BoC to open up economic zone in Jaffna

By Sarashi Samarasinghe

The Bank of Ceylon (BoC) is looking forward to opening a new economic zone in the Jaffna peninsula off the A9 road.

Dr Gamini Wickramasinghe

“The BoC is looking ahead in financing this new economic zone in the near future and at the moment the idea has been put on to the Government Agent (GA) of Jaffna,” said the Chairman of BoC, Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe.
According to Wickramasinghe, the new economic zone which is due to be put up is going to be similar to the Dambulla economic centre.
Wickramasinghe further emphasised that at present they have very low interest rates, as low as 8% to 12% at the bank.
“We have already reduced the interest rate that we are taking for housing loans and we have extended a special home loan scheme so that we want to encourage people in taking loans according to their day to day needs which would provide relief to public servants,” stated Wickramasinghe. “We were there in Jaffna from 1996 and even in Kilinochchi even though the conflict was going on, though they did not have any electricity. We existed there with the manual process of the bank,” he said.
So according to the new rates for the first Rs. 500, 000 the interest rate would be 4%, for 1 million rupees the interest rate would be 8%, for three million rupees the interest rate would be 11%.
“We will be giving our customers 25 years to pay all their debts,” he added.
According to Wickramasinghe, earlier there used to be interest rates of 18%, 20% and even 24% which were extremely high in comparison to date.
“A person who used to pay for a debt of Rs. 23,000 has to pay only Rs.16,000 now,” said Wickramasinghe.
He further stated that they have begun to actively disburse funds to viable sectors of the economy at lower rates while the lower rates are applicable to both new and old loans.
“We have reduced the interest rates four times this year and we have given much priority to the sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, small medium size industries, exports and imports,” said Wickramasinghe.
According to Wickramasinghe, at present they are having almost 30 BoC branches in the North including Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and internet facilities.
“At the moment we are doing some Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes in the North and East,” he added.
He further emphasised that they have given six billion rupees to the North and East from micro finance to normal debts and more than 200,000 people have exchanged money through their banks both in the North and East.
“We were there in Jaffna from 1996 and even in Kilinochchi even though the conflict was going on, though they did not have any electricity. We existed there with the manual process of the bank,” he said.
He further stated that their branches were also there in the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps as well.
When Wickramasinghe was questioned regarding the further developments in the North and East, he stated that they are hoping to put up a milk processing plant in Jaffna.
“We also bought 20 cattle for the farmers in the North to develop the livestock industry there as well and we are looking ahead in lending money for the fisheries industry as well,” he added.
In addition their branch network has continued to grow within the North while three branches were opened in September and two more in October to facilitate growing economic activities.
“We also do have a 24 hour call centre service at the BoC which is there for all three languages to help our valued customers which have been extremely useful for the IDPs who were there in the North and the East,” stated Wickramasinghe.