Saturday 18th June, 2011www.island.lk business@unl.upali.lk (T) 2497500 (F) 2497543

“One of the reasons that most people may perceive themselves

as being worse off even though averageGDP is increasing is because they are

indeed worse off.”- Joseph Stiglitz,Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi

(Mis-measuring Our Lives, 2010)

GENEVA: The government, workerand employer delegates at the 100thannual Conference of the InternationalLabour Organization (ILO) onThursday, 16 June adopted a historicset of international standards aimed atimproving the working conditions oftens of millions of domestic workersworldwide.

“We are moving the standards sys-tem of the ILO into the informal econo-my for the first time, and this is abreakthrough of great significance,”said Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General. “History is being made.”

Conference delegates adopted theConvention on Domestic Workers(2011) by a vote of 396 to 16, with 63abstentions and the accompanyingRecommendation by a vote of 434 to 8,with 42 abstentions. The ILO is theonly tripartite organization of the UN,and each of its 183 Member States isrepresented by two government dele-gates, and one employer and oneworker delegate, with an independentvote.

The two standards will be the 189thConvention and the supplementing201st Recommendation adopted bythe labour Organization since it wascreated in 1919. The Convention is aninternational treaty that is binding onMember States that ratify it, while theRecommendation provides moredetailed guidance on how to apply theConvention.

The new ILO standards set out thatdomestic workers around the worldwho care for families and households,must have the same basic labour rightsas those available to other workers:reasonable hours of work, weekly restof at least 24 consecutive hours, a limiton in-kind payment, clear informationon terms and conditions of employ-ment, as well as respect for fundamen-tal principles and rights at work includ-ing among others freedom of associa-tion and the right to collective bargain-ing.

Recent ILO estimates based onnational surveys and/or censuses of117 countries place the number ofdomestic workers at a minimum of 53million, but experts say there could be100 million in the world, consideringthat this kind of work is often hiddenand unregistered. In developing coun-tries, they make up at least 4 to 12 percent of wage employment. Around 83per cent of these workers are women

or girls and many are migrant workers. The Convention defines domestic

work as work performed in or for ahousehold or households. While thenew instruments cover all domesticworkers, they provide for specialmeasures to protect those workerswho, because of their young age ornationality or live-in status, may beexposed to additional risks relative totheir peers, among others.

According to ILO proceedings, thenew Convention will come into forceafter two countries have ratified it.

“Bringing the domestic workers intothe fold of our values is a strong move,for them and for all workers who aspireto decent work, but it also has strongimplications for migration and ofcourse for gender equality,” Mr.Somavia said.

In the introductory text, the newConvention says that “domestic workcontinues to be undervalued and invisi-ble and is mainly carried out by womenand girls, many of whom are migrantsor members of disadvantaged commu-nities and who are particularly vulnera-ble to discrimination in respect of con-ditions of employment and work, and toother abuses of human rights.”

Michelle Bachelet, ExecutiveDirector of UN Women, in her addressto the Conference Committee, saidthat the deficit of decent work amongdomestic workers “can no longer betolerated,” adding that UN Womenwould support the process of ratifica-tion and application of the new ILOinstruments.

“We need effective and bindingstandards to provide decent work toour domestic workers, a clear frame-work to guide governments, employ-ers and workers,” said Halimah Yacob,the Workers Vice-Chair fromSingapore. She noted that the collec-tive responsibility was to providedomestic workers with what theylacked most: recognition as workers;and respect and dignity as humanbeings.

Paul MacKay from New Zealand,the Employers Vice-Chair declared:“We all agree on the importance ofbringing domestic work into the main-stream and responding to serioushuman rights concerns. All employersagree there are opportunities to do bet-ter by domestic workers and thehouseholds and families for whom theywork”.

Total foreign exchange earn-ings from the tourism sector grew64.28 percent in 2010 to US$ 575million from US$ 350 million in2009 as arrivals surged 46.12 per-cent to 654,476 during the first fullyear of peace from 447,890 in 2009,but employment generation waslow, the Treasury said.

“The total number of directemployment opportunities createdby the tourism industry in 2010was 55,023. It is a 5.6 percentincrease compared to the 52,071persons employed in tourism sec-tor in year 2010,” the Ministry ofFinance and Planning said in itsrecently published annual report.

“The government targets 2.5million arrivals per year by 2016

and 4 million per year by 2020.This sector also expects to createone million employment opportu-nities and an annual income ofUS$ 8 billion 2020. In order toachieve these targets, upscaletourism which targets high spend-ing tourists is being promoted asan essential component of thetourism strategy. Accordinglyspending per tourist per day isexpected to increase up to US$ 200within next ten years,” theTreasury said.

It said it was focused onattracting more tourists fromIndia, China, East Asia, MiddleEast and Russia in addition toalready established arrivals fromWestern countries.

Seylan Bank recently opened their latestbanking centre at Kaluvanchikudy in order todeliver greater convenience to their valuedcustomers. The centre will be located atNo.225, Main Street, Kaluvanchikudy. TheNew Banking Centre was ceremonially openedby Eastman Narangoda – Chairman, Seylan

Bank PLC along with P Niranjan, DeputyGeneral Manager – Zone II in the presence ofthe Senior Management of Seylan Bank, cus-tomers and invitees.

To provide a more convenient service to itsclientele the branch will be opened for busi-ness on Saturdays too, the bank said.

Five young advertising profes-sionals have been selected to rep-resent Sri Lanka at the highlyacclaimed Cannes LionsInternational Festival ofCreativity and at the RogerHatchuel Academy. Theannouncement of the winnerswas made at a media briefing.

The Cannes Young Lions pro-gramme is open to advertisingprofessionals 28 years and underworking in advertising/communi-cations businesses. The partici-pating teams, are selectedthrough a pre-selection process intheir own country, with the win-ners attending the Cannes Lionsfestival in France to participate atthe Young Lions Competition,where they compete againstteams from all over the world.

The Young Lions competitionstake place during the CannesLions festival week at the Palaisdes Festivals. Each competingteam is briefed by a client to cre-ate and execute a campaign with-in 24 hours (within 48 hours forFilm). After which the relevantglobal jury will judge the workand select Gold winners fromaround the world.

The preliminary competitionof the Young Lions competitionorganized by Metal Factor inassociation with the IAA and the

Association of AccreditedAdvertising Agencies (4A’s) saw40 young professionals from across section of agencies, compet-ing in the Young Lions categoriesof Print & TV. The Young Lionscompetition unveils the very bestof young talent from amongst SriLanka’s advertising professionalsand ultimately provides the win-ning teams the opportunity toattend a global gathering ofindustry giants at the CannesLions Festival of creativity.

This year the TV category waswon by Gayan Perera and SandunKankanamge of JWT and theprint category was won byChanuka Wijayasinghe and RuaniWijenaike of Triad. The place toattend the Roger HatchuelAcademy (a program conductedalongside the festival) was won byAcademy of Design (AOD) stu-

dent Dihan de Silva who will jointhe rest of the winners fromacross the world for a series ofmasterclasses at the CannesLions Festival. ChanduRajapreyar of Leo BurnettSolutions and Dilshad Ahamad ofGrant McCann Erickson were therespective mentors for the win-ning teams whilst Delon de Silvadirected the winning commercial.

Unilever with Signal extendedtheir support to this globallyacclaimed competition by being asponsor and presented a briefwhich called on the competitorsto produce an effective TV com-mercial for Signal Whitening. TheTV commercial production wassupported by SamsungElectronics who provided thecompeting teams with a Samsungmobile phone to film their TVcommercials. The Judges of the

Young Lions competition were:Chandani Rajaratnam of JWT,David Blacker of Phoenix Ogilvy,Russel Miranda of Grant McCannErickson and Firzan Mulafer ofLeo Burnett, who chaired thejury. Sun FM extended their sup-port to the competition by spon-soring the programme for theselection of the student to attendthe Roger Hatchuel Academy inCannes. The Roger HatchuelAcademy student was selected bya panel comprising KeithWijesuriya of BBDO, SharonJayasundera of Bates, LailaGunasekera Martenstyn of GrantMcCann Erickson, Irfan Ahmedof JWT and this jury was chairedby Chalaka Gajabahu of LoweLDB

The juries concluded that ‘Thetalent amongst Sri Lanka’s youngadvertising professionals is

becoming increasingly evident.This year’s Young Lions competi-tion brought together teams froma variety of Advertising agenciesin the country. The quality of thefinal work presented was impres-sive and augurs well for thefuture of our industry. It is heart-ening to observe the progress andevolution of the advertisingindustry in Sri Lanka and to wit-ness the transformation andimprovements that are takingplace.’

Ranill de Silva, Representativefor the Cannes Lions in Sri Lankastated ‘The advertising communi-ty extends our congratulations tothe winners of this year’s CannesYoung Lions Competition. We arehappy to have seen a greaterinterest in the competition’.Cannes Lions, the InternationalFestival of Creativity is thelargest gathering of worldwideleaders in marketing and adver-tising. Such a gathering com-bined with the unique programsand masterclasses presented, notto mention the opportunity tomeet with professionals fromaround the world, makes the festi-val an excellent platform for gain-ing valuable exposure.’

Rayynor Silva, Chairman andManaging Director of ABC RadioNetworks, sponsor of the Roger

Hatchuel student stated ‘the ABCgroup is very happy to foster thetalent in the industry and we willcontinue to do so.’ WhilstBandula Padmakumara,Chairman of the AssociatedNewspapers of Ceylon Limited,who extended their patronage forthe Young Lions Print completionstated, ‘ANCL is always willing tosupport the industry and we wishthe participants at the YoungLions Print competition all thevery best at Cannes.’ MihiraKulatunga, Brand Manager –Signal, had this to say: ‘the talentwe saw in this competitionaugurs well for the future of theindustry and we wish the winnersthe very best.’

‘The Cannes Lions Festival ofCreativity is the Olympics of theadvertising world and the indus-try’s most prestigious awards arepresented at the festival eachyear. The Cannes Young Lionsprogrammes create an ideal gate-way for young Sri Lankans tolearn from the global advertisingindustry. It’s important that theyouth in the industry are exposedto global standards to bring backlearning to infuse into the localadvertising industry in SriLanka’ stated Keith Wijesuriya,President of the 4A’s and RenukaMarshall, President of the IAA.

DFCC Vardhana Bank (DVB),the commercial banking arm ofDFCC Bank won the award for‘T+1 Best Facilitator’ from LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd, in the Mediumscale category.

The award, won at LCPL’s 5thyear celebrations of utilizing theCITS (Cheque Imaging andTruncation System) is in recogni-tion of the bank’s prompt serviceprovided to customers by realiz-

ing the funds for their chequesdeposited at all DVB brancheswithin the banking hours of T+1.

T+1 is a term used to refer tothe cycle of cheque clearing,common to all commercialbanks.

“We are proud to receive thisaward from LCPL. Winning thisaward, whilst competing withother commercial banks, is cer-tainly a great honour for DFCC

Vardhana. This award is a goodindicator of how committed thebank is towards embracing newtechnologies in order to makeour services more efficient andpeople-friendly, which is in factone of the most important fac-tors for the bank,” saidLakshman Silva, CEO, DFCCVardhana Bank.

Last year, the bank receivedthe much coveted MACO award,

from the Mass CommunicatorsAssociation of Sri Lanka for theimmense contribution the bankrendered through its partnershipwith Sri Lanka Post towards theimprovement of infrastructure inthe peripheral and rural areas ofthe country.

DVB, rated ‘AA-(lka)’ by FitchRatings Lanka has 124 branchesand extension offices spread outacross the island.

Tourism: arrivals, earningssurge but employmentgeneration lowGovt. to focus on high-end tourism withambitious 4 billion target by 2020

100th ILO annual Conference decides:Estimated 53 to 100 million domesticworkers worldwide now under labourstandards

Seylan Bank opens outletat Kaluvanchikudy

Eastman Narangoda – Chairman, Seylan Bank PLC cutting the ribbon to declare openthe Branch along with P Niranjan, Deputy General Manager – Zone II in the presence ofothers in the Senior Management.

Five young Sri Lankans off to Cannes Lions Advertising Festival

DFCC Vardhana Bank’s Central Clearing Team

DFCC Vardhana Bank wins award

LBO: Stocks rebounded slightlyFriday after five straight days offalls with heavy trading in BlueDiamond Jewellery Worldwide andits new shareholder eChanneling,brokers said.

The main All Share Price Indexclosed at 7,050.03, up 0.49 percent(34.32 points) while the more liquidMilanka index rose 0.48 percent(31.47 points) to close at 6,600.87,according to stock exchange provi-sional figures.

Turnover was 2.5 billion rupees.“United States and European

market crashes are now almost cer-tain to happen. We can expect plen-ty of foreign funds to shift towardsemerging markets like Sri Lanka,”Capital Trust Stockbrokers said in aresearch note.

E-Channeling, which last weekbought a 13.24 percent stake(13,672,100 shares) of BlueDiamonds Jewellery Worldwide,closed 60 cents higher at 7.50 rupeeswith over 42 million shares worth313 million rupees traded.

Blue Diamond JewelleryWorldwide was the second largestcontributor to the day’s turnoverwith its share going up by 1.70rupees or 12.79 percent to 9.70rupees. Over 31 million BlueDiamonds shares worth 302 millionrupees changed hands.

Recent stock market debutantBimputh Lanka closed at an all-timehigh of 82 rupees, up 27.30 rupees or49.91 percent.

East-West Properties closed at13.40 rupees, up 1.90 rupees or 16.52percent with over 10 million sharestraded.

Two crossings were reportedduring the day, one was 400,000shares of Asian Hotels andProperties at 178 rupees per shareand the other Bukit Darah at 1,050rupees a share.

CSE reboundsslightly

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oilprices tumbled to below $93 abarrel Friday in Asia amid astronger dollar and mixed signsabout the U.S. economy.

Benchmark oil for July deliv-ery was down $1.61 to $93.34 abarrel at late afternoonSingapore time in electronictrading on the New YorkMercantile Exchange. The con-tract rose 14 cents to settle at$94.95 on Thursday.

In London, Brent crude forAugust delivery was down $1.22to $112.80 a barrel on the ICEFutures exchange.

On Thursday, a survey by theFederal Reserve Bank ofPhiladelphia found that manu-facturing slowed in that region,one day after a similar reportfound that manufacturing wasweakening in the New Yorkarea.

Oil falls tonear $93