Business Your Views

No ‘wonder’ for Sigiriya!

* Millions of people voted to select the new ‘Seven World Wonders’ recently.

The Sri Lanka Tourist Board a few years ago named Sigiriya Fortress as the eighth Wonder. Lot of publicity was given both locally and internationally for this. However when the contest to pick the Seven new Wonders were announced last year ‘Sigiriya’ was nominated by the authorities.

It must be also said that the Ministry of Cultural Affairs did not bother to nominate ‘Sigiriya’ or some of the other cultural wonders in Sri Lanka for this contest.

I am not saying that ‘Sigiriya’ would have been nominated as one of the new Seven World Wonders. But the contest to pick the seven wonders was conducted in several stages and I am sure Sigiriya would have been voted to the top 20.

The publicity it would have received would have been beneficial for tourism as well as the country. It’s a shame that the Ministry of Tourism and the Cultural Affairs Ministry has not moved fast enough to grab this opportunity.

Viraj Samarasinghe
Bentota

RPC AGM and Director responsibility

* At the recently concluded Annual General Meeting on July 20 of the Richard Pieris Group, shareholders questioned the Directors to the seriously deteriorating performance of the company.

Shareholders stressed the need for the Directors to act with more responsibility citing the Company’s declining performance and the very poor dividend pay out in the concluded financial year.

Dr. Sena Yaddehige, the Chairman was not present at the meeting. Dr. Yaddehige spends most of his time aborad although he is the Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of the Group.

Shareholders requested the Board to convey to the Chairman their disapproval in his absence even at the AGMs, as it’s the one and only occasion when the shareholders could meet him and obtain clarifications.

Further only four Directors were present out of seven and this was unacceptable. K.C. Vignarajah one of the shareholders queried of an investment in NDB from borrowed funds as it is not a core business of RPC to invest in the Stock Market.

RPC has incurred a loss of about Rs. 300 m as at the date of the Director’s Report.

This particular loss is of sufficient magnitude to be reported as a Post Balance Sheet event. He also reprimanded the Auditors for not ensuring that this was done.

He told the Directors to act with responsibility and not to be driven by decisions forced upon them with the consequent onerous debt burden. A significant capital loss would likely face RPC in 2007/2008.

Many of the shareholders present at the meeting showed their appreciation by applauding the questions raised whilst showing displeasure that none of the questions were satisfactorily answered by the Board. The Board remained unmoved and the Chairman of the meeting, tried to trivialise issues.

Another shareholder sought information on some of the off-shore companies holding a majority of the shares (about 70%).

He sought clarifications from the Directors, whether they are aware whom they are representing, who were the owners of these Foreign Funds. At which point it was observed that the Directors were flummoxed and at one instance it was heard that, the person who presided at the meeting stating the questions as “utter nonsense”, which was vehemently objected to by other shareholders.

Eventually after much arguing the Board undertook to respond after investigation whether they had a ‘legal obligation’ to provide the information called for. Most of them felt that the meeting was not handled properly by the presiding chairman who tried to conclude without answers being given.

Concerned shareholder
Colombo 3.

Price display in bakery

* Last few weeks I had been reading in the newspapers regarding consumer protection authority officials going around to detect small bakers and shops selling short eats, bread, pastries who do not display prices on products. They have been over charged.

I live close to Dehiwala and take bread and short eats from a leading bakery in Wellawatte and I always see they do not display price of their products on each item. Instead there is a small list on the wall with the prices, which is not at all visible to read and check the prices.

Few days back I brought some items and the boy who gave me the short eats told me the amount. I felt he was not correct, So I wanted the details from him. He was so busy to serve the other customer, he did not respond.

I knew that his calculation was wrong so I waited a few minutes and asked him again and I was correct.

He had overcharged me by Rs. 38.00 from my total of Rs. 218.00.

How many people would they may have been overcharging or undercharging? But both ways it is not correct. As a leading baker they should display the price of each item against each items so that the customer himself can calculate the amount.

I hope the relevant authorities will take immediate action.

Roshan
Dehiwala

Sri Lankan consumers have hibernated enough

* The basic struggle for a Sri Lankan consumer is to speak. Everyone grumbles at home, at work place, among friends, but hardly or never in the presence of those in Authority.

It is the Authority who has given monopoly to certain industries to increase prices. Such industries and firms always quote the world situation when they need to increase the price of goods and services.

In fact Globalisation as predicted by many has made Sri Lankan consumers poorer and more powerless.

Most institutions which were privatised by handing over to foreign firms have how gained a monopoly and are able to increase the price of their goods and services. One feeble excuse they give is the fact that most of these institutions are running at a loss.

If that was the case they would not hang around in Sri Lanka for so long. So the simple truth is that they make profit but do not talk about it.

The work of your Consumer group is to investigate and make others aware.

For many years Sri Lankan public were told that they should form Consumer groups. But many do not seems have time. If the people of this country want to live happy, healthy lives then the Authorities should be questioned, if not alone at least as a group.

Write a letter, send an email, call or meet as a consumer group.At least try. When you meet the authorities do not allow them to frustrate you. They do this to make you less interested in solutions.

Dr. (Mrs) Ajantha Perera,
Chairperson, Association for Consumer Action,
[email protected]

Lanka should follow China’s lead in forestry reforms

* Under the caption “China to promote reform of Community Forestry” the FAO in its latest Regional Quarterly Bulletin featuring Forest News provides the following news taken from the “China People’s Daily”;

“China will promote the reform of its collectively owned Forestry System to facilitate the development of participatory forestry approaches that will provide more benefits to farmers and help to lift them out of poverty.

The reform aims to transfer operational rights of forests from local government and forestry administration to farmers under long-term contracts, while the ownership of forests remains with the government”.

Now, this is something that the Sri Lanka Government should consider too for certain forests in Sri Lanka which provide livelihood for hundreds of poor people who either are forest dwellers or who live in the vicinity of forests in buffer zones and who are forest dependent.

An approach and efforts in a related direction that are currently gaining popularity in the countryside have already been initiated in Sri Lanka by the European Commission funded Programme for the Participatory Conservation and Management of Tropical Forests in 10 Administrative Districts and being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme through Community Based Organisations, with technical support from the Forest Department which also has considerable experience in Social and Participatory Forestry, gained through the efforts of Sri Lanka’s own foresters.

Special mention should be made of the EC-UNDP Programmes for certain important contiguous critical forests of the Sri Pada Peak Wilderness and for the fast depleting biodiversitically rich invaluable forests of Nilgala.

This present EC-UNDP well timed thrust to further develop Participatory Forest Biodiversity Conservation and Management in Sri Lanka is through the “active partnership with State, Rural Communities and Private Sector”, and comes at a time when funds for extending Sri Lanka’s Forest cover are getting scarce.

V. R. Nanayakkara Retired Conservator of Forests.
Vice President, International Society of Tropical Foresters