Selacine has great future - Information Minister

COLOMBO: Selacine, the government-owned film, video and graphics production institution is faced with great competition from the private sector for the advertising and publicity work of the Government, Mass Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

Minister Yapa made these observations at a function held last week coincide with the 24th anniversary of Selacine and the launch of its Website.

"The Government spends a great amount of funds on various publicity campaigns, but they do not simply give the job to Selacine for being a government institution, because they expect quality creations," the Minister noted.

"Today Selacine is equipped with the facilities and a mix of veteran and young creative staff. Selacine is led by a young Chairman, who has the creative and management skills from the private sector", he added. "I believe that Selacine has a great future as a State owned publicity institution, and I invite all government institutions to patronise their creative services", he remarked.

Mass Media and Information Ministry Secretary W.B. Ganegala said that the Ministry has taken up the task of developing Selacine as the government publicity arm.

He also added that Selacine has now been gazetted to carry out print and electronic media production for the Government for the purpose of providing publicity for the Government's development programmes.

The Chairman of Selacine Niranga Hettiarachchi said the vision of the institution has been reformed to be the leading advertising and production house in the country by focusing on the development of a new Sri Lanka under the "Mahinda Chinthana" manifesto.