Thirty years after Sri Lanka embraced the free market, a poll by The Sunday Times FT shows that an overwhelmingly majority agree that the open economy has succeeded and is the best development path.

LB Finance, owned by wealthy businessman Dhammika Perera, sealed a deal on Wednesday with the Australian High Commission for Rs. 450 million to buy its premises situated at Cambridge Place. There was wide speculation earlier that Perera, also chairman of the Board of Investment, had bought the property for President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s eldest son, Namal.

Sri Lanka is planning to borrow US$400 million from the international market by issuing an international bond by October, in a bid to fund infrastructure development projects such as the Weerawila Airport.

The government is pulling out all the stops in a bid to attract foreign automobile majors to assemble cars in Sri Lanka. At least two rounds of discussions were scheduled during the week to iron out certain impediments and improve the feasibility of such a move.