SriLankan Airlines faces flood of cancellations
While Sri Lanka’s national carrier has seen a flood of cancellations and expects to lose at least US$100 million in revenue, MICE experts say confirmed bookings of events including weddings have been cancelled after the Easter Sunday carnage. With tourists arrivals likely to see a 30-50 per cent drop this year, SriLankan Airlines CEO Vipula [...]
Contingency plan proposed for businesses affected by terror attacks
Sri Lanka government has been urged to implement a spectrum of response measures to mitigate the cascading damages caused to the economy especially businesses in tourism, retail businesses, transportation industry and other critical units such as the insurance industry. A contingency plan will be submitted to the government soon to protect and provide concessions with [...]
Hotels in Sri Lanka go empty
Sri Lanka’s hotels are still reeling from the shock of the attack by Islamic extremists on Easter Sunday with occupancies crashing to a mere four per cent in Colombo and 10 per cent islandwide. Even as the tourism industry remained concerned about the security situation in the country some hotels like the Cinnamon Grand, Cinnamon [...]
Business seeks grace period on loans, low interest rates
Some chambers have sent a letter to the President and the Prime Minister requesting a grace period to pay business loans and lower interest rates on them if possible, officials said. Still reeling from the aftermath of the Easter terror attacks, companies are bracing themselves for tough times. Aminda Rodrigo, Chairman COYLE told the Business [...]
Sri Lanka strengthens anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism financing measures
Sri Lanka will be strengthening the national Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism policy framework of the country. State intelligence units have received information recently that extremist terror group members were receiving huge sums of money from informal channels such as ‘Undiyal’ system to carry out business activities in major towns including Pettah [...]
Sad times-Part 2
Kussi Amma Sera was angry. I hadn’t seen her like this before. Seated under the Margosa tree with friends-for-life Serapina and Mabel Rasthiyadu, she said: “Balanna … apey manthrivarun hasirena vidiya. Ee-gollanta meka loku vihiluwak waa-ge (See how our parliamentarians are behaving. It’s like a big joke for them).” She was referring to the special [...]
Spicy trade between India and Sri Lanka
In December 2017, the Indian government introduced a Minimum Import Price (MIP) on imported black pepper as Indian Rs. 500 per kg. The target was the increase in Sri Lanka’s exports of “low-quality and cheap pepper” to India, which have pushed down the domestic pepper prices there. It was reported that within that year alone [...]
InterContinental brand goes ahead with Sri Lanka plans
The world renowned InterContinental brand, which has announced its comeback to the island in partnership with Pearl Grand Tower Hotel Ltd, is set to fast-track its opening at the site at Bambalapitiya junction in Colombo. This super luxury, 42-storeyed hotel will consist of 346 rooms of different categories. – Presidential Suite, Deluxe Suites, Executive suites, [...]
Hemas Travels bags two awards at ATM
Hemas Travels, the outbound arm of Hemas Leisure Travel and Aviation Group was recognised for two prestigious awards at Asian Travel Mart (ATM) this year, a media release by the company stated. Ottila Worldwide, India’s largest travel wholesaler recognised Hemas Travels as “Sri Lankas Top Agent” at ATM and the award was accepted by Hussain [...]
AAT helps victims of Easter Sunday attacks
The Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AAT Sri Lanka) has extended its helping hands to the victims of the recent bomb attacks in some of the churches in our country. The Governing Council of AAT Sri Lanka offered financial aid dedicating the entire budget allocated for its New Year Ceremony which was scheduled [...]
Political leadership should set aside differences in this crisis:CCC
Sri Lankans need to be assured that the government machinery to safeguard its people from acts of terrorism is effective, that national security will be accorded the highest priority and that the political leadership of this country has the capacity to work together setting aside political differences to accord the highest priority to national issues, [...]
‘O Sri Lanka’
Ceylon was known as the Pearl of Indian Ocean. We failed to take it as a Tourism Promotion Tagline and lost it to another country. After many years of being in limbo a professional who developed tourism for Singapore as the Lion City was hired as Chairman Tourism. Many debates took place and a Tagline [...]
SLT, Asiainfo Intl. sign MoU to facilitate provision of innovative digital solutions to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the national ICT solutions provider, recently entered into a partnership with Asiainfo International Pte Ltd, a leading IT solution and service integrator in the global communication industry, to introduce digital products and solutions to the Sri Lankan market. The agreement will facilitate SLT to develop viable digital solutions to consumer, SME [...]
South Asia’s largest LPG Transshipment Terminal by LAUGFS officially starts operations
LAUGFS Terminals Ltd has officially inaugurated operations of its state-of-the-art LPG Transshipment Terminal at the Hambantota International Port, the largest of its kind in South Asia, with the first of its LPG cargo brought in by the Sri Lankan flagged vessel Gas Success, part of LAUGFS Maritime’s own LPG vessel fleet. The new LAUGFS LPG [...]
Ceylinco Life policyholders to receive record Rs. 5 bn as annual bonuses
Ceylinco Life has announced annual bonuses totalling a record Rs. 5 billion to some 300,000 policyholders from the surplus generated by the company’s Life Fund in 2018, significantly enhancing the value of their life policies. An increase of Rs. 600 million or 13.6 per cent over the bonuses declared last year, the payout reflects the [...]
How did we respond to terror attacks as organisations
The Easter Sunday attacks that took place around Sri Lanka shook our nation to the core. Collectively, the population went through the stages of grief – from shock, denial, anger, bargaining, to depression. Taking the leap to the next stage of hope and acceptance may require much more healing collectively as a nation. It is [...]
Lankan economy stagnant due to structural reforms delay: CB
For Sri Lanka to succeed as a higher income economy and improve the wellbeing of its people, it is essential that the root causes for the continued low economic growth are addressed by expediting the required structural reforms with a focus on improving productivity and efficiency of the economy, the Central Bank (CB) said in [...]
“Sri Lanka’s public sector vehicle expense rises dramatically”
I read with interest the article on public vehicles under the above heading in the last Business Times. When there is such a large number of government ministries and departments and other institutions and such a large number of people’s representatives what more can we expect? In addition to the basic requirement of transportation the [...]
Sri Lanka Insurance Suba Pathum Scholarship 2019 seeks applicants
Sri Lanka Insurance (SLIC) is calling for applications for ‘Suba Pathum – National Scholarship Scheme 2019’ which rewards 300 achievers who excel in the Grade 5 Scholarship, GCE Ordinary Level and GCE Advanced Level examinations in 2018. The annual initiative is being launched for the 5th consecutive time to inspire the younger generation to realise [...]
Samsung unveils Galaxy A2 Core smartphone
Samsung, continuing to carve out a greater share of the smartphone segment as the market leader, recently launched the Galaxy A2 Core in Sri Lanka, targeted at the first Smartphone experience users. The Galaxy A2 Core is ready to deliver outstanding performance with its sleek and curved design, the company said in a media statement. [...]
Sri Lankan banks, finance companies ease SME loan terms
Thousands of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) badly hit indirectly by recent terror attacks and directly by rising costs and dampened domestic demand, possibly due to falling purchasing power, will breathe sigh of relief with the reduction in lending rates. SME growth and new investments have been greatly affected by inflation, nominal interest rates, the [...]
Lanka Spice has no connection with the Easter Sunday incidents
The Easter Sunday attacks have been a great atrocity and they have done a colossal damage to the nation, says Nalin Pathikirikorale, Chairman of Lanka Spice (Pvt) Ltd, strongly condemning the attacks. In a statement, he said there was false news circulating on social media that Mc Currie, a brand owned by Lanka Spice (Pvt) [...]
Troubled ETI Finance to pay further 10% to depositors
Troubled ETI Finance (ETIF) has so far received over Rs.11 billion and these funds have been used to repay 20 per cent of the deposits and accrued interest liabilities of ETIF while another 10 per cent repayment to the depositors is being processed, the Central Bank (CB) said on Thursday. “The CB wishes to emphasise [...]