Dry fish from Negombo
This is not Mannar but Negombo where today fisherfolk are found engaged in producing dry fish on a large scale that was previously a venture that mostly attracted those on the Northern coastal belt. Pic by Ishanka Sunimal
State agencies ordered to cut spending
All state agencies have been directed to confine spending to compulsory payments further curtailing their capital expenditure, one of the first post-election decisions by new Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle. Ministries, provincial councils departments, corporations and statutory boards have been directed by the Treasury to utilise available cash account balances to pay for small and, routine [...]
Uphill task in settling highway contractors’ bills
The Sri Lanka government is facing a gigantic task of settling outstanding payments to suppliers and contractors of highway projects at present, a progress review report of the Ministry of Highways showed. It was observed that the progress of the many foreign funded projects implemented during 2018 under review by the Ministry of Highways had [...]
CSE toasts new President
It doesn’t come as a big surprise that immediately after the big political changes, the stock market always reacts positively. This was seen when President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January 2015 and in October 2018 when Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the Prime Minister. On Monday, the same scene unfolded a day [...]
Biz community: Getting back on track
Sri Lanka’s new leadership will have to address several negative inheritances of the previous regime by introducing consistent policies to achieve strong and sustainable growth, business leaders suggested. Business leaders anticipate several challenges in the short and medium terms while economic reforms will come at considerable cost, they emphasised. The new administration with populist tendencies [...]
Tourism industry wants more promos; confidence boosted
The tourism industry believes the peaceful election and a one-party government has renewed confidence in the business community in Sri Lanka. “Sri Lankans showed maturity at the election and this has become an endorsement for the destination,” Aitken Spence Managing Director Travels Nalin Jayasundere told the Business Times. He hoped that the promotions will start [...]
Changing of the Guard
The radio was on full blast under the margosa tree where the trio sat this morning. With the radio on, I could hardly hear what was being said, except that the conversation was loud enough to get an idea of what the topic of discussion was. The chit-chat, like with everyone else on this Thursday [...]
Resurrecting the tea industry under new President
I would like to offer my humble suggestions to new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to help the tea industry to add US$10 billion per annum to the national GDP. The Ceylon Planters Society (of which I am a member) has given a basic plan to successive governments on this matter. The industry which had 300,000 [...]
Removing the burden of SOEs on our people
No one seems to know precisely how many business enterprises the government owns. Official government figures suggest 55 businesses, but these are only those which are considered to be strategic. The Mid-Year Fiscal Position Report – 2019 issued by the Minister of Finance suggests that there are 422 State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), whilst research based [...]
“Interest” in senior citizens is waning
I refer to the letter appearing in the Sunday Times of November 17, 2018 under the headline “Remember the promise you made to the pensioners” where it appears that the Finance Minister’s promise to increase the pensions to the government pensioners have not been adhered to. Now that the elections are over, and as the [...]
Ericsson to power SL’s 5G experience
The changing power of connectivity is empowering people, fashioning an environment that fosters innovation, and is prompting real change in business processes and in the global economy. Into the future, few things in life are certain, but one of them seems to be connectivity through 5G being the platform to build and accelerate Sri Lanka’s [...]
Dilmah wins “Product of the Year” award in Australia
The prestigious Australian consumer award for ‘Product of the Year’ was awarded to Dilmah’s Natural Infusions and accepted by Founder of Dilmah – Merrill J. Fernando, last week in Sydney. ‘Product of the Year’ accepts entries every year from products around the world that demonstrate innovation and was launched within the previous year, survey of [...]
Sri Lankan banking sector feels the distress amidst rising NPLs
Sri Lanka has undergone a financial beating, leaving the country’s banking sector in an insecure position although some of the leading commercial banks have found a balance between risk and growth, official sources disclosed. The banking sector’s gross non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio is set to reach 5 per cent at the end of this year, [...]
New list of qualified auditors to commercial banks
The Central Bank this week announced a revised list of auditors selected to audit the accounts of licensed commercial banks. They are: BDO Partners, Ernst & Young Sri Lanka, KPMG Sri Lanka, PricewaterhouseCoopers and SJMS Associates. A Central Bank November 18 circular said that the assessment criteria considered in the updated revised list and guidelines [...]
SLT Group operating profit up 37%, revenue – Rs. 63.9 bn
Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT), in its financial results for the first nine months of 2019, has shown strong growth. Profit After Tax (PAT) of the group for this period was reported at Rs. 5 billion with a 25 per cent YoY growth compared with the same period the year before. Group revenue was recorded [...]
Fake foreign job offers on the rise in Sri Lanka
Foreign employment scams and fake recruitment issues are on the rise in Sri Lanka with more people looking online for overseas jobs and some of them falling victims to unscrupulous agencies which exploit mostly the poor domestic workers. A Special Investigation Unit has been established in the Foreign Employment Bureau (FEB) in accordance with an [...]
New technology developed by Ruhuna University in boat building sector
The world is moving fast in a technologically-advanced world strongly assisted by science and other innovations. Sri Lanka is no exception in employing science and technology for the benefit of the people. However one of the concerns affecting this country is that Sri Lanka has not fully grasped the development of these technologies. The National [...]
Sri Lanka seen recovering after devastating April attacks
The macro-economic slowdown in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of April terrorist attacks was further compounded by the contraction of business and trading activity, declining investor confidence, and falling consumer purchasing power, says Softlogic Holdings Plc in its interim financial statement for the 6-months period ending September 2019. Deficiency in implementing policy decisions to restore [...]
Jetwing driving effective workplace communication with Microsoft
Sri Lanka’s largest resort and hotel brand, Jetwing, has partnered with Microsoft to help it coordinate multiple lines of hospitality and travel business. In an expansion of their partnership, Microsoft and Jetwing announced a deal via which Jetwing will be moving its workforce to Office 365. Office 365 is a Software as a Service (SaaS) [...]
Ceylinco Life posts impressive 9-month results
Ceylinco Life has posted robust income and profit growth for the nine months ending September 30, 2019, continuing the company’s sector-leading performance into the third quarter of the year. The life insurance leader has reported net income of Rs.22.8 billion for the period, an improvement of 10.4 per cent over the first nine months of [...]
Innovative technology for water treatment plants and construction industry
It is arguably at the forefront of innovation that Don Ganegoda, a Sri Lanka businessman domiciled in the US started out, having migrated to the US three decades ago. It was in 2009 that he started a BOI venture in Sri Lanka having brought in new technology that few persons understood at that time. Water [...]
Stax employee presents cutting edge research at IEEE conference
Lamana Mulaffer, a Data Analytics Consultant from Stax, Colombo, recently participated and presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH) conference in Japan which took place at the Ritsumeikan Centre for Games Studies, Kyoto. IEEE SeGAH 2019 featured a symposium of researchers, academics, investors and industry [...]
IDEAHUB solution powers Cambodia-Based Pi Pay’s Innovative Cashless Payment
IDEAHUB and Cambodia-based Pi Pay this week announced a new version of the Pi Pay mobile application, available on both Android and iOS to residents of Cambodia. The solution – which is powered by IDEAHUB’s Symphony platform – connects customers and merchants via a seamless social and digital ecosystem. It combines ease of use and [...]
Women’s Chamber congratulates President Gotabaya Rajapaksa
The Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce, lent its voice to the plethora of congratulations to new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. On behalf of the chamber, the President Chathuri Ranasinghe said in a statement: “We are committed to support your mandated agenda in providing a steady, yet rapid, well-structured growth plan for our nation. As the [...]