Ambassador H. E. Dr. Palitha T.B. Kohona

Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations 

Seventeenth Session

High Level Committee on South-South Cooperation

 23rd May 2012, UN Headquarters, New York 

Mr. President, 

I congratulate you, and the other members of the bureau on your election. I would also like to commend the excellent contribution of His Excellency Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya, as chair of the High-level Committee for the past two years.

 I also recognize the valuable work of Mr. Yiping Zhou, Director of the Special Unit for UNDP’s South-South Cooperation.

 Mr. President, 

My delegation associates itself with the statement made by the distinguished representative of Algeria on behalf of the G-77 and China. 

South - South development cooperation has a long history, over five decades, with the active engagement of the emerging Southern developing economies and Southern institutions. Rapidly expanding South-South trade, investment, and cooperation, including regional economic integration and environmental and sustainable development is a reality. To be effective in the long term, greater competitiveness of Southern economies in global production and their increasing role in global investment flows must continue. The private sector of Southern states are beginning to play an active role beyond the traditional inter-state development partnerships. Many non-OECD multilateral development institutions have also become engaged through different channels, such as direct fund transfers and joint partnerships with state and nonstate stakeholders.

Press Release

United Nations Commemorates Vesak

at a ceremony in the General Assembly Hall

The United Nations commemorated Vesak in accordance with resolution 54/115 on 7th May 2012 at a ceremony held at the General Assembly Hall.

This event attracted a large number of Permanent Representatives, Buddhist monks and members of the larger Buddhist community in the Tri-state area.

Ambassador Dr. Palitha Kohona, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations chaired the event and messages from the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly, who were away from New York, were read. The Secretary-General’s statement emphasized the relevance of the message of peace of the Buddha in today’s troubled world. Fifteen Permanent Representatives and Deputy Permanent Representatives including those from India, Pakistan, Laos, Bhutan, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia Republic of Korea, Japan, Bangladesh, Philippines and Nepal and the Apostolic Nuncio addressed the gathering. (Please click here to read the address of Apostolic Nuncio)

Dr. Palitha Kohona spoke of the contribution of Buddhism to the underlying philosophy of non-violence and peace in the broader Asian region.

The day’s events were concluded with a "Dan Sal" (food festival) hosted by the countries supporting this event.

The following day an arms giving ceremony (heel daane) for the Buddhist monks of the Tri-state area was held at the new Sri Lanka chancery.

Photos of the opening of new chancery building

Media Release

The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations moved to a new location on Second Avenue today.  The Permanent Mission was previously located on Third Avenue. The Government has been renting space for the mission for over 57 years. Last year, the Government of Sri Lanka made a decision to purchase premises and the acquisition was facilitated by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The new premises which exceed 10,000 square feet will save the country foreign exchange in excess of LKrs. 30 million annually.

Statement by Ambassador H.E. Dr. Palitha Kohona,

Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations 

3rd Meeting of the Ad-Hoc Working Group of the Whole on the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socio-Economic Aspects 

23-27 April 2012 

Co-Chairs,

Distinguished delegates, 

At the outset, I would like to congratulate the Co-Chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole for having managed this process successfully so far. I welcome the new Co chair, Mr. Goncalo Motta from Portugal.  

Sri Lanka aligns itself with the statement made on behalf of the G-77 and China by the delegation of Algeria.  

Sri Lanka, an Island nation, located in the middle of the Indian Ocean has an overriding interest in the state of the oceans and the marine environment that surround us. The ocean has influenced developments in our country significantly for millennia and will continue to be a matter of critical import to us. Sri Lanka has a coastline of approximately 1,700 km, mostly sandy beaches, and the coastal zone is of vital socio-economic importance to the nation. We, therefore, have a keen interest in participating in a process of regular marine environment assessment that will provide accurate information to facilitate the development and implementation of appropriate policies. 

Rio+20 discussions are also progressing next door. 

The world’s oceans, which cover 70% of the globe, are intrinsically connected to other ecosystems, and have impacts on human societies and on the world’s economy, and in fact, on our future. Knowledge of global warming and sea level rise are becoming deeper with every passing year. The attendant consequences of corral bleach, impacts on marine biological diversity, melting of the polar ice caps, loss of coastal lands, etc, are presenting frightening challenges. Man's own rapaciousness and negligence which has caused the collapse of major segments of the global fish stocks and ocean pollution remain to be addressed. We have seen satellite pictures of the swirling mass of rubbish in the middle of the Pacific. 

Ambassador Dr. Kohona attended the High Level Meeting on ICT  and Sustainable Urbanization in Hong Kong

Statement by Ambassdor Kohona pn 16th  April,  2012 in Hong Kong

          It is a normal, widely observed historical phenomenon, that rural folk migrate to cities for a range of different reasons. These migrations could be temporary or permanent. The attraction in the cities could be, jobs, better prices for their products, education for their children, housing, or simply the bright lights. In many developed countries too, rural youth migrate to cities looking for the bright lights, in a metaphorical sense. As many believe, city streets are paved with gold.  There is a cost attached to these migrations.  Both for these people from rural areas as well as the current city dwellers and the managers of urban areas.

      Bridging the digital divide between rural and urban communities could help to curb the migration pattern in certain countries. Rapidly developing Information and Communication Technologies are now being acknowledged as being crucial to multiple service providers as well as a source of innovative employment creation. We need to be creative in this area, or shall I say, domain.

      Recognising this growing demand for urban amenities in rural areas, the Government of Sri Lanka first started developing the policy framework for moving certain industries into rural areas, making them readily accessible to rural communities. The result has been the facility for rural youth, especially for girls, to find employment in their own neighbourhoods. Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans now work in factories and work places located in their own districts. Industrial parks have been set up far from the main cities. We have thus avoided the overcrowding of our cities unlike many other developing countries. We have also avoided many of the vexing social problems associated with overcrowded cities. Similarly, from early 2000 onward, Sri Lanka started a rapid ICT drive encompassing the whole country with a special emphasis on rural and backward communities giving them enormous benefits. The rural telecenter network was a special innovation, in which a collaborative partnership was promoted among the government, corporate and individual entrepreneurs and the civil society organizations.

     Sri Lanka's current e-Gov policy and associated projects have ignited a rapid e-service drive, serving a significant portion of the country’s population. Accordingly, more and more information on public services has become available for citizens electronically (via the internet and through the official government call center services). Now, time consuming and costly visits to urban centers to access government services has become unnecessary. There is further room for development, but significant advances have already been made, given our limited resources.

      The national broadband policy of Sri Lanka too is helping narrowing the digital divide. The planned island-wide national backbone network also supports this policy. The service is open to private enterprise and a fierce competition has begun to provide services, making Sri Lanka a leader in this area. Of course, business is a beneficiary from this. More than 80% of Sri Lankans now have access to cell phones.

      Sri Lanka’s fifth largest component of the GDP is the ICT-based business process outsourcing (BPO) industry , which is now set to surpass traditional industries and services in a couple of years.  This target set by the private sector along with government-sponsored rural ICT infrastructure which will help job-seeking youth to engage in ICT/internet based income generating activities, thus discouraging the traditional inclination to migrate to cities looking for the "source of decent jobs".

It is also noteworthy that Sri Lanka’s first women BPO started on this year’s International Women’s Day in Jaffna. This city suffered severely during the 30-year internal conflict.

The increasing ICT literacy (increased from 5% in 2004 to 30% in 2011) will drive a significant portion of rural youth to ICT based “green” jobs. The government plans to increase the number to 75% by 2016.

     The same result can be expected if Sri Lanka can improve distance education facilities and resources in ICT-based media which would help to reduce rural children going to ad hoc after school tuition facilities in cities. However, substituting teachers standing in front of a class room with such new technologies is a challenge, specially developing educational material in local languages. Providing a solid base for education will help improving social development indicators of developing countries sustainably.

    Today’s challenge is to manage time and space for ever increasing demands in cities despite many resource constraints. In this context, ICT helps managing urbanization sustainably by modern means. Improved digital communication facilities, population databases, online payment systems, security systems and supply-chain management systems can be mentioned as the ICT tools of sustainable urban management.

  Developing new townships with ICT infrastructure, which are flexible for rapidly advancing new technologies are therefore imperative to mitigate many negative results of urbanization. To improve sustainability, energy-efficient ICT and supportive systems should be developed and implemented.

Please click here to see back ground note