Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Monday, 31 May 2021 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
With the unprecedented outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all the economies have been jeopardised in multifaceted means. As is the case in many countries, Sri Lanka has been impacted profoundly primarily in terms of economic and social infrastructure.
Due to the island-wide lockdown situations prolonged in the country from time to time in year 2020, public transport activities were severely affected and also the aviation activities were disrupted in many instances due to the travel restrictions imposed to the foreign nationals and Sri Lankan expatriates. The ports sector was also affected by the disruptions to global logistics chains creating many repercussions to the supply chains across the world.
Developments in economic and social infrastructure projects, activities pertaining to housing and urban development projects, including the Port City project, were impeded along with the lockdown. However, with lifting the island-wide lockdown in the month of May 2020, infrastructure development projects recommenced its operations and absolutely, new aspirations bloomed in an atmosphere of new normalcy.
“Focusing on headline GDP, with the US and China engines humming, the world is set for a triumphant ‘V’ shape recovery. Beneath the surface, divergence between advanced and emerging markets, superstar firms and their smaller rivals, and high- and low-skill workers points to scars that will take longer to heal.” —Tom Orlik, chief economist, Bloomberg LP.
Yes, indeed. The waves of the pandemic have been striking across the world to-date rebounding every walk of life in the entire world. As a nation, we too are struggling to recover amidst many challenges and the financial sector in the country has a significant role to uplift the nation during this turbulent situation.
Major economic activities yet keep moving on
As depicted in the Annual Report published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) for year 2020, compared to the other sectors, the telecommunications sector showed a mixed performance during the first half of 2020. The telecommunications sector proactively engaged in introducing various digital platforms more importantly customised solutions which would be much beneficial to provide uninterrupted services to the public as well as internal operations of many organisations. Moreover, the Telecommunications and Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka has introduced several special packages to facilitate work from home (WFH) and study from home (SFH) arrangements. Moreover, the TRCSL took steps to implement the Gamata Sanniwedanaya project to provide access to the public who deprive the service in very remote areas in the country.
If we discuss on the energy consumption, it is notable that a reduction in demand for electricity could be witnessed and total electricity generation has also been reduced correspondent to the previous year followed by the demand factor. However, no one would anticipate this hazard for many more ages and the projects we initiated which have been recommenced. As such the Broadlands hydropower project, with a capacity of 35 MW, is expected to be connected to the national grid by January 2021.
As stated in the Annual Report of the CBSL, road development and rehabilitation activities continued at a slower pace during the first half of 2020. The Road Development Authority (RDA) incurred a substantial expenditure during the first half of 2020 for the maintenance, development of expressways and highways, widening and improvement of roads, construction of bridges and flyovers, and the rehabilitation of roads affected by natural disasters. Also, RDA has been carrying out construction of activities pertaining to the expressway network and the extension of the Southern Expressway Project from Matara to Hambantota, including an expressway link to Mattala, continued during the first half of 2020.
If we move to the road passenger transportation, a sharp decline could be visible due to the travel restrictions imposed in island-wide lockdown. However, the National Transport Commission (NTC) continued to undertake initiatives to enhance the provision and coverage of road passenger transportation and several bus services were launched. Sisu Seriya, Gami Seriya and Nisi Seriya are underway.
Civil aviation was another much-hindered sector due to intermittent passenger and aircraft movements during the year. However, the progress of development projects undertaken by the Government to improve the airport and aviation sector in the country was adversely affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 during the first half of 2020. The construction of the second terminal (T2) project of BIA Katunayake, is underway.
As it is learnt through the annual report 2020 of the CBSL, in relation to Port Services, container and cargo activities have shown a significant growth in third quarter of year 2020 correspondent to the first and second quarters which was much setback due to sporadic lockdown situations in the country. The Sri Lanka Port Authority was in the process of developing the East Container Terminal (ECT) and the West Container Terminal (WCT) in line with a five-year plan that is expected to be fully operationalised by 2025.
The most vigorous health sector has adopted many strategies to curb the COVID-19 pandemic while engaging proactively and well-coordinating in collaboration with the Tri-forces and other stakeholders to-date. With the surge of the pandemic, health authorities have taken every possible action to facilitate patients and uplift the health lifestyle with Non Communicable Diseases with more and more intensive care unit beds across the country.
In a nutshell, our effort is to emphasise that based on the Government’s revived fiscal policies each prominent sector which contributed to the development of the country with the financial sector led by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka toiling in sleepless nights during the trying times with the objective of building up a prosperous future to our next generation.
The bottom-line of the successful story and Bank of Ceylon’s dramatic role
Being a responsible corporate citizen and the country’s No. 1 Bank in Sri Lanka with the pledge to commit as Bankers to the Nation, as history validated, Bank of Ceylon has been in the forefront to drive the country’s economic revival, backing various sectors including businesses and individuals who were affected to weather the crisis and support their recovery during the hardest times. As solicited the major support to revive the economy, the Bank has come up with contemporary measures with the guidance of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to revive the economy. The Bank has also played a critical role in ensuring the smooth functioning of Government activities during the crisis in addition to continued lending to the Government, state-owned enterprises and large-scale infrastructure projects.
As we emphasised previously, the major projects of the country keep moving on amidst many challenges and as always, BOC is aligned to the country’s national development agenda and will continue to support key sectors including government projects, petroleum housing and urban development, agriculture, construction, tourism, apparel, transport, education, health, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, aquaculture and fishing, real estate, exports, local manufacturing and information technology and many more.
Bank of Ceylon, being the No. 1 Bank and premier State Bank has been in the forefront in executing the relief packages and introducing novel digital banking products to uplift the entire economy and realising the aspirations of citizens of Sri Lanka. Standing tall as a pillar of support to its valuable clientele with unwavering support, the Bank has established a revival unit with a prime objective of reinforcing the collapsed or disrupted businesses considering as a timely additional support during the pandemic situation. Also, the bank has profoundly realised the needy sectors and came up with innovative banking products and services to address such needs as well.
As the Bank gears up for 2021 as the leading financial institution, Bank of Ceylon has proven its resilience particularly in trying times with the global pandemic. The bank emerged as the best financial provider under the ‘Saubhagya’ concessionary loan schemes and extended moratoriums in order to fulfil the aspirations of the business community in Sri Lanka while owing to robust asset base amounting to a more than three trillion asset base. The Bank recorded a commendable loan growth of 28% to reflecting its proactive efforts to direct funding towards priority and important sectors of the economy including major development projects, businesses and households.
During the first quarter of year 2021, as the explicit continuous growth, the Bank has been able to augment its advance portfolio up to Rs. 2.25 trillion which witnessed its unparallel stance in the industry as at 31 March 2021. During the first quarter the bank expanded its loans and advances portfolio by a significant amount of Rs. 182.7 billion which is a momentum growth of 8.7%.
Bank of Ceylon has been an integral partner of the development agenda of the country from its inception through the long journey of more than eight decades in the banking industry. Being the bedrock of the major development pertaining to economic and social infrastructure in the country, Bank of Ceylon has a long way to fulfil its national duty and to drive economic growth, financial inclusion and socio-economic empowerment in the country.
(Nihal Surawimala is currently steering the Corporate and Offshore Banking Division of Bank of Ceylon as the Deputy General Manager (Corporate and Offshore Banking) and is a senior banker counting over 30 years’ experience in both local and international banking arenas. He holds Bachelor’s (Special) Degree in Public Administration and Master of Science (M.Sc) in Management specialising in Banking and Finance, both from the University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka. Also, he is an Associate Member of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka.)
