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by Surekha Galagoda

Union Assurance Limited (UAL) the first commercial organisation to establish operations in Jaffna has had a massive and positive response to the recruitment initiative.

" In keeping with our company policy of recruiting from the area we advertised in the papers sold in Jaffna and the response was overwhelming. UAL received a total of 1200 applications and we selected 200 people initially, but they were all very intelligent and motivated, said a spokesman of the company.

The spokesman added that they hope to recruit some more as the business expands in the region.

The 43rd branch office of UAL was opened on May 6 at 139 Stanley Road Jaffna in the heart of the city's commercial hub.

The Chief Executive Officer of UAL Mr Sarath Wickramanayake said that the process of setting up the branch was a carefully planned and thought out one. He said that " the strategies had to be changed in Jaffna to get the first entry advantage."

The company had a massive and positive response for the recruitment drive. Mr Wickramanayake said that " UAL consider it a privilege to have been given this opportunity to develop a war torn area of our country by providing the residents with employment opportunities that will give them a well defined career path."

He said that the company hopes to contribute to the business confidence in a way that UAL's presence will be an asset to its people. UAL has the infrastructure to deal with the requirements of the Jaffna people be it answering a query or paying out a claim.

Mr Wickramanayake assured the system facilities will soon give online connectivity to the people of Jaffna to access their accounts at the touch of a button.

Setting up operations in Jaffna posed many logistical issues such as transport, accommodation and training of new recruits. Carrying out training programmes was a challenge that involved careful planning. Since furniture was not available in Jaffna for equipping the office we had to transport them from surrounding areas. For transportation of goods to Jaffna we had to pay the LTTE, said the spokesman.

General Manager Marketing Mr Ramal Jayasinghe said that though several companies have expressed interest to venture out to Jaffna UAL is the first private sector company and also the first private sector insurer to set up shop in Jaffna.

He said that we have had a strong presence in the North and the East for several years but it was recently that we decided to open branches in this region. Opening offices in these areas will enable us to grow faster than before by having a location. All this goes towards our basic strategy of expanding our branch network, he added.

UAL opened offices in Vavuniya - March 1998, Ampara - November 2001, Batticaloa and Trincomalee - March this year.

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