SJB MP reveals how Aussie-Lanka combine gypped Mahinda Rajapaksa Govt.

by Saman Indrajith

A company that had undertaken to manage the Embiliptiya Paper Mill had mortgaged the facility and its properties to a private bank and fled the country to Australia with the proceeds, Parliament was told yesterday.

 A company by the name of Auslanka had been formed by businessmen from Sri Lanka and Australia and won the management contract from the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, in 2011, on a 30-year lease, Ratnapura District SJB MP Hesha Withanage said yesterday.

He said that the company owners had mortgaged the paper factory and its machinery to a private bank and fled to Australia. The MP asked the government what it would do to revive the paper mill.

Industries Minister Wimal Weerawansa said that after the revival of the Valachchenai paper Ministry had initiated the process of taking over the Embilipitiya paper factory and found that another local businessman had obtained ownership of some of the properties of the mill from the bank. “We proposed to him to develop the mill as a public private partnership and the process is in progress,” the Minister said.

Minister Weerawansa said that the mill would be developed as a full-fledged state venture.

 He said that the mill had originally been given a 600-acre land belonging to the Mahaweli Development Authority. Discussions were underway to get the land released from the authority to the ministry. “We would not permit the use of the land for any other purpose.”

There were 18 industrial estates and 755 land units where 299 factories were functioning and 9,030 persons employed in them. The ministry had assisted the industrialists in acquiring technical know-how in e-commerce and e-business as a part of the government’s plan to revive local industries, Minister Weerawansa said.