Trump Administration Cheers ‘Herculean’ Trade Breakthroughs With China

BY JESSICA HOLZER-MAY 12, 2017

The Trump administration parked its get-tough rhetoric on trade with China to trumpet an agreement on beef and energy exports with Beijing, even as the White House continues to rail against supposed abuses by friendly countries like Mexico and Canada.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross touted the deal, which would open China’s market to U.S. beef exports after years of restrictions as a “herculean accomplishment.”

President Donald Trump tweeted the virtues of the deal, calling it “real news!” And White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer started a contentious news briefing Friday by touting the merits of what he called the president’s fight for American jobs.

In truth, the trade wins build on market openings already under way. Last fall, the Obama administration secured preliminary access to the Chinese market for U.S. beef exports, which had been disrupted for more than a decade because of the “mad cow” scare, but hadn’t finished the technical trade talks. And the new agreements also formalize the ability of China to import natural gas from the United States; China already imports significant volumes of U.S. liquefied natural gas.

What’s more, the new agreements depend on highly undependable Chinese cooperation, one reason similar accords have been struck in vain in the past. However, the quick progress signals a more pragmatic approach by the administration to dealing with trade tensions between the two countries, after months of saber-rattling and talk of a trade war.

The administration said the agreements were the fruit of a review carried out as a result of the meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping. The speedy conclusion heralds a welcome shift from the obsession with trade deficits that has defined the administration’s trade policy so far, said Derek Scissors, an expert on China’s economy at the American Enterprise Institute

The problem is, the administration isn’t applying this approach across the board: It’s still haranguing key U.S. allies over negative trade balances. On May 4, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross called out Mexico and Japan for their trade surpluses with the United States, which he said were growing at “an alarming rate.” (Mexico’s trade surplus with the United States has widened in part because Trump’s Mexico-bashing rhetoric has lowered the value of the peso, which in turns boosts its exports and squeezes its imports.)

“The United States can no longer sustain this inflated trade deficit with our closest trading partners,” Ross said in a press release.

But Scissors said that hammering friends and neighbors over trade balances while glossing over it with rivals could be counterproductive.

“If you think the problem is the trade deficit, you cannot chicken out on China and go after the small countries,” he said. “That is terrible policy – both in terms of trade and in terms of our diplomatic policy.”

Last month, Trump vowed to terminate or renegotiate the South Korea free trade deal, which took effect just five years ago, calling it a “horrible” deal for the United States. And he came close to pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, before backing down after calls from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“The administration doesn’t seem to understand the context of the relationships,” Scissors argued.
 “Canada and Mexico are friends of the United States, and their trade practices are better than China’s.”  
Aside from easing restrictions on American beef and liquefied natural gas, Thursday’s agreement would lift restrictions to allow U.S. electronic payment processors to operate in China. Beijing would also grant licenses to two U.S. banks seeking to underwrite stock or bond offerings in China.

On the Chinese side, the deal would open the U.S. market to cooked poultry imports from China and give Chinese banks operating in the U.S. the same regulatory and supervisory treatment as other banks. The agreement also says the United States “welcomes” investment from Chinese entrepreneurs – language important to Beijing amid rising concern in America that such investments could pose a national security threat.

The issue now will be follow-through. China has a long history of formally granting market access but then effectively blocking it by controlling how Chinese firms conduct business, or by other informal restrictions on how foreign companies can operate.

A case in point: Telecom ventures. In the negotiations leading to China’s accession to the World Trade Organization more than a decade ago, the United States fought for access to China’s telecom industry. To date, there have been no joint ventures of any significance between Chinese and American firms, according to Scissors.

Photo credit: LAURENT FIEVET/AFP/Getty Images

World Economic Forum: Youth in Asean positive about the future

13th May 2017

YOUNG people in Asean countries feel confident about success in their future, according to a survey commissioned by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The results were released alongside other presentations and findings on Southeast Asia on Friday during an international gathering in Cambodia.

According to the survey, titled the Asean Youth Survey, 69 percent of the respondents in six countries polled – including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam – are optimistic that they will have a better life than their parents did. Just 13 percent feel otherwise.

Nearly 24,000 people between the ages of 16 to 22 were surveyed by the WEF’s Asean Regional Strategy Group, in partnership with Singapore’s Sea Group.

SEE ALSO: China welcomes Asean Summit’s softer stance on South China Sea

The forum lasted three days, ending on Friday. Justin Wood, a WEF Executive Committee member, said to reporters: “Most young people in Asean feel confident that their lives will be successful… and they feel there are opportunities to make a difference and to improve their lives.”

Other key takeaways highlighted at the forum include an overall optimistic atmosphere surrounding Asean’s potential to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, ‘Dutertenomics’, and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen using his platform to attack local media.

‘Dutertenomics’ refers to the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s six-year development plan to build the country up, on the back of a US$173 billion infrastructure programme.

Presidential communications secretary Martin Andanar said during the pitch to WEF participants and members of the media: “Dutertenomics underlies our six-year development plan to achieve high middle-income status by the time our president leaves office. Within a generation we aim to eliminate poverty and rank among the 30 largest economies in the world.

“To do this we will invest $160 billion in our physical infrastructure. We plan to build, build, build.”

According to the Southeast Asia Globe, Hun Sen responded to questions about preparing the youth of Cambodia for the Fourth Industrial Revolution by slating Radio Free Asia and Cambodia Daily, deriding them as “servants of foreigners”.

Political commentator Cham Bunteth told the Phnom Penh Post that the Cambodian premier took aim at the media in order to distract the public from flaws in his administration, and was taking a leaf out of US President Donald Trump’s book by “painting some media as fake news or against the government”.

Why we need an international freedom movement

by Nicolas Tenzer-May 12, 2017

( May 12, 2017, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) France’s election of a centrist pro-Europe president has offered us all some respite, but, in many respects, the world still seems headed for dark times. 

There’s bloodshed in Syria with no end in sight, massacres in Yemen, South Sudan and Myanmar and a recent resumption of intense fighting in Ukraine.

It also hints at a deeper decline, a sign that freedom itself is being eroded. From the first months of the Trump presidency and the hatred exposed by the Brexit campaign to the rise of the extreme right in Europe – including in France where, after all, 11 million people did vote for Marine Le Pen – reason seems to be receding in the West.

It has been replaced by alternative facts and apocalyptic rhetoric.

Even so many people still cling to the belief that the world’s troubles are distant and largely unthreatening. Protest, in this mindset, is either an activist’s sport or an endeavour led by groups whose freedom is directly threatened.

Such thinking is dangerous. In truth, the attack on freedom is coming from within, and stemming the tide of anti-liberalism will require that everyone join the fight.

Freedom, authority and inequality

One challenge, perhaps, is that freedom is not necessarily an essential value shared by a large part of the population of democratic countries, nor does it mean the same thing to all people.

For some, “freedom” means human rights, free and rational search for truth and emancipation; for others, it means domination, the freedom to scorn, humiliate and sometimes kill. Syria, the greatest atrocity yet seen in the 21st century, is an example of the freedom to massacre. The West has been grotesquely silent on Russia’s participation in this war.

Then there’s the issue of fake news. In some ways, the most worrying risk is not the spread of fabricated reporting but, as columnist Nick Cohen has written in The Guardian, that people are inclined to demand and believe fake news. The result is that we increasingly live in two different worlds, unknown to the other.

Philosophy offers us useful frames of reference for the current crisis of freedom.

As Hannah Arendt and Alexis de Tocqueville before her have noted, when freedom is ineffective it’s usually because authority has disappeared. Here Arendt does not refer to authority as in authoritarian force but to the authority of knowledge – that is, the ability to differentiate between fact and fiction and to recognise truth.

Unrestricted freedom of opinion, one of the characteristics of real democracy according to Arendt, does not mean taking liberties with the truth.

A secondary cause of today’s eroding liberal order lies in inequality. A growing wealth gap has given rise to an understandable suspicion of liberal elites, leading to a (perhaps less understandable) rejection of everything they stand for.

Finally, there’s the decoupling of globalisation from common, shared public norms. In theory, globalisation was supposed to go hand-in-hand not only with the unprecedented movement of capital, goods and persons but also with a set of shared political standards: the UN Charter, international conventions on war and refugees and the like.

Officially, this world system also comes replete with common commercial, social and environmental practices. We have major aid programs for poor countries, UN conventions on corruption and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which helps nations fight against animal trafficking and poaching.

But, as has been well documented over the past year of angry-voter uprisings, many people and nations never benefited from these systems, while others got very rich and powerful thanks to them.

Globalisation is now fracturing under pressure from groups who, rightly or wrongly, hold it responsible for their suffering, and it is a popular target for political attack (Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen are only the latest to leverage its failures to gain votes).

As a result, the essential international rights and freedoms that were once championed by true believers in the democratising power of globalisation are more easily ignored.

From a polarised world to a three-sided fight

Being insufficiently jealous of freedom is a fairly new problem. After the fall of communism and a relative reduction of authoritarian states in the late 20th century, many in the West have developed a false sense of security.

This has hindered our ability to comprehend the new global status quo. Some thinkers, such as Francis Fukuyama, have now conducted an honest revision of their previous theories on the end of history, acknowledging that the threat to a liberal world view has not dissipated.

There are numerous ideologies that are no less dangerous today than communism was 75 years ago, and they demand a more detailed analysis.

Putinism, whose chief ideologue is philosopher Alexandre Douguine, is a prime example of just such an anti-freedom world view. Seeing Vladimir Putin’s reign in Russia as simply the dominance of a strong state over the individual is simplistic, as is suggesting that he merely seeks a return to conservatism and traditional values of religion, family and nationalism.

In truth, Putin’s regime hides a broader desire to negate the inheritance of the Enlightenment, both nationally and internationally. Dissidents are oppressed and assassinated by groups under the orders of shadowy figures; Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB, exerts near total control over society.

La résistance

There are signs of an emerging resistance. The United States, Poland and Hungary, especially (and to a lesser extent the UK, with its Remain movement) have seen mass protests and spontaneous acts of resistance that reach far beyond intellectual and political circles. It is an impressive civic groundswell.

The Pulse of Europe movement has also had impressive success on the continent, and many people took to the street to protest Trump’s visit to Europe’s side of the Atlantic.

In both Canada and Germany, welcoming refugees is an abiding principle of both the government and the majority of citizens – an expression of liberal values to counter the xenophobia of the world’s burgeoning extreme right-ring parties.

But to succeed in today’s trying times, any liberation movement must necessarily be international. The threat against freedom is now everywhere – not just in authoritarian states such as North Korea but also in Western democracies (the United States), the developing world (Venezuela) and Islamic countries (Syria, Egypt).

And, dangerously, our collapsing faith in globalisation and its trappings has given authoritarian countries a more credible voice in setting the world agenda.

Defending freedom should be seen as a primary geopolitical challenge – our security depends on it. That means looking beyond borders and standing together in resistance as a global community.

It also means accepting compromise, seeing the virtues of moderation and knowing the difference between defending civilisation and making an expedient political choice. To push back against anti-freedom forces, right must talk to left, elites to non-elites and activists to the politically unengaged.

Many conservative politicians already understand that letting slide certain essential rules of solidarity will push vulnerable people into the embrace of extremes. That is a good sign, but it is only the beginning.

All liberal world citizens – liberal understood in the broadest sense of the word – have an obligation today to put ourselves at the service of freedom in order to ensure the future of history.

Translated by Alice Heathwood pour Fast Forword

Nicolas Tenzer, Chargé d’enseignement International Public Affairs, Sciences Po – USPC

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Thousands of Tunisians march against corruption amnesty law

Demonstrators hold flares during a demonstration against a bill that would protect those accused of corruption from prosecution on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, Tunisia, May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi--Tunisians demonstrate against a bill that would protect those accused of corruption from prosecution on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, Tunisia, May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

Demonstrators hit a drum during a demonstration against a bill that would protect those accused of corruption from prosecution on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, Tunisia, May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi--Tunisians demonstrate against a bill that would protect those accused of corruption from prosecution on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, Tunisia, May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

By Tarek Amara | TUNIS- Sat May 13, 2017

Several thousand Tunisians marched through central Tunis on Saturday to protest against a bill that would grant amnesty to businessmen accused of corruption when autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was in power.

Critics of the Economic Reconciliation bill say it is a step back from the spirit of Tunisia's 2011 revolution to oust Ben Ali but government officials say it is a way get the businessmen to inject some of their ill-gotten cash back into the economy.

The draft law allows businessmen to reveal stolen funds and repay them. No exact figures exist for the amount of graft during Ben Ali times but based on past investigations, officials say some $3 billion could be returned initially under the law.

Waving flags and banners saying "No to forgiveness" and "Enough Corruption", about 5,000 people accompanied by opposition party leaders and activists marched through the capital's central Avenue Habib Bourguiba.

Six years after the uprising against Ben Ali, Tunisia is praised as a model of democratic transition but it is still struggling with the corruption, economic malaise and youth frustrations that helped trigger the revolt.

For many critics the law - which has been stuck in parliament for two years since President Beji Caid Essebsi proposed it - is simply an amnesty for criminals and a way to rehabilitate Ben Ali allies back into Tunisian society.

"We're here to say to Essebsi and his cohorts that the law will fall in the street like in all democracies," Popular Front opposition leader Ammar Amroussia told Reuters. "He wants to pass this corrupt law, but these protests show that we say no."

Essebsi, himself a former Ben Ali official, sent the law to parliament in 2015 though the bill was delayed after criticism it benefited business elites tied to the government. It is now being debated in committee and then goes to a plenary session.

Despite a consensus between secular and Islamist parties that helped keep Tunisian stable after the uprising, the bill has divided Tunisians between those who want to close the door on the past and those who say they cannot tolerate corruption.

Protests against the law, and others in the south of Tunisia this month over jobs, come at a sensitive time for Prime Minister Youssef Chahed who is struggling to pass austerity measures and public spending reforms to help economic growth.

Despite its democratic progress, free elections and new constitution, Tunisia still faces social unrest among many young unemployed who feel their revolution against official abuses and corruption has not delivered economic opportunities.

"Today we are saying the defenders of the revolution are still here," said protester Sabra Chrifa, wearing a T-Shirt with the slogan "No Forgiveness". "We can't accept something that whitewashes corruption like this."

(Writing by Patrick Markey; editing by David Clarke)

Ebola outbreak declared in Democratic Republic of the Congo after three die

World Health Organization confirms cases of virus in north-east Bas-Uele province, bordering Central African Republic

A health worker at an Ebola isolation centre in Kampungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, during an outbreak in 2007. Photograph: Reuters

Kate Hodal-Friday 12 May 2017

An Ebola outbreak has been declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo(DRC), where three people have been confirmed dead and another six are suspected to be infected with the virus, the World Health Organization has said.

Investigations are still being carried out into how the Ebola virus – which killed 49 people in DRC during a three-month outbreak in 2014 – suddenly occured in the equatorial forest region of Bas-Uele province, which borders Central African Republic (CAR).

In a televised address, DRC’s health minister, Oly Ilunga Kalenga, warned that the outbreak was a “national health emergency with international significance” but urged people “not to panic”.

“As this is the eighth epidemic [of Ebola] that we are facing as a nation, we should not be rattled,” Kalenga said. “The ministry of health is taking all measures to respond quickly and efficiently to this new outbreak.”

The WHO’s in-country spokesperson, Eugene Kabambi, said regional health workers and protective equipment had already been rolled out to the remote area to contain the virus. A national team of personnel, along with experts and specialists from Médecins Sans Frontières, the US Centre for Disease Control, Unicef and WHO, will be following in the next few days.

“The DRC is a big country and the zone affected is quite difficult to access, but it is right on the border with Central African Republic,” said Kabambi. “People are constantly coming and going across the border to visit friends and family, so we are taking very urgent preventative measures to contain the risk.

“We must engage with local communities so they understand that this is a virus unlike any other, it is very contagious and deadly. We are engaging with village heads and community leaders so we can all work together and stop the virus from spreading.”

A conference call between DRC and CAR officials, as well as WHO experts, had taken place, Kabambi said, during which CAR officials confirmed that they too were taking preventative measures along the border.

Of the three people who have so far died of haemorrhagic fever, only one of them has been confirmed by lab results as having Ebola. He was a man who presented himself with a high fever last month at a local clinic and was told to travel to the nearest hospital for tests. Kabambi said he died en route and the motorcycle taxi driver who was drivinghim, as well as another passenger, have also since died of the suspected virus and their deaths were being investigated.

Ebola is fatal in about 90% of cases and is easily spread between humans through direct contact.

The world’s worst Ebola outbreak began in west Africa in 2013 – killing more than 11,300 people and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Thousands more survivors have been left with long-term health problems and Liberia was only declared free of active Ebola virus transmission last June.

WHO was criticised at the time for responding too slowly and failing to grasp the gravity of the outbreak.

The WHO has recently developed an Ebola vaccine for use in case of an outbreak. Dr Seth Berkley of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, which paired with Merck to develop the vaccine, said clinical trials had proven to be highly successful,

“There are 300,000 doses of Ebola vaccine available if needed to stop this outbreak becoming a pandemic,” Berkley said. “The vaccine has shown high efficacy in clinical trials and could play a vital role in protecting the most vulnerable.”

Sri Lanka: Why Should I Give up US citizenship — Gota

( May 12, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Former defence secretary – Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says he will not give up his US citizenship as he has not decided to enter active politics.

Mr. Rajapaksa was responding to the Sri Lanka Mirror, a Colombo based news portal, with regard to several reports citing that he had decided to give up his US citizenship with the intention of running for the 2020 Presidential election.

The reports also cited that several businessmen close to him are already working on the matter as it would take a lengthy time to revoke the citizenship.

‘My family members are currently living in the US which means that I’ll have to travel to the US often. I also receive a pension which will be lost if I give up my citizenship. Further I have not taken any decision to enter active politics. So, I have no intention of giving up my US citizenship,’ he said.

He further added that despite speculations made by certain reports, revoking the citizenship is not a complex process that takes years to process. It only takes around 2 weeks after a filing a formal request with the US embassy, he said.

When those who shouted ‘aiyo Sirisena’ then are being given diplomatic assignments , today ‘aiyo Sirisena’ has to be told by us !

(Lanka-e-News -12.May.2017, 6.30 PM) During the run up to  the last presidential elections , when there  were those who wanted to bury the incumbent president Maithripala Sirisena six feet underground , and anxious to carry his coffin on their shoulders after accelerating his death , it was us who averted that and carried Maithripala Sirisena on our shoulders instead to the winning post. But now, unfortunately  it is these villainous scoundrels who at that time insulted and vilified Maithripala  openly shouting  ‘aiyo Sirisena’  and circulated defamatory tales who are today under the shade and shadow of Sirisena . The media Mudalalis who were attacking him viciously and venomously vi a the media then are  also with him now. The foreign Diplomats of Mahinda then are also his foreign Diplomats now. In addition, the ambassador to Germany ,Karunatileke Amunugama and High Commissioner to Washington Prasad Kariyawasam then who came down to Sri Lanka on duty leave to participate in Mahinda Rajapakse’s election campaigns are still in those positions because of Maithri’s patronage even  despite the fact they have reached the stage of senile decay , and should have been sent home.  

While former minister Athauda was  stripping nude to do the sordid biddings of defeated and people discarded  Mahinda Rajapakse, his  rascal of a son was the ambassador to Germany and Netherlands . Intriguingly , it is this  Buddhi Athauda who was creeping and crawling under the jockstraps of the Rajapakses , and who shouted ‘ aiyo Sirisena’ insolently whenever Buddhi  came out of the jockstraps  then is going to be made the ambassador to France by the same Maithripala Sirisena now. 

Perhaps president Maithripala is unaware this rascal ought to be in jail in fact. That is because this scoundrel was involved in sexual embarrassments  to women and  outraging their  modesty . In one instance , following the sexual harassment caused by him to a woman employee in his foreign mission office at that time , she made a complaint to the foreign ministry . Nobody knows what happened thereafter , for he remained  scot free despite his lascivious nature detrimental to  his profession and dignity.  Also, nobody ever knows whether he  found the cure for his  itch at the wrong place though everybody knows as long as there are bigwigs  to prop and propel him while turning a blind eye to  his vices and vile nature , Buddhika of course  will love to have  that itch  even if he goes to hell , let alone France .

Ironically , it was the woman who fell victim to his inordinate  lust who suffered – she was transferred to another place. Mind you at that time the victim sent a taped recording of the obscene language used by Budhi Athauda against  her to the foreign ministry . That tape recording is with an officer in the foreign ministry. Not only there are many  complaints against him of sexual harassment to women but also misuse of State property . Yet it is learnt president Maithripala who gave appointments to  a number of corrupt individuals and misfits after becoming president  , has decided  to appoint  Buddhika who truly should be  behind bars, as ambassador to France .

The Presidential secretariat sources confirm, president Maithripala has also  decided to appoint another sidekick of his  , the present defense secretary Karunasena Hettiarachi , a dipsomaniac (toddy maniac) as the ambassador to Germany. By appointing such  an alcoholic to an important country like Germany will serve no purpose  to the motherland unless the idea is to lure  toddy tappers and kasippu distillers ,  but let the president be informed ahead , there are no toddy tappers or kasippu distillers in Germany .

Truly speaking , Germany is an important European country , if our  motherland is to benefit , and aid and assistance are to be secured for SL , a competent and capable ambassador shall be appointed. By appointing a dipsomaniac who drinks  like a fish , and sleeps with stray dogs under the bushes and trees in Polonnaruwa , it is the country that is going to lose .  Today , the second in command at the Embassy in Germany is also an individual who was looking after the cattle herd at the home of the Sirisenas. 

Even  A .S.P. Liyanage is another scoundrel of the same ilk. It is learnt this rascal is now neglecting his duties of ambassador to Qatar  ,and is only busy with promoting his personal businesses in Qatar. He is currently moving heaven and earth to sell his properties even to housemaids. He is therefore spending most of his time in SL engaged in his businesses  ,and not in Qatar embassy.  When such fraudsters who were even in jail but were given  diplomatic appointments by the equally corrupt and crooked Rajapakses, are still enjoying diplomatic assignments under the good governance government  today   ‘ aiyo Sirisena’ has to be said by us. 

-Diplomutt-

---------------------------
by     (2017-05-12 13:16:20)

State banks left with more cash for SMEs as public sector borrows less

Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy

by Sanath Nanayakkare-May 12, 2017

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in the country have taken a larger share of the credit granted to the private sector by the Bank of Ceylon and the People's Bank as lending by the two state banks to the public sector has moderated, Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy said in Colombo recently.

Speaking to the media while announcing the Central Bank's monetary policy for the foreseeable future, the Governor said," If you ask the two state banks they will tell you that SMEs have taken a larger share of their total credit pie to the private sector. Part of the reason for this is that corporations like the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and the Ceylon Electricity Board have done reasonably well due to lower oil prices. So, lending by the state banks to the corporations declined. On the other hand, borrowings by the government from the two state banks also went down somewhat due to the government's fiscal consolidation programme. This combination left the two state banks with quite some cash which was pushed out to the SMEs."

According to the Central Bank Annual Report 2016, credit extended to the private sector by commercial banks continued to expand during 2016, although there was a deceleration on year-on-year growth amid tight monetary policy measures and the effect of the high base.

With aggressive marketing campaigns by commercial banks and ample availability of funds as well as market expectations of upward adjustments in the government tax structure, credit to the private sector continued to accelerate during 2016 in spite of the upward adjustments in market interest rates

The acceleration observed in credit to the private sector in 2015 persisted in 2016, recording a peak growth of 28.5%, on a year-on-year basis by end of July 2016. However, the year-on-year growth of credit to the private sector moderated towards the latter part of 2016 and recorded a growth of 21.9% by end 2016, compared to 25.1% at the end of 2015, reflecting the impact of tight monetary policy measures and the high base.

According to Coomaraswamy, overall credit granted by the banks to the government, to the private sector and to the corporations currently stands at 18%.

"We'd like to see this number around 15%. By our reckoning overall credit granted to these three pillars should moderate to 15% by the end of the year, the Governor said.

PETITION TO REMOVE CIRCULAR INTIMIDATING SRI LANKAN CHURCHES

12/05/2017

Sri Lanka (MNN) — A persecution trend has been quietly taking place in Sri Lanka. People hostile to Christianity have been approaching churches – often in more rural areas – and saying that because of a 2008 circular, if the church is not registered, they have to shut down.

The circular in question was issued nearly a decade ago in Sri Lanka by the Ministry of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs. It states that churches should be required to register with the state; however, the directive has no teeth to it legally, and a church registry hasn’t even been set-up.

So what exactly is a circular? In a Western context, the word ‘circular’ sounds like it’s just a periodical or a newspaper.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Marytrs USA explains, “My understanding is a circular like this is kind of a proposed law and it circulates through the different departments of the government and through the different parts of the parliament, but it wasn’t actually voted on and approved to become an official law.”

However, churches don’t always know that this circular can’t force them to stop meeting because they didn’t register. And the people harassing them know how to manipulate it.

“For maybe an uneducated pastor in a rural area, you get a bunch of people [who] come in, they look official, they have a document that looks official, and you feel frightened by that. So it’s really used as an intimidation factor more than carrying the force of law and being upheld by the courts or upheld by judges there. It’s really just a tool for intimidation.”

VOM Korea is petitioning to dismantle the 2008 circular so it can’t be used to manipulate minority Christians in Sri Lanka anymore.

Since the circular was issued, a new government in Sri Lanka was set up in 2015. There may be hope to successfully repeal the circular and its misuse with the most recent administration. Most of Sri Lanka is Buddhist accounting for 70 percent of the population, but the country still promotes freedom of religion.

“[With] the new government, so far, my understanding is the Christians there expected improvements in religious freedom, improvements in respect for the Evangelical Church, which makes up just a very small percentage of the population of Sri Lanka.”

Nettleton says there’s a few things you can do. “I think one of the things obviously is just to be aware of what’s going on. That helps us to pray effectively for Christians in Sri Lanka, being able to understand some of the challenges they face.”

You can also sign the petition with VOM Korea here!

BY LYNDSEY KOH