• Long, shapely legs are natural winners
• Murali bowls over'the mediamarket'
• Hot water in the pipeline
• Edible oil surcharge hard to digest
• Mind Your Business
• Science starved of funds
• News
• Unafraid and unbowed

Long, shapely legs are natural winners

They win on sports tracks, swimming meets, gymnasiums, in the performing arts, on catwalks, even on sidewalks. Making use of this basic fact of life, a bold and adventurous shopping mall has heralded the Christmas season with a head to toe competition culminating in the longest and most shapely legs.

Mall crawlers down at Crescat Boulevard found themselves in the spotlight last week when a beautician turned his discerning eye on a bit of leg gracefully descending from a bit of skirt. 

The promotion for a total look began on a Monday with the best head, complete with lovely tresses, beautiful eyes, luscious lips and pert nose to the shapely legs competition on Friday completing the total look. 

Winners walked off with exciting prizes and free waxing and beauty care advice. 

This novel promotion is one of the many new promotions the Colombo malls are preparing to unleash this season anticipating a consumer buying spree, Crescat's GM Nishan Perera told the Sunday Times Business. 

Compared to the last two Christmas seasons where the overall consumer spending was low, we expect this season to be better. We are spending around 10% to 12% of our total revenue on promotions, he added.

Some malls are have also hired full time advertising professionals to organize promotions that suit them and their clientele best. There is a clear segmentation evident in the marketing strategies of malls with each catering to a specific segment of consumers. Crescat Boulevard claims that it is catering to a niche market where quality is the deciding factor. Speaking about the profitability and the future prospects of malls Mr. Perera says that the returns on the investment is in the long term due to the nature of the real estate projects. Profits arise from the appreciation of the value of the premises as well as future increases in rentals. 

The existing malls also have to contend with the "new look" department stores that have refurbished and reopened recently and also a brand new mall in the heart of the city. Christmas is coming and shopping is certainly going to be more exciting especially if more malls take a good hard look at you and pick you a winner....

Murali bowls over'the mediamarket'

And Murali is expected to fetch a cool US $100,000 by signing a three year contract. "I intend to sell his Sri Lankan advertising rights, Indian advertising rights and international advertising rights separately," Sittampalam said.

Themediamarket will serve as a market place for advertising space which has been collated. Presentations to advertisers will take place quarterly and will be timed to coincide with selling seasons such as Christmas, Sinhala new year and cricket seasons. At the December 8 meeting, a catalogue containing the advertising space on offer will enable advertisers to mark out mediums they wish to bid for and seal these offers. The offer will be kept open till December 14 but all bids will be made public on CD rom, a monthly magazine and the company's web site www.themediamarket.net., enabling prospective bidders to make higher bids while securing the best price for advertising space, from bus halts to charity walks. Suppliers of advertising space are expected to pay for listings on the catalogue and an advertising agency fee of 15 per cent will also be levied from the media for advertisements inserted. However if an advertiser is supported by an ad-agency nine per cent of the agency commission will accrue to them.

The initial investment in this sole proprietorship, owned by Jayantha Sittampalam is slated at Rs. 4 mn. Sittampalam aims to take his idea to the corporate sector and may soon be seeking equity partners. He also expects to approach the Board Of Investment with his innovative venture. While media markets are a feature of most developed markets abroad they usually exclude sports sponsorships and the traditional media such as news papers.

Hot water in the pipeline

By Dinali Goonewardene

The US $ 2mn World Bank study will first ascertain the feasibility of private sector participation in Negombo and from Kalutara to Galle. Foreign consultants appointed after competitive international bidding are already on the job to ascertain the most suitable method of involving the private sector and are expected to make recommendations to the government. Options being evaluated include Build Own Operate (BOO) and Build Operate Transfer (BOT) projects, management agreements, lease agreements and total privatisation.

At present consumers are charged Rs.35 for the first ten units of water (1000 litres) they consume with the next ten units being charged at Rs.2.75 per unit and the next five units at Rs. 9.50 per litre. Subsequent units consumed are charged at a progressively higher rate. However analysts believe this is a subsidised rate which is largely a political decision. The capital cost of government grants and subsidies are not accounted for in pricing decisions and consumers may have to contend with higher prices if the private sector participates in the provision of water unless conducive terms are offered to the private sector. However analysts also concede that the burden of subsidised water is currently borne by the tax payer.

The JVP's demonstrations outside the World Bank's office expressed disapproval at what they considered were attempts by the bank to pressurize the government to privatise water resources. This followed hot on the heals of media publicity given to an impending Water Bill which speaks of water taxes and permits being required by water users including farmers. 

The legal draftsman is drafting a National Water Resources Act setting the framework for a Water Resources Authority to protect, conserve and manage water. Moves are also underway to set up a water sector regulator.

Edible oil surcharge hard to digest 

A duty of 25% is imposed on all edible oil imports. In July this year an additional 25% was imposed for three months in an apparent effort to stabilize and obtain better prices for coconut growers. The government hoped to achieve this by increasing the price of imported edible oil to an extent that the bakery industry would shift to using locally produced edible oils to keep their prices stable.

The three month surcharge has now been extended by another three months and worried importers feel that the surcharge could be imposed indefinitely, culminating in a slow and painful death for the industry. 

Adding to the pressure is thc fact that all manufactures registered with the Industries Ministry pay only 10% duty for edible oils used in their products. 

Importers claim that a considerable quantity of this edible oil imported at a lower duty finds its way into the market at ridiculously low prices compared to the duty they are required to cough up which makes fair competition impossible. 

Some registered manufacturers import from the same Malaysian company that the import trade buys from at a much higher duty. And the end user is the same consumer the import industry points out. 

A distressed edible oil import trade says that their business is almost killed by the belly punch and the comparatively high import duty on top of which comes an equally high surcharge and GST and NSL on edible oil imports all add up to a phenomenal 180.94% compared to the 121.83% charged from manufacturers which is a sure recipe for killing the industry. 

The edible oil importers also point out that the price of coconuts have not gone up after this surcharge was imposed and therefore the real benefit of the increase is actually going into the state coffers. 

They also say that the local coconut oil industry cannot cater to the total requirement of the local confectionery and bakery industry. They also claim that confectioners and bakers dislike using coconut oil in their food because of the cholesterol issue which is now very much under debate. 

Edible oil is largely imported from Malaysia, one of the leading producers of palm oil and used for most processed food, soap and cosmetic manufacture. Most confectioners small and big time like Perera and Sons, Caravan , Bake house, Fab and Elephant House and Keells Food etc use imported edible oil. 

Attempts by the Sunday Times Business to speak to Treasury sources about their policy on taxing edible oil failed as they were not available for comment at the time of going to print.

Mind Your Business

Bankers bunkum

That is because most banks expect the rates to stabilise by the end of the financial year next March.

Nevertheless, the biggest bank of them all is keeping a vigilant eye on some finance houses with dubious reputations who are trying to cash in on the trend, offering an unsuspecting public, rates in excess of well over twenty five percent per annum!

No salary hike in sight

This request was urgently conveyed to the Treasury and the boys there did try their best.

But the answer was in the negative. There would be no more wage hikes in the near future...

Extra trouble

The taxes- levied for some extra features on the semi-luxury vehicles- were collected from the customers but were never remitted to the state.

Now, the vehicles have been seized and the owners- including some prominent people- have been left high and dry while charges are to be filed against the importer...

Science starved of funds 

A similar note was struck by the Chief Guest for the Annual Sessions, Professor Goverdhan Mehta, Director of the Indian Institute of Science, when he said that even in a large country like India the research expenditure was less than one half of one percent of GDP. If India spent twice that or more, he said, the country could make a quantum leap in science and technology.

The addresses of Mehta and Samarajeewa had perceptive observations of enormous significance for economic growth and development of Sri Lanka. They focussed on a number of strategies that should be adopted in order to overcome the inadequacy of funds.

Professor Mehta argued that it would not be possible to provide all the scientific facilities under one roof. He added that research facilities were expensive even by developed country standards. 

Information technology provided the means of sharing facilities. The digital divide, which separated the developed and developing world, had to be bridged. 

He stressed that scientists of the South should look southward for collaboration. "Why do we always look Northwards? He asked, when there were rich traditions in the South. He argued that there was a need for greater South- South co-operation in science and technology, as much as co-operation between the North and South. He pointed out that the Indian scientists had an enormous goodwill towards Sri Lankan scientists. This he said Sri Lanka should harness for her scientific advancement. 

President Samarajeewa did not restrict his address to the scarcity of funds. Instead he went on to point out a number of ways in which the disadvantages of poor funding could be overcome. He urged the prioritisation of research in order to use funds more effectively towards national development. He urged that "We need to identify the areas in which we could possess a competitive edge taking our resources into consideration." He added that it was important " to identify and define the areas where we could pool the resources to achieve excellence" 

An important contribution by Professor Samarajeewa was the identification of three aspects of our culture, which retards our scientific and indeed our overall development.

These were our lack of creativity in our education, the inability to work as a team and our traditional relaxed attitude to work. "The education system as practised today" he remarked, " overburdened students with knowledge at the expense of creativity. Such knowledge holds good only to be transferred to answer scripts for marks and grades and classes. Such knowledge cannot provide a driving force required by knowledge based industries." he urged. 

Our traditions, however good, Professor Samarajeewa pointed out had attributes, which were inimical to scientific development and economic advancement. In his words, "Our traditions orient us towards qualities of a easy and relaxed life. The global competition today requires other qualities, which we need to acquire if we are to focus on development through competition". 

Professor Upali Samarajeewa also pointed to the need for team work, an attribute lacking among our scientists, professionals and the community in general. He spoke especially in terms of the need to subjugate personal preferences in order to arrive at a consensus on research priorities. "Prioritisation of what scientists should aim at is very difficult. It may result in much depression and controversy. We know that no two persons ever agree on priorities. But we have to learn to do, we are to succeed nationally and globally." 

Science and technology are the bases for economic growth in the modern world. It is through the investments in science that we could build a knowledge-based society. The future of the developing countries lies in the extent to which they succeed in making that transformation. If we are to achieve this goal, we must expend more resources on science education, scientific research, on equipment and laboratories, pay better salaries to scientists, reward them for their accomplishments and provide them the proper environment conducive for their work.

Scientists must themselves realise the constraints on allocating finances and make the most relevant use of the meagre resources and develop the correct values and attitudes towards research.

They must place the needs of the country in determining their research goals. It is only through such a comprehensive and new approach to science that Sri Lanka could hope to achieve a transformation from a resource based economy to a knowledge based one

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