Fresh protests over Colombo Port City
Thousands of fishermen and their families launched a fresh protest over the Colombo Port City project last week saying their livelihoods would be affected if dredging of the sea is done just 3 km away from the shore instead of 30 km away. Seen here are protestors in Negombo. Pix by Quintus Perera. (See story [...]
Regional FTAs to centre on job potential
The Sri Lankan government is looking at the future potential of hiring overseas labour and getting jobs for locals in countries like India, Singapore and China by inking bilateral deals. Releasing the country’s policy on trade, the government has stated that Sri Lanka should consider liberalizing other three modes while keeping mode 4 “unbound until [...]
‘PTL exposed primary dealer system at excessive risk’, CB report says
A new report on controversial bond trader Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL) reveals some key financials showing a phenomenal rise like post-tax profits surging to Rs.6.12 billion from Rs. 713 million within 19 months while its capital base rose to Rs.11.07 billion from Rs. 1 billion in the same period. While PTL’s capital base was reported [...]
BOI battling tax issues
Sri Lanka’s investment promotion agency, the Board of Investment (BOI) while battling against low foreign investment is now in a quagmire with countervailing duties imposed by countries like the US on exports from BOI firms. Officials said that because of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement that Sri Lanka is party to which limits them [...]
More foreign banks interested in Sri Lanka
More foreign banks are interested in setting up branches in Sri Lanka with the Central Bank (CB) saying some proposals are being examined. This follows the Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake saying last year that three foreign banks were making their way to Sri Lanka. A CB official said that about five foreign banks have applied to [...]
Obsession with awards
Good awards, bad awards, fake awards … Sri Lankans are obsessed with awards and getting recognition for ‘achievements’ at whatever cost. The corporate sector is filled with awards being presented across all segments of business: There are awards for the best citizen, the best exporter, the best HR company, the best this and the best [...]
Of family councils, risk-takers, riding a bicycle and mentoring
A new concept of family councils and the need for Sri Lankan SMEs to be considered as entrepreneurs just like the case in Singapore, emerged last week at a day-long workshop in Colombo on family businesses and its transition to professional units with external expertise. Organised by the VEGA/BIZ+ Program of the US Agency for [...]
Angry shareholders reject troubled City Finance accounts
The annual accounts of the struggling finance company, the City Finance Corporation Ltd (CFCL) was rejected by shareholders for the second year in succession after directors were unable to respond convincingly to a barrage of questions over missing funds. The company AGM was held at the Colombo Public Library auditorium last week. After completing reading [...]
Elephant House to grow in UK market
Sri Lanka’s iconic Elephant House has signed up with a UK-based bottling facility for the production of 1.5 litre PET plastic variants of Necto, Cream Soda and Orange Barley beverages. Planned to ultimately facilitate increased exports into the European market, this new bottling deal by Sri Lanka’s beverages pioneer immediately targets sustained expansion into key [...]
Dilmah founder urges setting of Special Tea Authority to revive Ceylon Tea
The urgent formation of a Special Tea Authority that would take Ceylon Tea to the next level has been proposed by veteran tea producer and trader Merrill J. Fernando. Founder of tea brand ‘Dilmah’, Mr. Fernando – a long-time campaigner for a high-end Ceylon Tea brand – has said that the industry needs to be [...]
Role of sustainable drainage systems in managing floods
The floods that occurred in the Western Province in May this year caused havoc in the lives of many of us living in the Western Province. Urban flooding is becoming more and more frequent, and the impacts such as disruption of transportation, inundation of houses and property, loss of human lives, loss of plants and [...]
Chief Minister launches UVA Expo 2016 ‘Endless Inspiration’
Badulla Uva Province Chief Minister Chamara Sampath Dasanayake, together with the Ministries of Finance and Planning, Law and Order, Education, Local Government, Power and Energy, Construction and Rural Infrastructure Development, officially launched Uva Expo 2016 ‘Endless Inspiration’- Trade Exhibition and Carnival on September 19 in Badulla. This 5-day-long trade exhibition and carnival will be held [...]
Some 60 % of the country’s electricity used by low end consumers, households
The Moratuwa University’s Electrical Department has been modernised with the installation of a sophisticated machine lab replacing an antiquated system that existed for more than five decades. This was made possible by a Rs. 11 million gift from the CEO of LTL Holdings Ltd U.D. Jayawardena, former student, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of [...]
Thousands of fishermen in fresh protest over Port City saying shallow-water fishing jeopardised
Thousands of fishermen, mooring their boats and forfeiting a day’s catch on Saturday (October 1) joined family members as people got onto the street at various points from Poruthotha – Kammalthota to Uswetakaiyawa on the western coastline in a fresh protest over the Colombo Port City, demanding – among other matters – that the agreement [...]
UNDP innovates to meet growing aspirations in Asia and the Pacific
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has leveraged low-cost innovations, knowledge exchanges between countries in the region, and emerging technologies, to provide new opportunities to some of the most marginalised communities in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a new report. Its 2015-16 Results Report says that in breaking from traditional development models, and in trying to [...]
Indians disclose $10 billion in hidden wealth in tax evasion amnesty
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A government amnesty targeting tax evasion in India has prompted tens of thousands of suspected tax dodgers to disclose nearly $10 billion in undeclared income, the finance minister said on Saturday. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out about 700,000 notices earlier this year to suspected evaders to coax [...]
Sri Lanka’s GDP growth seen rising to 5% in 2017, WB says
Sri Lanka’s economic growth is projected to grow at 5 per cent in 2017, up from targeted 4.8 per cent in 2016 and driven by increased private consumption and postponed investment in 2015, a new World Bank report has said. ”It is imperative for Sri Lanka to expedite high priority structural reforms to increase competitiveness, [...]
Colombo’s solid waste disposal
The Ministry of Megapolis is at a loss how to get rid of the colossal mountain of garbage in Colombo at Bloemendhal Road, Madampitiya and Kolonnawa which is an eyesore, health hazard and an annoyance to the people living in the vicinity. It is estimated over 1,200 metric tons of garbage is collected daily in [...]
US keen on more partnerships as SL returns to rule of law
Two mega US projects -a large rail/locomotive and an oil refinery is stated to come to Sri Lanka having been backed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US EXIM). Fred P. Hochberg, Chairman and President of US EXIM who was on a short visit to Colombo told the Business Times on Tuesday that [...]
Sri Lanka to make its presence felt in the Philippines
Mabuhay will be the in-word for a 17-strong Sri Lankan delegation including representatives from the tea and IT sectors who will attend the 42nd Philippine Business Conference in Manila on October 12-13. ”This is the second year-in-a-row that we are going for this Expo and it will be a huge opportunity for our business sector [...]
Nestlé helps more than 3,000 farmers in training and development
Nestle, celebrating its 150th anniversary worldwide and 110 years locally, has launched ‘Kiri Govi Diriya’, where 3,000 Sri Lankan dairy farmers will benefit from training and development tools to learn about modern technologies and best practices, and produce more milk of higher quality. The dairy development programme is the first of a number of public [...]
Oman Air hosts training session for South Asian sales teams in Colombo
Oman Air has selected Colombo as the hub for training of its sales teams from the Indian subcontinent. Spread over four days, the training session will witness country managers and sales teams from the subcontinent nations converging on Colombo. The training session which will be focused on driving revenues will include Revenue Re-alignment Meetings as [...]
SriLankan Airlines on restructuring, takeover, re-routing
National carrier SriLankan Airlines on Wednesday announced its future restructuring plans, takeover of Mihin Lanka and rebranding, returning four Airbus aircraft on order and changing strategies to operate as a regional carrier. SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ajith Dias announced to the media, that it had inherited “quite a mess” but had been able to reduce losses [...]
Weliamuna calls for accountability on Airbus fiasco
J.C. Weliamuna, the chairman of a committee that probe corruption in SriLankan Airlines last year, has called for the people behind the decision to purchase four Airbus A350 super-luxury aircraft at an inflated price to answer for the dreadful crime. ”There is no question that the people who took this decision (should) be held accountable [...]
Sri Lanka on track to reach 2.5 mln tourist arrivals in 2016
Sri Lanka is optimistic of reaching a year-end target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals with a million scheduled to arrive in the period September to December 2016. Figures up to August released by the Sri Lanka Tourism and Development Authority (SLTDA) on Tuesday showed 1.5 million tourist arrivals since January. Minister of Tourism Development and [...]
Fixed room rate removal hailed by tour operators
Tour operators have come out strongly in favour of recent government moves to remove the controls on the room rates in the Colombo city hotels. Minimum rates applicable to star-class hotels in Colombo and the periphery are due to be removed in first quarter 2017, a move that is backed by the 5-star hotels while [...]
No country can match SL’s diversity of locations for MICE
Sri Lanka having won the bid, is now staging the French Travel Congress by end of October bringing over 500 French Travel Agents into Sri Lanka to whom Sri Lanka’s Incentive travel products and services will be showcased. This would be a huge turning point in this segment of MICE or what they call ‘I’ [...]
CB incurs eye-popping loss owing to irregularities 2011 – 2016
Sri Lanka Central Bank (CB) has incurred an eye-popping loss totalling millions of rupees as a result of irregularities and arbitrary decisions of former Central Bank Governors and top officials during 2011-2016 periods, a parliamentary committee report revealed. How does a money-printing Central Bank (CB) lose money? In this case, it was the fault of [...]
World Export Development Forum kick- off in Sri Lanka next week
For the first time in Sri Lanka, the 16th World Export Development Forum (WEDF) will kick off next week from 12-13 October 2016 at the BMICH in Colombo. The forum is expected to draw a significant number of international trade and business leaders to the country. The International Trade Centre (ITC) together with the Ministry [...]
Forget Armageddon, the machines can make omelettes too
The pitch was quite simple – if Sri Lankan manufacturing companies want to raise productivity levels by as much as 85 per cent, then it is time to go for a Universal Robot. This is not a technology start-up in the true sense of the word, having been around since 2005. But in Sri Lanka [...]
A piece of cake for Fernando
Shanil Fernando has the cake and eats it too. Huge mouthfuls of it with Cake Labs, a leading software company which is revolutionising the restaurant business, poised to grab a huge slice of the American market. Fernando takes pains to point out that Cake Labs – headquartered in Silicon Valley – is a start-up only [...]
Corporate adventures in the start-up ecosystem
Corporate innovation is a rapidly trending term. Across the world, there is an increasing awareness by corporates that their structure, processes and culture are fundamental stumbling blocks to innovation. Article after article describes the need for corporates to abandon their innovation and R&D departments, and embrace start-up ecosystems as a new source for renewal. But [...]
On Sri Lankan buses with Busbooking
As a schoolboy travelling from Kottawa to Colombo by bus, Dinusha Kornkaduwa used to dream of how nice it would be to be able to have a guaranteed seat and travel in comfort. That never materialized but today he and a group of friends have banded together and formed BusBooking.lk which provides thousands of passengers [...]
CB Governor outlines agriculture productivity challenges
South Asia is hot on the heels of East Asia to become the world’s next middle-income region. But to catch up its neighbours, South Asia and its firms – especially in industries such as light manufacturing, auto and agribusiness – will need to compete on a global scale, panellists at the World Bank annual meeting [...]
Nostalgic memories of KLM in the 1950s
Sunimalee Dias’ article in the Sunday Times dated September 11 titled ‘KLM returns to Colombo after 20 years” brought back nostalgic memories of the wonderful years Air Ceylon and KLM enjoyed in partnership which commenced in March 1956 and unfortunately terminated at the end of 1961 due to a change of Government. That period was [...]
JICA helping solve Lanka’s sewage and water treatment issues
KANDY – Pollution to the environment is caused by releasing untreated water from sewage, toilets and kitchens mostly in the Kandy town and elsewhere in Sri Lanka that causes health hazards. Even landslides can occur in areas when such water seeps into the soil in the absence of septic tanks, noted Project Director of the [...]
Rockland Distilleries to use SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer
SAP said this week that Rockland Distilleries has selected the industry leading CRM platform, SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer solution, to enhance the customer experience. The 92 year-old-company is one of Sri Lanka’s leading manufacturers and distributors of imported spirits and fine wines. The company felt the need for a modern multi-platform CRM solution, which [...]
PTL had paid a penalty of Rs.21.3 mln for excessive bidding, CB report reveals
In a comprehensive internal probe, the Central Bank (CB) has said that bond trader Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL) was once asked to pay a penalty of Rs. 21.3 million for excessive bidding. The report by the CB’s Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institution Department (SNBFI) gave details of a comprehensive on-site examination of the company’s books [...]
Western Megapolis with more than a million residents could pollute Kelani river
The Kelani river is one of the backbones of Sri Lanka’s economy providing livelihoods to persons who live in close proximity to the river where over 10,000 small and large scale business are located of which only 3000 such businesses have an environmental pollution licence to operate there, said Dr. Ananda Mallawatanthri, Country Representative of [...]