CBSL opens provincial office in Jaffna

by Gayan Kanchana in Jaffna

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) last week opened its fourth Provincial Office (PO) in the Northern Province at Arsadi Road in Jaffna.

At present, including the newly opened Jaffna PO covering Jaffna and Vavuniya districts, CBSL POs operate in the Southern Province covering Galle, Matara, Hambantota and Moneragala Districts; in the North Central Province covering Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa Districts and in the Central Province covering Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla Districts.

The main objectives of these POs are to support, implement and coordinate the key functions of CBSL in the provinces.

Promoting the rural economy by facilitating the smooth and timely supply of financial assistance, guidance, and marketing linkages; coordination of related supportive services to the provinces in order to promote economic growth and to contribute to the reduction of poverty and uplift economic and social conditions. Speaking at the opening ceremony CBSL Deputy GovernorK.G.D.D. Dheerasinghe said, “Parallel to the opening of the new PO the bank will conduct a survey.

By means of this survey the bank will assess the socio economic conditions in the Northern Province. At the initial stage the districts of Jaffna and Vavuniya in the Northern Province will be covered by the survey. To carry out the survey, and to assist the banking community in the country, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) will open its fifth PO in the Eastern Province”.

“The primary objective of conducting this sample survey is to collect comprehensive information on demographic features, living conditions, income levels, the labour market situation, job aspirations and indebtedness and saving behaviour of 1000 households drawn from urban and rural sectors of the Jaffna and Vavuniya districts.

The collection of data will commence from the first week of July in the Jaffna District and will continue until August 2010,” he said.

Northern Province Governor Major General G.A. Chandrasiri said, “CBSL will introduce many programs and many lending schemes in the province.

The PO is mainly focusing on agriculture, fisheries, small and medium enterprises,and personal development programs, and the activities for livelihood development and poverty alleviation of the people will also be included, in addition to conducting awareness programs on banking and finance to enhance the knowledge of investors, teachers, students and public he said.