India Show opens
Indian Commerce, Industry and Textile Minister Anand Sharma (second from right) in conversation with Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa at the inauguration of the India Show on Friday at the BMICH. Also in the picture are Senior Minister Sarath Amunugama and Rajive Kaul, Chairman of Nicco Corp and past President of the Confederation of Indian [...]
BT-RCB budget survey draws Treasury attention
A 3-pronged approach by the Business Times (BT) last week in asking the public what they expect in the Government’s next 2013 budget, drew a favourable response from the Treasury. The survey-cum-poll conducted jointly by the BT and the Colombo-based Research Consultancy Bureau (RCB), which raised many issues on governance and the need for the [...]
British Airways to return in March 2013
After over a 10-year hiatus, British Airways, UK’s national carrier, would be returning to Sri Lanka in March next year, civil aviation authorities said on Friday. The airline would operate from Gatwick to Colombo three times a week via Male, Director General Civil Aviation Authority (DGCA) H.M.C. Nimalsiri told the Business Times. Authorities have already [...]
Carsons loses significantly, shareholders told
The Carson’s Group, which has extensive oil palm and rubber plantations in Asia, has virtually cleaned out its profits’ performance and explained the reasons for the phenomenal slide. In an announcement to the Colombo Stock Exchange, the company said post-tax profits of the company for the quarter ending June 30, 2012 fell to Rs 356 [...]
Shaw Wallace to sell land to Chinese state firm
Shaw Wallace and Hedges PLC is selling its prime block of 264.65 perches in the upmarket Kollupitiya area for Rs 1.8 billion to a hotel company whose subsidiary - CATIC, a state-owned Chinese defence supplier, once bid for the Galle Face Green property to set up a hotel-related project. On Tuesday, Shaw Wallace announced plans [...]
Apparel industry in a fix, EU exports drop 10-15%
The apparel industry is bracing for hard times with exports dipping by about 10-15% to the European Union (EU) alone and tightening competition as the withdrawal of GSP+ concessions takes effect. As the largest foreign exchange earner and the largest employer in the country, the industry is now looking at opportunities through bilateral ties with [...]
PBJ’s pep talk fails to prop market
Tuesday’s meeting with Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera and stock market stakeholders propped the market on Thursday but as many analysts predicted it was ‘short lived’ euphoria as Friday saw the indices slumping with low turnover. “It’s imperative that the sentiments improve, but that cannot be done merely by dialogue. There has to be a [...]
Stocks: Bending the rules
”PBJ, Market stakeholders try to keep media at bay” screamed the headlines of a local newspaper on Thursday, implying that the media was to be ‘kept in the dark’ (as far as possible) from what transpired at a meeting between stock market stakeholders and the Treasury. There was a‘gentlemen’s’ agreement at Tuesday’s meeting that the [...]
Capital Markets: Looking ahead
Karl Marx’s quote has more relevance in today’s global capital market than when it was first written. If we were to critically review the recent turn of events global and Sri Lankan capital markets, the common thread and the precursor to the downturn and the subsequent collapse is getting into areas with no proper knowledge. [...]
Stock market: Perpetrators of white collar crimes must not go unpunished-TISL
Good and fair regulation doesn’t impede success in Colombo’s stock market but provides a framework for a level playing field, according to governance NGO, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL). “If we understand regulation to be simply that, then perhaps those who push for less market regulation are only attempting to cover up their tracks,” it [...]
Private sector met 43% of SL’s power demand in 2011 : RAM
Sri Lanka’s private sector power producers were responsible for 43% of power demand fulfilled in 2011, up from 40% the year before and less than 10% in 2000, according to a recent report on the industry published by ratings agency RAM. Further, the country’s reliance on, mostly thermal, private sector power producers is expected to [...]
‘Luxury’ apartments for residents losing their Slave Island properties
Some of the residents of Station Passage, Slave Island listened with some doubts and trepidation about a plan to acquire their land by the Urban Dvelopment Authority (UDA), develop it to a condominium and in return give them a luxury apartment measuring little more than their acquired extent of land, at a meeting chaired by [...]
Myth of an independent public service
I write this article, not as a scholar but as one who has spent his working life in government ‘service’ and hopes that his insights may be thought provoking. My firm conviction is that there never was, and never can there ever be, an independent public service in Sri Lanka. This panacea of ‘independence’ is [...]
Census 2012 and population scenarios focused at NCAS forum
Socio-economic implications arising from an ageing population, legal and illegal migration and other demographic shifts were the centre of a panel discussion at the National Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (NCAS) in Colombo recently. The purpose of the forum was to initiate a dialogue on the preliminary population estimates recently released [...]
Perera & Sons’ journey – A batch of bread that has 110 years of followers
When taking the road into the Perera & Sons (P&S) factory at Madinnagoda, Rajagiriya on a warm Tuesday morning, it is more than convincing that “All sorrows are less with bread”, something that Miguel de Cervantes, a Spanish author has said years ago. The fresh aroma of bread can be felt from more than half [...]
Banks must change business model:MTI CEO
MTI Banks and financial institutions, constrained by the new 18 per cent credit ceiling, would be forced to re-examine their cost structures, according to MTI CEO Hilmy Cader. “Compared to many businesses, the business model of financial institutions is based on extremely high fixed cost, with a very low variable cost element. In addition, over [...]
Commercial Credit powers ‘Future Minds 2012’
Commercial Credit recently joined hands with ‘Future Minds 2012’ as main sponsor and official financial partner. “Organised for the seventh consecutive year by the Nalanda Junior OBA, ‘Future Minds’ today occupies top billing as Sri Lanka’s National Educational and Career Gateway and attracts thousands of visitors from all parts of the country,” according to a [...]
Former US diplomat joins US advisory to lead South Asian operations
BowerGroupAsia (BGA), a top Southeast Asia-focused business advisory company in the US, said this week that former U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh and Nepal, Jim Moriarty, has joined the company to lead the development of its new South Asia business. “Mr Moriarty’s arrival marks BGA’s intent to take its winning formula supporting the world’s premier companies [...]
Silicon Valley-based Leapset launches disruptive innovation in SL
Silicon Valley software developer ‘Leapset’ recently announced plans to expand its development centre in Sri Lanka. Leapset’s product is a platform that is changing local commerce by bridging the gap between online and mobile consumers to offline merchants. It will revolutionize the merchant-consumer interaction through a platform which includes a point-of-sale (POS) device and utilizes [...]
Hameedia celebrates Ramazan in style
Sri Lanka’s leading menswear specialist Hameedia is celebrating the Ramazan season in style this year with a special promotion of redeemable discount vouchers on all purchases. In a campaign that began on July 19, every purchase of Rs. 5000 entitles customers to a redeemable gift voucher of Rs. 500. The offer continues in slabs of [...]
Nestlé Lanka revenue rises by 13.5% in first half 2012
Nestlé Lanka PLC says its revenue for the six months ending 30th June 2012 rose by 13.5 per cent to Rs. 14.5 billion against the background of a difficult market environment. The company announced a flat bottom-line growth of -1% (YoY), with a net profit of Rs 1.24 billion due to currency depreciation and the [...]
Sri Lanka inflation inching towards double digit (10 %) levels
Sri Lankan inflation rose to 9.8 per cent last month (on a year-on-year basis) against 9.3 per cent in June, appearing to edge closer to double digit inflation (10 per cent and over) in the next few months – unless food prices come down.The Central Bank (CB) said inflation, as measured by the Colombo Consumers’ [...]
Blue Flame Technologies launches Chinese non-electric chillers
Blue Flame Technologies (Pvt) Ltd was recently appointed the exclusive distributor of China-based BROAD non-electric chillers for air conditioning systems in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. “BROAD, the premier Non-Electric Air Conditioner Chiller Manufacturer in the world currently sells its equipment ranging from small residential models to large institutional and district cooling applications, in over [...]
CMA Sri Lanka hosts SAFA board meeting in Colombo
The South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) comprising Chartered and Management Accounting bodies of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives held its 22nd board meeting in Colombo recently. A representative of Bhutan was invited and attended the meeting as an observer, the Colombo chapter said in a media release. SAFA President Mohammed Rafi, [...]
Pan Asia says operating income up by 22%
Pan Asia Bank said this week that its post-tax profit for the first half of this year was Rs 356 million while operating income rose by 22 per cent from the previous 2011 period. “The improvement in the operating income is mainly on account of growth of net interest income which showed an improvement of [...]
Samahan – linking ancient herbal remedies and modern medicine
Link Natural Products (Pvt) Ltd (Link Natural), launched in1982 and now a fully-fledged medical laboratory, has emerged as a meeting point of indigenous ayurvedic and modern western medicine. This has enabled the company to reinvent its popular Link Samahan to capture national and international markets. Last week, Link Natural took a group of journalists to [...]
Major national inventors’ fair with over 1000 inventions soon in Sri Lanka
In the economic development of a country inventions play a major role, but the present trend is more of innovations rather than inventions, as exempl ified by Japan in its initial development stages. This is what Deepal Sooriyarachchi, Commissioner/Chairman, Sri Lanka Inventors Commission (SLIC) told members of the Sunday Times Business Club (STBC) at its [...]
Gamani Corea Foundation lecture on China’s success
The third Gamani Corea Foundation Lecture will be delivered by Professor Premachandra Autukorala, Professor of Economics, Australian National University and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow, University of Manchester on ” China’s Growing Role in the Wold Economy: Implications for Developing Countries”. It will be held at the Marga Institute Auditorium, 941/1, Jayanthi Mawatha, Kotte Rd. Ethul [...]
US retailer J Crew pulls out of Sri Lanka
The recent decision by US retailer J Crew to pull future orders from its Sri Lankan supplier Mirrai PVT Ltd. after the manufacturer refused to correct serious violations is sending a message to the industry that codes of conduct ‘can be more than paper tigers’, a global union has said. IndustriALL Global Union has written [...]
Oil pricing dispute talks ends in deadlock
High-level talks to settle the pricing dispute between the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and Fujairah Petroleum Co. in the supply of low sulphur fuel oil have ended in a deadlock with both parties now moving towards litigation, Fujairah company sources said. The intervention of a former South African oil trader to settle a pricing dispute [...]
