the Cabinet to submit the Import and Export Control Act No. 2 of 2024, issued under the Import and Export Control Act No. 1 of 1969, to parliament for parliament approval.

The Cabinet had previously extended a deadline given to expatriate workers who had remitted foreign exchange for the purpose of importing EVs, as amounts were insufficient to import them. The deadline was extended to September of 2023.

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Until the scheme was implemented, duty concessions allowed at the duty free lounge at Sri Lanka’s international airports were not applicable to the remittances sent by the migrant workers, Minister of Labour Manusha Nanayakkara had said. (Colombo/Mar6/2024)

“Handed over air tickets for another 95 individuals who are departing for agricultural jobs in Israel. With this batch, a total of 602 have left for agricultural positions in Israel, and more will leave in the coming days,” Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara said on X (twitter).

Last week Nanayakkara, as well as President Ranil Wickremesinghe, met with Israel’s Minister of Transport and Road Safety, Brigadier General Miri Regev, who visited the country to sign an aviation agreement. “During the meeting, we discussed on increasing the recruitment of Sri Lankans for jobs in Israel and explored the possibility of increasing the number of flights between the two countries.”

Ports, Shipping, and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva announced the signing of a direct air service agreement between Israel and Sri Lanka last Thursday (15). De Silva said the agreement’s focus was on preventing delays in Sri Lankan workers’ migration abroad.

“The agreement, signed between the Israeli Ministry of Transport and our Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Aviation, marks the beginning of direct flights between Israel and Sri Lanka,” Minister de Silva said.

Analysts have pointed out that Sri Lanka’s foreign policy seems to be ‘Run with the Hare, Hunt with the Hound’ as it attempts to maintain cordial relations with Arab countries, who are longstanding trade partners and employers of Sri Lankans abroad.

Israel is bent on expanding Jewish settlements, which along with expelling of Palestinians, which critics have pointed out is the same as Hitler’s key strategy of lebensraum or expanding the living space for his people.

The international community considers the Jewish settlements illegal.

The latest war on Gaza and rising reports of harassment and intimidation of civilians in the West Bank, came after Hamas, the ruling group in the Gaza strip made and incursion into Israel, killing hundreds of civilians and taking hostages.

Israeli retaliation has since killed around 30,000 in Gaza most of them women and children.

(Colombo/Feb20/2024)

The agreement’s focus was on preventing delays in Sri Lankan workers’ migration abroad, de Silva said at a press briefing on Thursday (15).

“The agreement, signed between the Israeli Ministry of Transport and our Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Aviation, marks the beginning of direct flights between Israel and Sri Lanka, aiming to enhance passenger convenience,” de Silva said.

He added that the agreement’s objective was facilitating prompt overseas employment for Sri Lankan workers and noted the interest of many Israelis in visiting Sri Lanka.

Last year Sri Lanka signed a deal to send 10,000 workers to Israel amid an ongoing war.

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Sending Sri Lankans to work in Israel is insensitive: Legislator

Critics have pointed out that the timing of sending workers to Israel was not right. “Sending our workers to a country that is committing war crimes is like sending workers to nazi Germany, when Hitler was killing jews, and there were labour shortages,” MP Rauff Hakeem told parliament last November. (Colombo/Feb15/2024)

“Our migrant workers, who go abroad with a housing dream, can obtain up to 10 million rupees as a loan for housing purposes, and a portion of this loan will be borne by the Foreign Employment Bureau,” Cabinet Spokesman, Bandula Gunawardena said on Tuesday (13) announcing the week’s Cabinet decisions.

The loan amount obtained under the proposed loan scheme, has to be paid by foreign exchange remitted through legitimate channels within the period the loan receiver is engaged in an overseas employment, Gunawardena said.

“Payments can be made in Sri Lankan rupees once the foreign employment term is completed and they have returned to this country.

Gunawardena said Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers approved the proposal by the Minister of Employment, Manusha Nanayakkara to implement a housing scheme for overseas employees.

Worker remittances are one of Sri Lanka’s main sources of foreign income. After the country’s foreign exchange crisis in 2022, Sri Lanka has been promoting migrant work.

Nanayakkara said on Saturday (10) that worker remittances for January 2024 amounted to 487.6 million dollars, an “Increase in 11.4 percent compared to year 2023”. (Colombo/Feb13/2024)

Talks were held about establishing a training centre “aimed at foreign employment opportunities in the security sector including in the United Arab Emirates,” Nanayakkara said on Meta.

Nanayakkara said he would provide state level support towards establishing such a center.

Elite Academy representatives “briefed the Minister on the benefits of establishing a training center for security service providers,” and the importance of only directing those properly trained for foreign employment opportunities in the security service sector.

Elite provides security, teacher training, health and social care, first aid, health and safety, conflict resolution, physical intervention, and specialist qualifications.

Since its foreign exchange crisis, Sri Lanka is now keen to increase its foreign worker remittances by upskilling its workers for jobs abroad.

Last November Nanayakkara drew flak for agreeing to send 10,000 workers to warmongering Israel.

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Upskill soldiers to reduce future defense spending: Sri Lanka opposition MP

After a decades long civil war, Sri Lanka also has a surplus of military personnel, which it has already started “right sizing” gradually, a State Minister has said.

Sri Lanka is among the top 10 countries with highest ratio of soldiers to civilians, an opposition MP told parliament during last year’s budget debate, pointing out that the government’s defense spending should be re-examined as the economy progressed. (Colombo/Jan23/2024)

The two leaders discussed promoting bilateral tourism and developing cultural and religious ties that have existed between the two countries historically.

“With the aim of expanding political relations, a proposal was made to facilitate an exchange program for Members of Parliament to study the parliamentary affairs of both countries,” a statement by Wickremesinghe’s media division said.

Late last year, Wickremesinghe told a group of school children that Parliament had become a place where a lot of MPs act. He said some MPs don’t know where to draw the line when acting in Parliament. (Colombo/Jan20/2024)

“The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development recently announced a reduction in the maximum limits for recruiting domestic labour services in several countries, namely the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia,” Saudi-based Arabian Business said on its online portal.
The Ministry had previously instructed licensed companies and offices to set maximum limits for recruiting domestic labour services from specific nationalities.

The revised fees are: From SR15,000 to SR13,800 for Sri Lanka; from SR15,900 to SR14,700 for the Philippines; from SR13,000 to SR11,750 for Bangladesh; from SR10,870 to SR9,000 for Kenya; from SR9,500 to SR8,300 for Uganda and from SR6,900 to SR5,900 for Ethiopia, another publication Gulf News said. (Colombo/Jan18/2024)

“Delighted to announce the signing of an MoU with IM Japan Institute, marking a crucial partnership. This collaboration opens doors for our skilled youth in caregiving, food processing, and agriculture, offering them exciting employment opportunities,” Manusha Nanayakkara, minister of labour and foreign employment said.

Nanayakkara urged Sri Lankan youth who have passed the fourth stage of Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT/JFT N4) and SSW Skill Test to apply for these jobs.

Selected individuals will be given a 5-year work contract.

The minister requested the Japanese officials present to simplify the examination system for recruitment under SSW, to which they responded positively.

Nanayakkara also asked them to establish a special training centre targeting Japanese jobs in Sri Lanka.

The minister said interested candidates could forward their resume and relevant certificates to the nearest regional office or to the email address mgr_rec.general@slbfe.lk. (Colombo/Oct16/2023)

The number of human trafficking complaints for the entirety of 2022 was 36 complaints.

“The Counter Human Trafficking Unit’s roles are, to identify and refer victims of illegal migration for employment and human trafficking to the criminal investigation department, coordinate with the criminal investigation department in conducting related investigations,” Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, P P Weerasekara told EconomyNext.

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment confirmed that Oman has the highest number of human trafficking with 11 complaints being received. (Colombo/Oct4/2023)

Haroun Cader of the Sinwa Holdings was elected as the Senior Vice President

Aruna Perera will serve on the Committee as the Immediate Past President.

Other Business Council members: Acorn Aviation Private Ltd., Bank of China Colombo Branch, David Peiris Motor Company, Ernst & Young, Heritage Teas, Prima Ceylon, Singer Sri Lanka, Spillburg Holdings, South Asia Gateway Terminals, and Sunshine Tea were elected as Committee Members for the year 2022-2023.

The Sri Lanka China Business Council which operates under the aegis of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce with the main objective of promoting trade, investment, services and tourism between Sri Lanka and China. (Colombo/ Mar 19/2023)

President Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing students at his alma mater this week made an unintended confession that old boys of Royal College were in the forefront of politics for 163 years.

“I have come here to address you at a very difficult time,” Wickremesinghe told students and a small group of past pupils of Royal. “A situation we have not seen in the last 400 years. A complete collapse of the economy.”

He noted that the 1972 republican constitution which shed the country’s secular nature was drafted by old Royalist Colvin R de Silva. It abolished a civil service commission dealing the first blow to the country’s independent civil service commission.

His class-mate Junius Jayewardene did one better introducing the 1978 statute, blamed for much of the political, economic and social woes since.

“Royalists have done it so well that no one else can change it,” the 73-year-old Wickremesinghe said referring to his uncle Jayewardene’s constitution.

However, a few minutes after this remark Wickremesinghe appeared to contradict himself, vowing to have a new constitution that will last a century by dumping his uncle’s 1978 statute.

“Today, we are a country which has only Afghanistan below us. We don’t know what the future is. So when we build this future, it’s an economy that must last for 25 years. It must be a new Constitution that must last for 100 years.”

He said Royal College has produced four Prime Ministers and two Presidents. “This is an outstanding record for any school,” he said. Wickremesinghe and his prime minister Dinesh Gunawardena have also set their almost unbreakable record.

Both men have known each other from the age of three years and are from the “Group of 60,” the Form 1 batch of Royal College and were classmates along with the late Anura Bandaranaike, who became Speaker of the House, and a former minister, Malik Samarawickrema.

Wickremesinghe asked present-day Royalists to follow the “oath of the young men of Athens” which required them to ensure a “greater and more beautiful city” for the next generation. It would have been better to ask them to stick with the original “Disce aut discede,” (learn or depart), something the alumni seem to have forgotten. (Colombo/Feb 24/02/2023)

To read more by our tongue-in-cheek columnist Namal Suvendra click here.

“Tortoises were packed in 6 Styrofoam boxes labelled as ‘Dried Sea Foods’ and were planned to smuggle out to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) by flight AK046,” Sri Lanka Customs said in a statement.

Export of Star Tortoises or any mammal or reptile without permission is an offence under Fauna and Flora Protection act, Customs said

“According to the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (Section 40), attempt to export any mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, coral or invertebrate, eggs, feathers, or plumage of any bird, the horns, antlers, skin or hide of any mammal or reptile or any part of any mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, coral or invertebrate without the permission of the Director General of Wildlife Conservation Department is an offence and also simultaneously violates the Customs Ordinance (Chapter 235),” the statement said.

“Sri Lankan Star Tortoises is the same species (Geochelone elegans) as that found in India and Pakistan but has a specific geographic identity,

“They have been highly sought after in the illegal pet trade, especially in the South East Asian countries.”

Due to mass trafficking the species has become threatened with extinction and is included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of species and also in Appendix I of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the statement said.

According to Customs, the retail value of the species ranges between 930 to 4000 US dollars or around 347,000- 1.4 million rupees.

The seizure was done based on intelligence by the Biodiversity, Cultural and National Heritage Protection Division. (Colombo/ Feb 12/2023)

“This is still the numbers up to October this year and we expect it to be more,” an official from the NDDCB asking to be anonymous told EconomyNext.

“Especially by October we have more than 6,000 individuals for ICE-related activities, and we have observed that the number of arrests due to that is on the rise in the past three years,”

According to the data issued by the NDDCB Sri Lanka has arrested 67,900 individuals from January to October 2022 period in drug related charges, a 77.8 percent increase from the same period in 2021.

Of that 67,900 were35,765 were Heroine related, 25,114 were Cannabis related while 6,728 were ICE-related arrests.

The total quantity of heroin seized Island-wide was 1,046 kg and quantity of the cannabis seized in island-wide was 10,214 kg in addition 377 kg of ICE was seized from January to October 2022.

In the same period of 2021, 19,582 heroin-related arrests, 14,649 Cannabis related arrests and 3,744 ICE-related arrests have been reported.

NDDCB said, after the pandemic, observations have been made that, street-level prices have gone down after the pandemic, and the purity level of drugs such as Heroin has also dropped.

“From the samples, we have researched, we observed that the purity level of the drugs has reduced, and now the street prices have gone down. A single dose is being sold to around 500- 1000 rupees,”the NDDCB source said. (Colombo/ Dec 21/2022)

Skilled workers such as welders, electricians and painters without National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) certificates can apply to jobs in South Korea that pay a minimum of 850,000 rupees, State Minister for Mass Media Shantha Bandara said.

Sri Lanka has a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) for various skills which helps with foreign employment.

But workers with proven experience can also apply through the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau.

“These workers don’t have much opportunities in Sri Lanka due to the economic crisis,” Shantha Bandara, Minister of Mass Media told a weekly cabinet brief.

He said a technical committee at the SLBFE will help the labourers who apply for the jobs.

“There is no need for NVQ, the technical committee will do the rest if those workers have the skills,” Bandara said.

To fund the visa expenditures, the applicants will also be able to obtain loans from state banks.

Minister requested all the skilled workers up to the age of 45 who are looking to migrate to get in touch with the SLBFE technical committee.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government has opened job opportunities for Sri Lankan fluent in the Korean language.

Bandara also said the government is discussing increasing the work visas offered to Sri Lankans by the Japanese government.

“From Japan, we have got visas for jobs but they are for carers for the elderly of which at least 90 percent for females and only about 10 percent for males,” Bandara said.

“We are in discussions to increase the job opportunities for our youths.” (Colombo/Sep14//2022)

The Gazette Extra Ordinary 2294/30 of August 23, 2022 allowed smaller golf balls and ping pongs escaped the crushing import restriction that applied to bigger balls used in cricket, tennis, football and rugby. Even inflatable balls were chopped.

How did the rich-man’s golf ball escape? There is no immediate explanation from the Treasury or the Central Bank which had wanted controls to buttress its attempt to save foreign exchange.

Is it because of special Golf interests? Bollocks, says an insider.

Is it because a honcho at the central bank loved to play with small balls and drives every morning to the Royal Colombo Golf Club? Bollocks, says an insider.

He pointed out that even smaller balls —used for vehicles and machinery — were banned. The tiniest ball bearings (HS Code 8482.10.00) were also prohibited under the new decree.

He also noted that screws (HS code 8483.40.00) were also “temporarily suspended” under the new dictate of the Finance ministry.

The government also banned rackets although eliminating rackets may be a tough nut to crack. Tennis, badminton or similar rackets, with or without strings (HS Code 9506.51.00) are also not allowed.

Another wise move was to ban dummies.

“Dummies and other lay figures, automata and other animated displays used for shop window dressing,” will be banned until further notice.

The ban comes a week after Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe noted that foreign exchange liquidity in commercial banks had improved and they had enough to finance the import of essentials such as fuel, food and medicines.

Why then resort to a new round of import restrictions that will have a castrating, sorry, cascading effect on the entire economy. We might need a crystal ball to figure that out, but wait, that is also banned. (COLOMBO/Aug 26/2022)

Read the most recent columns by our tongue-in-cheek correspondent Namal Suvendra below:

Sri Lanka’s worst crisis could be biggest blessing

Sri Lanka’s prestige battle: Ananda passes the baton of blame

Click hear to read more Namal Suvendra columns.