News

Internet access to Lankan schoolchildren near zero

By Akhry Ameer

The insight into the project was revealed by M.V.Mushin, Vice President and Chief Information Officer of the World Bank, during his keynote address at the inauguration of the Business Convention 2001 organised by the chamber. 

The development gateway is a welcome initiative by the Global Development Gateway, which is a venture by the World Bank jointly with the private sector and other donors. The gateway will be based on an Internet portal that will share knowledge and issues on economic and social development. 

According to Mr. Mushin, the global gateway will also have country specific gateways aimed at fostering the use of Internet for e-government, e-business, e-collaboration, e-learning and knowledge sharing among the stakeholders. He also said that the World Bank would set up a Distance Learning Center in Sri Lanka by November.

Mr. Mushin in his address on "Bridging the Digital Divide," said that the future would be a networked world driven by globalization with many connected to the Internet living in developing countries. In this light he called upon the business community to learn how to harness globalization towards development. While acknowledging the progress made by Sri Lanka, he reiterated the need for investment in communications connectivity and related information technology.

He said a general campaign to provide IT literacy skills and access to information was necessary as a basic right for every Sri Lankan. "Creating knowledge affluent societies is the need of every economic need," he added reminding that no provision has been made for IT in the national curriculum.

Presenting statistical facts, he said that only one in every 10,000 students (in Sri Lanka) has access to computers while Internet access to schoolchildren is at near zero. Further, IT literacy among teachers is also near zero and 30 percent of the schools lack electricity.

The government needs to lead by example rather than by regulation, he said speaking on the role of the government.

While observing that Sri Lanka has the largest bureaucracy per capita in Asia, Mr. Mushin called for greater transparency and policies to provide freedom and incentives to the private sector to overcome the digital divide. "We have seen study after study, task forces, committees and working groups, and lofty policy statements on the importance of IT over the last several years.

But real progress still eludes us. The time to act is now," he said.

Chandra Jayaratne, Chairman of the chamber in his welcome address said that according to a study to be presented at the World Economic Summit, Sri Lanka has been placed 62 out of 255 in global competitiveness. He said that the country should aim to get in to the first 50 in the rankings and urged for private sector initiatives without depending on the government for support.

Mushin is the first Sri Lankan to be appointed as a Vice President of the World Bank Group and is also its first Chief Information Officer. The Business Convention 2001 was organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and focused on the theme "ebiz: The Economy Transformed".

Farmers still waiting for loan waivers

By Diana Mathews in Polonnaruwa

Officials at the People's Bank said the bank last week directed its branches to write off farmer loans below Rs 20,000 and noted that there had been no changes in the government decision though parliament has been dissolved. 

However some farmers in the Polonnaruwa district, interviewed by The Sunday Times Business, expressed doubts whether the loans would be actually written off citing instances in the past where similar assurances were made and not kept by the PA government.

One bank official said they had received instructions on the first week of October from the government to write off these loans and farmers were being informed. 

"The total extent of the loans is still being calculated and the banks are waiting for the statistics from the Central Bank," he said. Farmers who have taken loans between the 1999 Maha (November to April) season to 2001 Yala (May to October) season would benefit from the move. 

But farmers in the Polonnaruwa district said last week the banks have not notified them of these developments. 

They also said that it was unfair to write off only the loans taken in 1999 and 2000. "We would not pay our loans, this is unfair," lamented P. Sirisena, a farmer who had taken a loan before 1999. 

A few farmers said they had been notified this year (around April) to repay loans taken in 1994. "In 1994 the government had announced a similar waiver, where only 25 percent of the loan should be paid by the farmer," said Sirisena.

"I was informed by the Mediation Board to repay the balance amount after six years," said H.M. Dharmadasa, another farmer from the region. "I paid up the balance for fear of going to prison," he said. "I don't think our loans would be waived off this time. We might be asked to pay the balance in a few years time again."

Dialog GSM wins National Quality Award 2001

The Sri Lanka National Quality Awards (SLNQA) was announced recently in conjunction with World Quality Day, according to a Dialog press release.

Dialog GSM is the first telecommunication company in South and South East Asia to win a National Quality Award for business excellence, placing it among an exclusive grouping of large-scale service providers in the region.

"Receiving this award is a great honour to everybody within the Dialog family. This award is won by our employees and they will no doubt treasure it as a recognition of many years of hard work," noted Dr Hans Wijayasuriya, Chief Executive Officer of MTN. 

The National Quality Award follows several other milestones in Dialog's commitment to Quality and Business Excellence. Dialog GSM became the first telecommunications operator in South Asia to be awarded ISO 9002 certification in 1998 and more recently became one of the first operators in Asia to be conferred with ISO 9001 certification including the design and development elements of the ISO standard. 

Dialog GSM is a fully-owned subsidiary of Telecom Malaysia, a regional telecommunications giant with subsidiaries in several continents.

Events and announcements

NDB on Business Matters

The interview would be conducted by Parakrama Dissanayake, management consultant.

**************

Seminar

The main resource person at the seminar is Terence A. Hockenhull, a British national, who has successfully run sales and marketing training programmes for a number of institutions and organisations in the South East Asian region.

**************

Techno exhibition

More than 150 stalls by the sectional committees of the institute which cover the disciplines of electrical, mechanical, civil, chemical, agricultural and plantations engineering will display models and other exhibits of interest to school leavers and students in schools and colleges, who wish to pursue engineering as a career. 

Exhibits of award winners of the annual Junior Inventor of the Year Competition conducted by the institute would be on display. 

This year students from 78 schools participated in the competition and the institute awarded scholarships to 5 students who had participated in the Junior Inventor of the Year Contests.

**************

Adding value

Presentations will be made by Chandra Jayaratne, chairman of the chamber of commerce and Asita Talwatte, partner at Ernst & Young while Mahendra Amarasuriya, chairman of the Commercial Bank and Ranjith Fernando, CEO of the National Development Bank.

Indian firm to market cheaper AIDS drugs

Zydus Cadila Health Care, a subsidiary of the Zydus Group, will introduce to the local market three anti- viral drugs as well as launch a brand new anti-diabetes drug which improves insulin efficiency .

In this connection, Zydus group president Ganesh Nayak will be visiting Sri Lanka on October 16 for the launch ceremony, a company statement said. Zydus is one of India's five top healthcare companies.