COYLE rejects UN panel report

The Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE), being a national chamber of the entrepreneur community of Sri Lanka, rejects the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts Report on Accountability in Sri Lanka as its conclusions are based merely on information available to the panel members.

A communiqué from COYLE states that the conclusions are not based on facts or factual information gathered through any logical process of investigations. The report itself mentions that the mandate of the Expert Panel was not to carry out a fact finding study or any investigations on the alleged acts of humanitarian law violations during the last stages of the humanitarian operations carried out by the Government armed forces.

Therefore, COYLE notes that the contents and justifications are baseless.

The report does not take in to account the ground situation prevailed in the country in early 2009 and the ruthless terrorist activities carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). It is also noted that a larger part of information collected by the experts was from biased sources and the sympathisers of the LTTE who carried out 30-year-long bloody terrorist activities in Sri Lanka.

COYLE is of the opinion that the actions taken by the Sri Lankan security forces were well within international humanitarian laws and were necessary to rescue a large number of people the LTTE was keeping as a human shield. The report itself states that due to the LTTE’s use of military equipment in the proximity of civilians while using them as a buffer, the task of the Sri Lankan security forces’ humanitarian rescue operation was difficult.

Recognising the national duty, COYLE Chairman Nayana D.P. Dehigama called for a special Management Committee meeting recently and also invited an international humanitarian law expert to advise COYLE on the ways and means that COYLE could assist the political leadership, relevant authorities and stakeholders to handle this issue in professional and effective manner.

This will help Sri Lanka to emerge as a country which respects all international humanitarian laws and also the authorities can take appropriate accountability and corrective actions for any issue while promoting and adhering democratic rights of all the citizens.

In this respect COYLE formed a working group with the assistance of a few experts to study the contents of this UN Report carefully and suggest an action plan within a week so that COYLE can take up same with the relevant parties locally and internationally.

Also, COYLE as a vibrant organisation of Sri Lankan Entrepreneurs will actively participate in the rehabilitation and development initiatives of the Government and international donor organisations particularly in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of the country by creating and developing value chains and public private partnerships so that all communities could benefit from the progress of socio economic development of the country, the communiqué adds.

World Bank provides US$ 100 m for rehabilitation of east-west corridor

The World Bank signed an agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka yesterday to provide US$ 100 million in additional financing for the Sri Lanka Road Sector Assistance Project to support the Government of Sri Lanka to continue creating an efficient national road system and lower transportation costs to maximise opportunities and growth.

This project will improve connectivity to the Northern and Eastern Provinces and assist the Government of Sri Lanka to accelerate and reap the benefits from the cessation of the conflict.

This assistance is being provided to improve and upgrade 134 km on the east-west corridor of the A6 from Ambepussa to Dambulla and Kantale to Trincomalee in two phases. The funding is provided as additional finance to the original project which has already improved and completed over 620 km of national roads spread across eight provinces.

The project aims to provide funding for maintenance of the existing national road network through the Road Maintenance Trust Fund and complement the funding currently being received from the consolidated fund.  A major focus of the project is also to strengthen the processes and implement a strategy within the Road Maintenance Trust Fund which will enable the Road Development Authority (RDA) retain the improved network in a maintainable condition.

The project will also support the Government’s strategy and action plan on road safety.

The project has also been designed based on the experiences from the completed parent project with focus on the empowerment of the RDA. Within this context, the engineering designs on the project have been completed by the RDA themselves supported by an independent review.

The project is also piloting the supervision of the civil works to be carried out by the RDA on the Kantale-Trincomalee section. All of the preparatory work on the project has been carried out by various divisions of the RDA without assistance from consultants.

Through the process of advance procurement carried out in the project, the contracts for Phase 1 (Kantale-Trincomalee) are expected to be awarded in early May this year and completed by August 2012. Phase 2 of the project is expected to commence towards the end of this year.

The Road Sector Assistance Project follows a series of support that have been designed to improve Sri Lanka’s road system working in coordination with the Japan Agency for  International Cooperation (JICA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as outlined in the National Road Sector Master Plan.

The credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, carries a 0.75 per cent service fee, a 10-year grace period and a maturity of 20 years.