A call For Trasparency - 09 Feb 2020 (Sunday Observer)

A Call For Transparency 

09 February, 2020

The history of the Sri Lankan economy reveals it’s trade proceedings from the time which the ancient kings began to send trade delegations to foreign countries. Our small island is gifted with several geographical features like bays, Natural harbours, Estuaries and Navigation Rivers. Later, a closed economy was emerged under the regime of Hon. Sirimavo Bandaranayake, the first and the foremost Prime Minister in the world. However, during the time of Hon, J.R.Jayawardane, the first executive president of Sri Lanka, there was an open economic system which came into the operation under the constitution formed on 7^th September 1978. With the expansion of these foreign trade activities, the government tend to protect their domestic industries by imposing taxes and tariffs on imports. On the other hand, other countries also impose taxes and duties on the products that exports to other countries. Based on that concept, FTA’s were emerged between two or more countries, forming bi-lateral and multi- lateral agreements, in order to promote the free trade among the particular countries that are entered into the agreements. Basically, we are producing primary agricultural and industrial goods without adding any value for the goods. Therefore Sri Lanka is considered a simple economic country. Hence, there is a higher possibility to emerge numerous adverse effects from these free trade agreements as we don’t enough power for negotiations. Recently, Sri Lanka entered into a FTA agreement called ETCA with Singapore which possess a massive economy compared with ours. However, our professionals afraid to accept it, because it is believed that ETCA renders adverse effects for their careers. After that, an agreement called MCC was emerged, highlighting some favorable and unfavorable aspects for the socio- economic background in our country. Most significant incident was there were false rumors regarding this deal which has led to make a huge topic in recent presidential election.  The ultimate responsibility of the government is to preserve the transparency of these types of overseas agreements. Therefore the transparency is considered one of the significant dimensions that is required in order to reflect an accurate image to the whole society.

A Timeless Commitment to Journalism - 02 Feb 2020 (Sunday Observer)

A Timeless Commitment to Journalism 

    
19 January, 2020

The origin of Sunday observer dated back to 1834 when Sri Lanka was under the British colonial rule. No one can stand still without allocating any space for the admiration of the enormous service, rendered by the Sunday observer when it completes its 92 years and remain only 8 years to reach  its Diamond jubilee.  Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lake-house) owns the credit of the publication of this weekly newspaper including its sisters like Daily News, Silumina, Dinamina and Thinakaran. Its first editor was E.J. Darley, who assumed his duties on 1834, from onward, about 30 editors contributed for the field of journalism through this newspaper until Dinesh Weerawansha, the present editor was appointed in 2019. The birth name of Sunday Observer was Colombo Observer and later changed its name into Ceylon Observer .The present name of the newspaper was established in 1928. No editor could publish an editorial about his own newspaper without mentioning his endless gratitude towards its loyal readers. One of the major milestones of the Sunday Observer was remarked at its silver jubilee, being the first online newspaper in South Asia.  Now it already reached its 92 years and 8 years ahead to go with the emerging digital evolution in the upcoming centuries.