Pension for Home Guards and the Civil Security Force

The Cabinet agreed to grant pension benefits for the Members of the Horne Guards Force and the Civil Security Force, in terms of the provisions of the Minute on Pensions.

Cabinet also decided to formulate suitable Schemes of Recruitment and Salary Scales for the said Services, in consultation with the General Treasury and other relevant authorities.

SL- Seychelles to sign MoU to promote education

The proposal made by Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Education, to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding between the two Ministries of Education of the Seychelles Republic and Sri Lanka, with the view to further strengthening the relationship between the two countries, was approved by the Cabinet.

40th International Pepper Conference in Colombo

Minister of Minor Export Crop Promotion, Reginald Cooray, informed the Cabinet of Ministers that arrangements have been made to organize the 40th International Pepper Conference in Colombo from 30tb October to 02nd November 2012 in collaboration with Indonesia.

The International Pepper Conference has been established under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific.

Brazil, India. Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam which are the major Pepper producers comprise the permanent membership of this conference at present.

Services of Australian volunteers for educational development

The Cabinet granted approval to enter into a subsidiary arrangement with the Government of Australia to obtain the services of Australian volunteers for development programmes.

This programme is to provide an opportunity to Australian volunteers to share their skills and knowledge with local counterparts on short term (6 months) and long term (up to 3 years) basis and to foster links between organizations and communities in Australia and Sri Lanka.

These volunteers are to be deployed for development programmes in coordination with Aus-Aid's Development Cooperation Programme in Sri Lanka and all relevant expenses of this programme will be borne by the Government of Australia.