A Bill of Rights for Sri Lanka
I’ve been talking about the drive in Sri Lanka, a nation wracked by the violence of a civil war of sorts between rebels and a government sometimes verging on authoritarian, to draft their first ever legitimate bill of rights.
Look at this post from the Sri Lankan blog Picture Politics for an idea of what they want to implement and realize that the Sri Lankans are a big part of the global push for liberty and democracy.
http://www.rightsided.org/index.php/2006/05/a-bill-of-rights-for-sri-lanka/
The fifth annual Boao Asian Economic Forum (BFA), which met in China recently called for a common stand agreement at world forums such as WTO, ILO, UNCTAD and WIPO.
Southern Province Governor Kingsley Wickramaratne who participated in the Forum as a member of the BFA Advisory Council said that Sri Lanka fully supported the move for asian countries to speak with one voice at all world forums.
The BFA headquartered in China has a membership of 26 Asian and Pacific countries whose heads of government, private sector and professionals meet annually to discuss economic issues facing the region.
The Hainan Province of China and Southern Province of Sri Lanka have a sister city agreement for economic and cultural exchanges.
During the tsunami of December 26, 2004, the Hainan government contributed 500,000 US dollars to build a Friendship Park and Waterway.
The Hainan Province governor and Wickramaratne discussed the mechanics and design of the Hainan-China Park during a breakfast meeting at Sofitel Hotel.
Wickramaratne, said that the Friendship Park would be designed and built by Chinese labour in the same mould as one of their traditional parks with giant wheels in the shape of dragons, pandas
and lanterns creating a totally Chinese environment.
"It will be constructed on a six acre site allocated at Gintota River which would be the new entrance to the Greater Galle City Project. There will also be boats in the shape of dragons on the waterway of the Moda Ela", he said. – Island by Zacki Jabbar
Discussions were held last February in Geneva between the representatives of the Government and the the LTTE. The Government looks forwards to the second round of these talks taking place in the near future. The Government will continue to devote all the endeavours towards a negotiated political solution within an undivided country, said Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held in India recently.
Minister Amunugama said that the ADB had been a strong and continuous supporter of Sri Lanka’s development efforts for the past few years and the quantum of assistance given by the ADB had increased substantially during the last three years.
He noted that the Sri Lanka government was grateful to the ADB for providing loans up to 419 million US dollars in the wake of tsunami devastation and it had also provided 157 million US dollars of recovery activities. He said that the value of the portfolio of the ADB funded projects in Sri Lanka had now reached 1.8 billion US dollars, including 215 million US dollars in programme loans.
Referring to the year 2005, Minister Amunugama emphasised that there had been an encouraging progress in the conduct of fiscal policy and budget management despite the tsunami shock and the sharp escalation of oil prices in the world market.
Minister Amunugama said that the budget deficit excluding these externalities had declined from 8.2 per cent in 2004 to 7.2 per cent in 2005,providing more resources to other development activities and contributing to overall economic growth.
The Minister also said that "Mahinda Chintana" which was the policy statement of the Government encapsulated in the 2006 budget giving greater clarity to the roles of the private and public sectors in the mixed economy and added that the 2006 budget would also emphasise the need to protect the vulnerable group such as women and children and to promote rural and small and medium enterprises while seeking to accelerate infrastructure development to achieve faster and more equitable economic development in the country. -Island By Don Asoka Wijewardena
|
