… a wit-laced menu of the news in 2016

blue-chip companies like John Keells, Aitken Spence and Jetwings should invest in the airline and that it should be listed on the stock market. Another said “Hostesses think they are God’s gift to mankind”. Having seen them at close quarters, I’m sure the latter was a tongue-in-cheek comment.

Work on the Colombo Port City resumes, at last, while the hotel industry believes the minimum rates (US$125+++) applicable to Colombo city hotels would remain in place for another two years. They must be thinking of housing all those highend workers who arrive to work on the Port City.

Sri Lanka motor traders are up in arms over the Finance Ministry’s vehicle valuation system. They claimed officials had no clue how to value a vehicle. But apparently it is a conspiracy by some to derail the government’s revenue collection measures. Maybe it is a case of all cars are grey in the dark.

President Sirisena flies in to Jaffna for the opening of Jetwing Jaffna where the reconciliation process is getting a 5-star treatment. A group of 48 youngsters from the peninsula, including Navaratnarajah Nimaltan, have been recruited by the hotel chain to learn the trade. They did it in hotels in the South before returning to Jaffna. It is all smiles as we eat Jaffna crab curry. Everyone is patting each other on the back. Let’s hope the process continues.

While in Jaffna, wish I had a shirt which you don’t need to wash for a long time. Say goodbye to smelly and sweaty shirts with a garment created by the University of Peradeniya in collaboration with a number of leading garment manufacturers (Brandix, Textured Jersey), coming out. This is done through the use stain and water-resistant Superhyrdophobic Textiles or SHT for short, another product of nanotechnology. But if it smells, it is SHIT.

A 5-day week with the weekend off is mooted. The private sector wants it, the unions oppose it, as it would eat into overtime, while workers are unsure. At present Sri Lankans work 45 hours a week, eight hours Monday to Friday and five on Saturday. Does it really matter? Every day seems a holiday in some government departments.

Ipaidabribe.lk hits the ground. It is a watchdog website which allows the public to report on bribery. I presume you can pay a Cop baksheesh for a traffic violation, and then also report him.

It is nothing compared to the big bucks floating around in the corporate world. Entrust Securities own the public Rs.9 billion it emerges, not Rs. 5 billion as previously estimated, just a small difference. These are the cases which must be investigated. Go after the big fish, let the minnows make merry.

Corruption is rife. As one report indicates, there is too much ‘bonding’ at Central Bank auctions. Everyone is chummy with each other and it’s all in the family, figuratively. Transparency is called for. The government is on the hunt for an investment bank or consultancy firm to facilitate the process of seeking a foreign partner to manage and invest in the national airline which has an accumulated debt of Rs.65 billion. The state absorbs a debt of US$3.2 billion while an order for four A350 aircraft has been cancelled. In a hurry to re-structure key state-owned enterprises, the government also says they will divest its stake in the Hilton, the Grand Oriental Hotel and the yet-to-be opened Hyatt.

They must have heard the warning from Damitha Kumarasinghe, director-general of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, who said the country could face a major electricity crisis within two years unless authorities acted fast.

A plan for the government to suspend the purchase of new vehicles for state officials and instead allow the hire of brand new or unregistered vehicles is mooted. Is this being penny-wise, pound-foolish? With government debt standing at 76 per cent of GDP, more than 40 per cent of it on foreign currency, I would have thought a better cost-saving option would have been to book a PickMe for our venerable officials.

The ink had hardly dried before news emerged that our representatives at the Diyawanna talkshop and senior government officials were in line for a bonanza – they would get duty-free/duty-slashed vehicle import permits once again. The loss for the state would be Rs.80 billion annually but it was still felt it was worth it to get our ministers to the church on time.

After all they have so much of important work to do, like setting up the much-awaited Sri Lanka’s Agency for Development, a body to fast-track, streamline and attract Foreign Direct Investment. The original timeline was for it to be set up in two months, but 2016 is gone and it is still to get off the ground. Did somebody say fasttrack or slow-pace?

The Coconut Development Authority is looking for an auctioneer to conduct its weekly auctions. Perhaps politicians amongst the joint opposition should apply. There are many experts at breaking coconuts in that crowd who would back Belafonte’s view that ‘Coco got a lotta iron, make you strong like a lion’.

Sri Lanka Tourism marks its 50th anniversary. But celebrations are muted with hardly a promotional peep the way neighbours Singapore or Malaysia did when they turned 50. Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tourism Operators President Devendra Senaratne says this landmark is not an event that tourists would be concerned about when they travel to a destination. He has a point still it would have been nice to have had a party.

He is back. Three final year students at the Moratuwa University have developed a flexible robotic arm inspired by the human vertebral column. Maybe they could have also built a backbone for ministers in the government.

The Business Times starts a new series on Start-Ups. We want to give a helping hand by raising the profile of this new breed of entrepreneurs. One report says there is an ambitious goal to reach about a million start-ups by 2022.