From Mayor in Germany to monk in Mihintale
Inspired by what he had heard from friends about Buddhism, Hermann Acker from Oberndorf takes a leap of faith and gets ordained in Sri Lanka after listening to and meeting the Chief Incumbent of the Mihintale Raja Maha Viharaya at a function in Germany.
Far removed from his duties as the Mayor of the small German town of Oberndorf, Hermann Acker decided to get ordained as a Buddhist monk at the Mihintale Rajamaha Viharaya recently. Mr. Acker (55), who has served as Mayor for over 14 years developed an interest in Buddhism after he heard about the teachings of the Buddha from two of his friends who were frequent visitors to Sri Lanka and keen students of the teachings.
Some parts of Sri Lanka including North Central Province is full of hardness, fluoride and compounds of heavy metals such as Cadmium, Arsenic, Lead and such contaminated water has caused chronic kidney disease among children in the region.
Balzhausen is approximately 8,000 kilometres away from their tropical homeland. Wrapped up in warm jackets the members of a delegation from the distant Sri Lanka get off the bus in front of the company Energeticum Energiesteme in Balzhausen. The delegation is formed by 15 entrepreneurs from the energy sector and two representatives of the state-run ministry of energy in Sri Lanka. The guests were welcomed by CEO Robert Specht, his employees and Balzhausen’s Mayor Gerhard Glogger.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held every two years to enable leaders of Commonwealth countries to come together to discuss global and Commonwealth issues and to decide on collective policies and initiatives will be held in Sri Lanka from 13th - 17h November 2013. Sri Lanka is privileged to hold this summit this 
year, as this is the first time an Asian country is hosting this in 24 years. This prestigious event presents Sri Lanka a valuable opportunity to promote and reposition Sri Lanka as a strategically important economic centre of the world.
In the past year 58% of economies covered by Doing Business implemented at least 1 institutional or regulatory reform making it easier to do business in the areas measured, and 23 undertook reforms in 3 or more areas. Of these 23 economies, 10 economies stand out as having jumped ahead the most in the relative ranking are: Poland, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Burundi, Costa Rica, Mongolia, Greece, Serbia and Kazakhstan. And for the first time in 7 years, a South Asian economy—Sri Lanka—ranks among those improving the most in the ease of doing business.
Among all the other achievements of IT/BPO industry, Sri Lanka has won the ‘Off-shoring Destination of the Year’ at The National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs). The NOAAs is the only award ceremony dedicated to the UK outsourcing sector and the award ceremony was held on Thursday 24th October 2013 at the Park Plaza Riverbank in London. Other shortlisted destinations for this award included Serbia and Fiji.
A group of students from Sri Lanka visits Germany. The long-standing cooperation of the Sri Lanka workgroup of the Gymnasium Isernhagen near Hanover makes this possible.