ADVERTORIAL

Felicitatation of staff members:

Delmege Group holds key ‘HR’ awards

The Delmege Group felicitated their staff members at a awards ceremony held recently where both long service staff members as well as outstanding performers were recognised.

The highlight of the evening of course was the awarding of the Chairman’s Trophy which was held for the third consecutive year and was won by Sampath Wijesekera of Delmege Forsyth & Co. (Exports) Ltd.

The Chairman’s Trophy recognition scheme focuses on five key areas critical for business success which include outstanding performance and / or customer service, exceptional leadership, exceptional levels of new business development, development of new ideas and concepts, and personal dedication and commitment to the Group Company.

The Chairman’s Trophy winner is chosen from the top contenders in these categories with nominations being made by the Heads of the respective companies, and is recognised for his/her outstanding performance during the financial year.

The judging of the winner of the Chairman’s Trophy was done by a four member panel comprising Director, Nihal Abeysekera, Director, F.P. de Alwis, Group CEO Dilhan de Silva and Human Resource Development Lashika de Silva.

Long service awards in two categories, over 15 years and over 25 years too were presented, with 57 staff members qualifying for the 15 year service awards and 6 qualifying for the 25 year service awards.

Further staff motivation came in the way of the Delmege Challenge Competition which is held at the beginning of every year where staff members are encouraged to send in their proposals which are beneficial to the Group. Judging is based on the practical implementation of the proposals, as well as the benefit derived to the Group in the event of the said proposal being implemented.

This year’s Delmege Challenge Competition winners were Lalith Wickramasinghe of Delmege Forsyth & Co. Ltd and Niroshan Fernando from Delmege Forsyth & Co. (Exports) Ltd.

The evening’s entertainment once again was yet another display of the staff of the Delmege Group’s dedication and commitment to their workplace with a host of talented staff members who were drawn from the entire Group and belonging to all ranks, coming together in a show of talent that was indeed staggering.

“The Delmege Group has a history of over 125 years and has come to be recognised as a force to be reckoned within the local corporate world. We represent a very large number of international brands and agencies.

The foundation and success of any organisation lies with its people and the Delmege Group has always recognised and rewarded its staff members who are the cornerstone of our success” said Chairman of the Delmege Group, F.G.N. Mendis.

First batch capped at Hemas Nursing School

The inaugural capping ceremony of the first batch of nursing students of the Hemas Nursing School was held recently with 53 nursing students, both males and females, capped by Head of Nursing at the Hemas Hospital, Priyantha Abeygunawardena. Chief guest on the occasion was CEO Hemas Hospitals Pvt Ltd Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe with Chairman Hemas Hospitals Private Ltd and Director Hemas Holdings PLC Murtaza Esufally as Guest of Honour.

Run by the Associated College of Health Sciences (ACHS), the Nursing School’s first batch underwent an intensive 18 month training in subject matter and practice, conducted by experienced patient care training professionals. The training was conducted in the English medium, according to a curriculum approved by the Ministry of Health and formulated to international standards.

The main objective of the training programme was to train nurses who are technically sound and with caring personalities. All efforts were also taken to develop their interpersonal skills, professional skills and ethical behaviour. The batch will graduate after a further 18 months practice and training.

“In early days, nursing education included only the subject matter and practical training related to nursing sciences. But with the advent of globalisation, today’s patients are more educated and have greater levels of expectation. With this identified, we have given more emphasis to personality development and management skills in our training programme, resulting in professional nurses with caring hands which is also our vision.”

Chairman Hemas Hospitals Private Ltd and Director Hemas Holdings PLC Murtaza Esufally said, “I am pleased that our trainees have gone through a sound foundation course to be now built upon, under the supervision of our experienced nurses at the Hemas Wattala Hospital as it gears for its November 2008 launch”.

Addressing the gathering, the elder brother of a student nurse said, “Our father died when we were small. My mother underwent lot of difficulties to educate us. I was lucky to enter University, but not my brother.

Nawaloka hospitals, NSB unite to promote better health

In order to maintain a high level of productivity, attendance and punctuality within an organisation, it is essential to ensure the good health of it’s staff, and it is with this end in view that two of the country’s leading Corporate entities entered into a partnership recently.

Nawaloka Hospitals, the pioneer and leading private sector health care provider, together with the National Savings Bank, the leader in domestic and corporate banking in Sri Lanka, established a new partnership whereby Nawaloka Hospitals opened a Medical Centre at NSB headquarters for their management and staff .

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Director/ General Manager Nawaloka Hospitals, Professor Lal Chandrasena said they were looking forward to introducing innovative health care facilities at the Centre and providing specialised customer services in areas such as channel appointments, an in house pharmacy, as well as consultations with well qualified doctors and skilled nursing staff.

General Manager NSB, S.H. Piyasiri said the initiative to provide health care facilities at the Bank’s premises would help them to achieve positive feedback from both management and staff, while this new initiative of providing medical facilities on site would not merely serve as an added convenience, but improve productivity and enhance cooperation and loyalty amongst employees.

South Asia .... Continued from yestereday

Review by Saman Kelegama

Produced by Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, India, and published by Oxford University Press, India, pp.151

Even though India has emerged as a global hub for outsourcing of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services, other South Asian countries are yet to exploit the full potential of trade in services.

In this context, some of the findings of the RIS study for the SAARC Secretariat on ‘Potential for Trade in Services in the Context of SAFTA ‘ that are summarised in the report are useful.

A noteworthy finding is that the trade inservices within the region was more balanced with smaller and less developed economies generally enjoying surpluses with larger economies, thus helping to bridge the asymmetries that exist in trade in goods in the region.

The report also shows how autonomous liberalisation in services in the SAARC member countries has contributed to stimulating some trade in services in the region. In the case of India and Sri Lanka, deepening trade under the FTA has automatically triggered liberalisation in services which has further contributed to stimulating trade in goods.

Countries in South Asia experience high trade costs due to inadequacy in trade and transport facilitation. South Asian trade is constrained by poor infrastructure, congestion, high costs, and lengthy delays.

These problems are particularly severe at border crossings, many of which post significant barriers to trade.

Thus, improving connectivity to facilitate trade and investment flows in the region is important. In regard to transport connectivity, the reports present the case for a SAARC Regional Transport and Transit Agreement that would facilitate surface transport links throughout the region.

It has been estimated that the potential transit revenue earned by Bangladesh from Indian trucks transiting through its territory to the North could be of the order of US$ 1 billion a year.

The report also makes the case for reviving an Afghanistan-Pakistan-India-Bangladesh-Myanmar international corridor, which could emerge as Asia’s new ‘silk route’ connecting Central Asia with East Asia, besides facilitating intra-SAARC trade, and making South Asia as the hub for Pan-Asia trade. The report recommends a South Asian Common Transport Policy for providing a comprehensive framework for facilitating regional connectivity through different modes of transport.

The report also recommends a South Asia Regional Infrastructure Development facility as a centre for cross-border infrastructure projects, within the ambit of the South Asia Development Fund.

The report shows that the region is vulnerable owing to inadequate energy endowments and overwhelming dependence on imported fossil fuels. For ensuring energy security, regional connectivity could assist.

The complementary energy resource endowments in the region-Pakistan and Bangladesh-natural gas; India-coal and petroleum products; Nepal and Bhutan - hydropower - provides a basis for regional energy cooperation. For facilitating this, the SAARC Working Group on Energy needs to be strengthened.

The report argues that the SAARC Energy Centre should foster collaboration with multilateral bodies, with other energy blocs, and also with sources of energy technology.

As energy trade requires costly infrastructure involving large investment, the report makes a case for a regional cooperative framework for facilitating trade and investment in energy.

(To be continued)

Panasonic helps ‘Save Energy - Save Money’

Declares environmental initiatives at ‘Eco Ideas Factory’:

Panasonic, a leading global brand in consumer electronic appliances has announced an environmental statement that outlines the company’s mid and long-term environmental management plans. The Kusatsu Factory of Matsushita Home Appliances Company (HA Company) in Shiga Prefecture was named the “Eco Ideas Factory Biwako” (Lake Biwa). The Eco Ideas Factory will help to realise three of Panasonic’s pivotal eco concepts: “eco ideas for manufacturing,” “eco ideas for products,” and “eco ideas for everybody, everywhere.”

The environmental statement includes three main themes - harmonious coexistence with the global environment, contribution as a global company to local communities, and implementation of ecological lifestyles as member residents of communities.

Panasonic is committed to help save energy that in turn will help save the resources of the planet. This is a key angle that the organisation pursues in all its product categories. One of its such products, the Panasonic Inverter technology air conditioner helps cut power consumption by as much as 50 per cent bringing about big savings to customers.

A main focus is that while the Panasonic Inverter air conditioner lowers electricity bills, this helps in saving resources. The inverter controls and varies power output to ensure optimum use across a wide power range for a completely new level of temperature control. This high efficiency operation maintains the optimum temperature with minimum power, helping conserve energy.

Similarly the Panasonic Intelligent Inverter refrigerator helps slash energy bills. The refrigerator operates night and day all the time since plugged in, hence it consumes more electricity than any other household appliance.

Therefore needless to say an energy-saving refrigerator performance has a big effect on the overall household electricity bill of any home. And this is where the Panasonic Inverter fridge comes in to help conserve energy.

Panasonic identifies that apart from being an environmentally conscious company, it also recognises the sentiments of its valued consumers as they struggle to curtail their electricity bills.

The entire range of Panasonic products are available at all Softlogic Max and Softlogic Lifestyle electronic stores islandwide. All products are backed by the Softlogic/ Uni Walker warranty and are available under a variety of tailor-made easy payment schemes to suit any customer’s needs.

All Panasonic products carry the superior after sales service offered by Softlogic. Uni Walkers Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of the Softlogic Group is the sole authorised distributor for Panasonic products in Sri Lanka.