The post “It was so good to win this last game” – Binura Fernando appeared first on Newswire.

The Government of Sri Lanka and the World Bank, European Union (EU) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) recently signed financing agreements to help strengthen Sri Lanka’s management of public finances.

According to the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka, the grant of EUR 9.8 million for Public Finance Management aims to support improving economic governance, transparency, and accountability in how public finances are spent. 

“Weak management of public finances contributed to Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, so it is crucial to strengthen core public finance institutions and systems to shore up the economic recovery and get the country on a sustainable growth path,” said Chiyo Kanda, World Bank Country Manager for Maldives, and Sri Lanka. “This project will leverage technology to develop and scale up the government’s nascent e-procurement system (e-GP) and enhance the institutional capacity of the National Audit Office of Sri Lanka, both important steps towards enhancing efficiency and transparency in public procurement and external audits.”

The public sector is the largest purchaser of goods, works, and non-consulting services in Sri Lanka’s domestic market. Procurement of these goods and services is often delayed due to cumbersome and outdated procedures and processes, limited understanding of market approaches, and lack of capacity and empowerment of procurement decision-makers. 

“In the absence of digitized procurement tools and an efficient e-procurement system, Sri Lanka misses out on opportunities to leverage economies of scale and to monitor the efficiency and timeliness of procurement,” said HE Denis Chaibi, Ambassador of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. “A strong and modernized public finance management system is vital for the country to mitigate the risk of crises in the future and to establish accountability and public trust in the system. The European Union—through the World Bank—is pleased to support institutional capacity and transparency in Sri Lanka’s procurement and audit, which will improve economic governance and aid Sri Lanka’s recovery.”

The project aims to strengthen the overall accountability framework by improving the performance of the National Audit Office of Sri Lanka in terms of stronger governance, greater accountability, and enhanced institutional capacity in areas relating to audit planning, quality assurance, staff capacity, engagement of citizens in the audit process, as well as in specialized audits such as procurement and environment audits. (NewsWire)

The post EU & SL ink agreement to strengthen management of public finance appeared first on Newswire.

The Governments of India and Sri Lanka have exchanged diplomatic notes, paving the way for a three-fold increase in the unit cost of a house under Phase-3 of the Indian Housing Project (IHP) in Sri Lanka.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement that the diplomatic notes were exchanged between the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay and Sri Lanka’s Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development, Jeevan Thondaman.

The Indian High Commission stated that this step would now enable expeditious completion of Phase-3 of IHP, under which 4000 houses are being constructed through grant assistance by the Government of India (GOI) in plantation areas of Sri Lanka, spread across 7 Districts in Central, Uva and Southern Provinces. 

Close to 46,000 houses were built in different parts of Sri Lanka under the first two phases of IHP. The next phase for the construction of 10,000 houses in plantation areas, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, shall commence soon.

The High Commission further stated that the exchange of diplomatic notes takes place at an important juncture when the Indian-Origin Tamil (IOT) community who are concentrated in the plantation areas marks 200 years of their arrival to Sri Lanka. 

This also coincides with 100 years of establishment of the Assistant High Commission of India in Kandy, which has been instrumental in implementing several people-centric grant schemes by GOI for the IOT community cutting across areas such as education, health, vocational training, livelihood development and several others, in addition to housing. 

The High Commission added that these milestones shall be commemorated by the Governments of India and Sri Lanka through several joint initiatives along with the establishment of 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two neighbours. (NewsWire)

The post India & SL work to expedite housing project appeared first on Newswire.

The Sri Lanka women’s team has failed to secure direct qualification for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024.

According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), although Sri Lanka won two games in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, they failed to secure a direct qualification for next year’s tournament.

Even though Sri Lanka was on par with New Zealand, they were unable to qualify due to a poor net run rate.  

The ICC said in a statement that the automatic qualifiers for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 have been identified after the end of the eighth edition of the tournament that saw Australia win their sixth title at Newlands in Cape Town on Sunday (26).

As per the qualification process, the top three teams from each group earn direct qualification along with the hosts and the highest-ranked team outside of the six direct qualifiers from the 10-team tournament.

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are the teams to earn direct qualification as the top three teams of Group 1 in the league stage while England, India and the West Indies similarly make it from Group 2.

Bangladesh qualify as hosts of the ninth edition of the tournament while Pakistan makes it by virtue of being the next highest-ranked team in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings as of 27 February 2023.

The remaining two spots will be identified through a Global Qualifier to be held in early 2024. The dates and venues of this tournament will be announced in due course.

From the teams who played in this year’s tournament, Sri Lanka and Ireland are the teams failing to get a direct qualification. Sri Lanka is currently ranked eighth in the rankings while Ireland is 10th. (ICC)

The post SL Women miss out on direct qualification for ICC T20 WC 2024 appeared first on Newswire.