The Cabinet has approved the launch of a Fund on behalf of journalists, artistes and writers.
The welfare fund is aimed at providing assistance to ensure the future wellbeing of aged artistes, journalists and writers who had been previously engaged in creative work as professional artistes and journalists on a full time basis, and are now in retirement. The Fund will begin with an initial capital of 50 million rupees allocated from budgeted funds. Also 10 percent of the income earned from the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall and the Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre will be allocated for the maintenance of the Fund. The proposal was submitted to the Cabinet by the President.
The Cabinet has granted approval to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft necessary legislation for the purpose.
Sri Lanka and Russia will sign an agreement aiming to cooperate on combating transnational crimes. The Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Law and Order of Sri Lanka will sign an MoU on Combating Crimes and Promotion of Police Cooperation. Its objective is to promote cooperation between the two countries by way of exchanging information on major criminal issues such as terrorism, crimes against lives and property, corruption, drug trafficking, human trafficking and money laundering. The Cabinet gave the nod for the President’s proposal.
Another proposal which received the assent of the Cabinet was the inking of an MOU between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to purchase drugs and health equipment. Sri Lanka spends around 30 Billion Rupees on health and medical equipment annually. Of this around 17 Billion Rupees is being expended on the purchase of drugs. Only between ten and 15 percent of the local pharmaceutical needs are supplied by local Western Drugs manufacturers. The balance is procured through tenders. The aiming of entering into this MOU is to constantly meet this need. This is a proposal submitted to the Cabinet by Minister Maithripala Sirisena.
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