Financial Times

'Unfair to discriminate against lack of English'
By Quintus Perera
Using the lack of English knowledge as a disadvantage in offering employment to graduates is wrong and unfair, Ken Balendra, founder President, of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) told its third AGM.

His comments were made during the open forum discussions following the keynote address by Justice Mark Fernando, Judge of the Supreme Court on "The Social Responsibilities of Companies and Directors".

Balendra said that when Germans and Japanese came here and "murdered the Queen" people tended to ignore it but when locals did it they were branded as "Godayas". If these graduates were given the right opportunity they could turn out to be proud assets of the companies they were recruited into, he added. Ranjith Fernando, President in 2001/02, was unanimously re-elected the third President for 2002/03.

SLID selected Kishu Gomes, Managing Director and CEO, Caltex Lubricants Lanka Ltd and Caltex Ceylon Ltd, as the Young Director of the Year 2002, for his exceptional achievements. This is a new SLID project.

Justice Fernando said that public office was to serve the people and since the old days it was indicative by the humble salutation "your obedient servant" and the dedication of the State officers to serve the people.

Though the private sector companies have extensive powers, the directors and top managers of companies too have a primary obligation of service to the public. Professional associations could lay down standards different to those prescribed by the law. Such higher qualifications for directors would be advantageous to any company and all others dealing with it and would be in everybody's interest, though there would be no penalty enforceable by law for breaching those standards.
He said that as the role of companies was changing, the standards should also be changed in the duties and functions of directors and managers.

The private sector was now expanding and with the future influx of billions of dollars, managing them efficiently would only increase the demand for higher standards among directors.

Justice Fernando said that though directors owed a duty only to the company, they also owed a duty to others as well. He said that the English law that Sri Lanka observed unfortunately viewed social responsibilities of companies very narrowly.

Emphasizing that today's educated youth would be tomorrow's company executives and directors, Justice Fernando said companies and directors had the capacity to make a significant contribution towards enhancing the knowledge, experience and skills of undergraduates by interacting with them on campus, rather than complaining that educated youth even from the universities could not meet the needs of the private sector.

Ranjith Fernando, President-elect, said that SLID has contributed to the professional advancement of the directors and executives of companies and the society, the objectives being higher competition, promotion of professionalism and providing training and development. Another objective was to provide a forum for the younger directors to interact with the seniors.

Informatics celebrates two decades of business
Informatics, one of Sri Lanka's pioneering IT giants, recently marked its 20th anniversary with a simple ceremony at it new office complex in Borella.
It was established in 1983 with a mission to be a leading systems integrator providing quality innovative IT solutions to its customers and today is the largest software house in Sri Lanka, the company said in a statement.

Informatics is also one of the largest software exporting companies in Sri Lanka with export revenues being so good that in 1988 it received the coveted "Pioneering Status" award from the EDB. Due to their continuous growth in volume and foreign currency earnings, they received an award of "Certificate of Merit" in 1989 for creditable performance in the export of software.

The company has a wide range of clientele from government institutions, state and private banks to other private sector establishments of varying sizes. Overseas, Informatics has a number of success stories in several countries including the UK, USA, Germany, Holland, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Pakistan.

Its flagship product AvaBill - a Telecom Billing and Customer Care System has installations in a number of countries in the Asia/Pacific region and has been adopted as a preferred solution by the industry giant Cable and Wireless. In addition to this, Informatics have established three joint venture projects for software development and R&D in Sri Lanka with leading software product companies from Sweden, Norway and Australia employing over 300 talented software engineers in Sri Lanka.

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