Sri Lanka's private sector, with government backing, wants the country's expatriates working overseas to invest here and also provide expertise in rebuilding a state that has been battered by 19 years of war.

In a two-pronged approach, a multi-sector initiative of the country's public and private sectors and SriLankaFirst, the business-peace group that celebrated its first anniversary with a dinner hosting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in New York, have separate plans to attract Sri Lankan expatriates to invest in the country.

"We want them to invest in any part of the country; in any currency they would want to," explained Chandra Jayaratne, coordinator of a newly formed Sri Lanka Diaspora Fund.

Jayaratne, a former chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), said the CCC had been asked by the Financial Reforms Committee to coordinate the exercise. The committee set up under the aegis of the Central Bank includes multilateral agencies like the World Bank and the IMF and the private sector.

Separately, SriLankaFirst - buoyed by the successful New York dinner which drew 80 high net worth Sri Lankans like mega investor Raj Rajaratnam and Mel Gunewardena, managing director of a Goldman Sachs subsidiary - is considering roadshows in Europe and Asia plus a possible meeting in Colombo to woo investments and expertise from Lankan expatriates.

"That was an extremely successful exercise and we now need to reach out to all Sri Lankan professionals," a SriLankanFirst spokesperson said also recalling the 'kind' words of Vidar Helgesen, the Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister who arrived from the peace talks in Thailand to be a special guest at the dinner.
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Neem oil, garlic, soap to fight coconut mite
By Thushara Matthias
Troubled by the coconut mite? Try the 'Margosa solution' - a combination of Neem oil, garlic and soap. Apply the solution three times in 6-8 weeks.

Coconut Research Institute (CRI) scientists have told planters this "traditional" method would help fight the mite that has affected estates throughout the coconut belt and beyond. The solution is sprayed on the nuts and brings down the mite population by 60 percent but does not eliminate it. CRI scientists said they are working on a more effective biological solution to the mite but that it would take at least one year. Until then they advocate the 'Margosa solution'.

The spread of the coconut mite; Aceria guerrerolis, has added to the woes of cultivators whose crops have fallen in the last two years because of drought.

The mite has severely effected coconut cultivation in Puttalam, Anura-dhapura, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee, Kilinochchi and Jaffna and done "an average amount of damage" in the districts of Kurunegala and Batti-caloa, scientists said.

According to the CRI's Dr. Priyanthi Fernando the mite has reduced the crop by an estimated 5-20 percent. The crop loss varies according to the mite population present.

"We are presently working on a research programme to study a pathogenic fungus, Hirsutella thompsonii, and on a predator, namely Neoseiulus paspalivorus," she said.

The Coconat Cultivation Board has conducted around 40 training sessions in five districts to help the cultivators identify the mite and demonstrate methods of spraying the 'Margosa solution', a spokesman said. More training sessions will be conducted in the future.

A Kurunegala Plantations spokesman said that the effective use of the 'Margosa solution' has helped to keep the mites away from their estates with only one acre infested with mites.

Coconut retail prices in Colombo have risen sharply since the mite infection began in 1997 and also because of drought. Large nuts are now selling at around Rs. 15.91 compared with Rs. 10.31 in September 1997, industry officials said.

People's Bank "aggressively pursues" defaulters
The People's Bank is making vigorous efforts to recover the big loans given to businessmen with political influence over the years, the bank's chief executive officer said last week.

"We're aggressively pursing action against all of our non-performing debtors," Derek Kelly said.

He refused to give details about individual defaulters saying banking secrecy provisions prevented him from doing so.

But People's Bank chairman Lal Nanayakkara recently said that the bank would not give up its efforts to recover loans due from Yasodha tycoon Yasasiri Kasthuriarachchi.

Nanayakkara said the bank had filed action against Kasthuriarachchi to recover the money due from him and that a joint audit was being carried out by the bank and Kasthuriarachchi's audit firm to find out how much money he owed.

Kelly also said it was "very difficult" to say how close the bank is to recovering the large sums of money loaned to defaulters which are threatening the bank's financial stability.

The bank's non-performing loans position was "very serious", he said.

"Lots of NPLs are very old, given to politically connected people."

Where defaulters had provided collateral such as mortgaged property, the bank was taking action to mortgage the assets to recover the loans now that the moratorium requested by the government on recovering the loans through parate execution had ended.

"We really went to war as soon as the moratorium came off," Kelly said.

Such a blanket moratorium was "not such a good idea". Kelly said adding that it had "some degree of success".

The bank hopes to negotiate with the client or sell the property provided as collateral.

"Where we don't have adequate security, we carry out debt recovery action, but it takes a long time, defaulters make frequent appeals," Kelly said. "Often debtors are able to delay the cases in one way or another. At the end of a case it is very difficult to identify assets. It is a long and hard process."

Re-training LTTE cadres under WB project
The provision of training skills for ex-combatants in the north and the east will form part of a World Bank-funded programme expected to kick off in Sri Lanka's war-torn region by around December.

"We are hoping to get (Washington) board approval by October 17 to go ahead with the project where we are utilising $ 30 million unspent from Sri Lanka's portfolio," said Brad Herbert, acting head at the World Bank office in Colombo in addition to being its operations advisor.

The project, under-taken at the request of the Sri Lankan government for emergency aid to the north and the east, is also looking at health care delivery systems, water support infrastructure in small towns and supporting the work of agencies like UNHCR.

Herbert, who recently developed a World Bank-funded programme to rehabilitate former guerrillas fighting in Afghanistan, said the bank has had positive discussions with both government agencies in the north as well as LTTE representatives.

"The most encouraging sign is that when we talk to the Tigers, they ask us to go ahead with reconstruction work even if it means starting in government-controlled areas.

Government agencies take a similar view - start wherever you like but start fast."
The bank has been encouraged by the successful conclusion of the first round of peace talks in Thailand which has provided some comfort for donors.

The northeast progra-mme - set to run for 12 to 18 months - also involves providing technical expertise and funding extra technical staff requirements. "There is some good staff who have done good work during the war years but they may need more engineers and technical experts to undertaken advanced programmes," he said.

The bank is not venturing into school rehabilitation, leaving that for other donors but may help in some repair work.

Herbert ruled out World Bank involvement in organising a donor meeting to raise special funds for the northeast - like what the bank did some years ago - saying the UN was in a better position to do that.

Herbert said there were risks involved in investing before there was permanent peace but the bank couldn't wait for peace to dawn to start work.

"The risks could be minimised. It is only if we support the peace process like rebuilding the areas affected by the conflict that the process would work," he said adding that under the bank's current Sri Lanka portfolio of $ 500 million a lot of work is being done in the rest of the country.

UN officials said the UN has pledged $25 million for quick-disbursing relief funding for the government's Triple RRR programme specifically earmarked for relocating internally displaced persons.

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