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STC to supply foreign helmets to Army; local company protests in letter to President
View(s):The Sri Lanka Army’s infantry regiment would be getting new special ballistic or bullet proof helmets made by a foreign company as the relevant procurement committee has awarded the tender for the supply of 10,000 ballistic helmets to the State Trading (General) Corporation (STC).
STC, the trading arm of the Government, has submitted its quotations in US dolalrs as it has to import these protective helmets by placing an order with a foreign company, according to Treasury documents.
The tender award came after the Trade Ministry recently obtained a bank guarantee of $10 million from the Treasury to get into the business of importing essential items including building material through the STC to end the monopoly of the private sector.
The awarding of this tender to the STC has caused injustice to other bidders, including Harsha International (Pvt.) Ltd, the only local company that supplied ballistics-related products for the security forces during the North–East war period, the company said in a letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The company has urged the President to reconsider the decision to award this tender to a foreign company via STC as it will drain the country’s much needed foreign exchange when these special helmets had been manufactured locally in the past.
In a letter dated 02-08-2021 sent under the signature of Himani Wijetunge, Managing Director of Harsha International (Pvt) Ltd, the company noted that it had been the sole manufacturer of ballistic helmets in the country and had supplied around 75,000 such helmets to security forces during the three-decade war.
The company was set up in 1992 and began production of ballistic-related body protective wear in 2000 with 100 percent value addition while further improving its technology installing newly imported machinery, the company pointed out.
The award of this tender to the local company for the manufacture of helmets will be a boost for small scale ancillary producers of plastic buckles, rings, rubber beadings, nut and bolt, glue, paint and hardware items, the company said.
This action of giving preference for foreign companies will prevent the improvement of local industry, cause a loss of employment opportunities for youth and undermine the government’s policy of promoting products made in Sri Lanka, Ms. Wijetunge said.
Harsha International (Pvt) Ltd, has grown to become the leading manufacturer of ballistic composite material in South East Asia and is the ninth company in the world in this field, the company said.