Weak handling of pandemic-BT poll shows
Most of the respondents in a Business Times (BT) poll on the Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic have commended the first steps taken by the authorities to contain the virus but said the latest response was inadequate. The poll conducted by the Business Times amongst its wide readership and others, revealed what most people [...]
ADB steps in to meet Sri Lanka’s funding gap
Negotiations are underway with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and some other multilateral development banks (MDBs) to tackle the country’s economic woes arising of the COVID-19 pandemic, official sources said. Sri Lanka is still to receive the substantial funding from MDBs as at the end of July. These institutions have so far pledged US$386 million [...]
SAGT on strike, loss over Rs.200 m
The South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) at the Colombo Port has not been operational since Monday night due to a strike action launched by workers resulting in a revenue loss of Rs.220 million in tariff rates for the month with a possible loss of 30,000 TEUs. A revenue loss of Rs.220 million for the month [...]
India to manage ECT operations at the Colombo Port
Sri Lanka has decided that India’s Adani Group will handle management of the East Container Terminal (ECT) operations. Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) sources have indicated that authorities have conceptualized the operations of the ECT by handing over management of the terminal to the Indian government-preferred Adani Group which will have a 49 per cent [...]
Foreign buyers pull out of Colombo
The second wave of the coronavirus has caused a severe impact with the apparel industry orders being held up, resulting in buyers pulling out of Colombo. “Buyers have pulled out and bringing them back in is a difficult thing,” Free Trade Zone Garment Manufacturers Association Secretary General Dhammika Fernando told the Business Times. Sri Lanka, [...]
Treasury allocates over Rs. 10 b to handle emergency needs in COVID-19
Sri Lanka’s emergency needs in various sectors including agriculture, education, ICT, transport and disaster management brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic are to be handled at cost of over Rs.10 billion under the Contingent Emergency Response Components (CERCs) framework, a Finance Ministry report revealed. Following the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the ministry has requested [...]
INSEE Cement signs landmark agreement with SEC
INSEE Cement Sri Lanka has signed a landmark agreement with the State Engineering Corporation (SEC) to purchase dolomite, which is used as raw material in the cement manufacturing process. The agreement was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Parliament premises recently. Under this deal, INSEE Cement will purchase dolomite from [...]
More loans could possibly leave Sri Lanka in the hands of China, warns top political economist
Following the recent visit of the Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party of China’s Politburo, Sri Lanka received a concessionary loan of US$500 million. Will this resolve Sri Lanka’s debt crisis? China’s support was to enable Sri Lanka to pay off debt to other lenders. This is not a [...]
World class 4G services soon from Airtel
Airtel Lanka this week said that it has been allotted the 4G spectrum by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) and will soon launch its high speed mobile broadband services across the country. Airtel 4G will operate in the efficient 850 Mhz band, which has higher signal propagation. This will translate into a [...]
HNB secures S$60 m funding for SMEs from France’s Proparco
Hatton National Bank PLC this week announced a landmark agreement with Proparco, the private sector funding arm of the French Development Bank Agence Française de Développement (AFD), to secure US$ 60 million in funding. “We are delighted to enter into this long term loan agreement with Proparco at such a critical juncture in the history [...]
IFC: Female employees in SL’s private sector more productive working from home amid COVID-19
Almost two-thirds of 140,000 employees in Sri Lanka’s leading companies are struggling to meet personal and family financial obligations due to the impact of COVID-19, reveals a new report. The report, “Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Employment in the Private Sector, by Women in Work”, a partnership between IFC (a member of the World Bank [...]
BOC disburses Rs.42.8 b under COVID-19 working capital loan scheme
The Bank of Ceylon (BOC), continuing its heavy focus on entrepreneurial and economic development island-wide, has led the way in the Central Bank (CB)’s ‘Saubagya COVID-19 Working Capital Loan scheme, by single handedly handling Rs.42.8 billion of the total of Rs.150 billion allocated to all banks by the CB. A sum of Rs.34.6 billion has [...]
Reposition Sri Lanka: Attracting more FDI
There is no doubt that we have to strengthen our industries. In a globalized economy, Sri Lanka cannot survive in a closed economy. Thus, we have to open our economy selectively. There is a requirement to export products and value added raw material to attract foreign currency. We need to improve the production and value [...]
Many reasons for the increasing COVID-19 infections-BT poll
A multitude of reasons, primarily being the government’s weak handling of COVID-19 after showing success at the inception, have been attributed to a second wave of infections which has taken the total number affected to over 9000 as at Thursday October 29. There were many comments in the Business Times (BT) poll conducted this week [...]
Sri Lanka to mobilise more foreign financing from India
Sri Lanka is seeking to mobilise more foreign financing from India, under a plan to secure funds by entering into agreements with foreign development partners and lending agencies, official sources said. The island nation has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic pushing its progress in improving welfare backwards by more than five years, the [...]
Jetwing’s Hiran Cooray honoured with PATA Life Membership
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Life Membership has been awarded to Hiran Cooray, Chairman of Jetwing Symphony PLC. The award is the association’s highest individual honour and recognises significant leadership and invaluable dedication to PATA. Renowned as an expert in Sri Lankan tourism, Mr. Cooray, now the youngest Life Member of PATA, has contributed [...]
Union Bank records resilient performance in 3Q
Union Bank Group continued to focus on its prudent cost and portfolio management strategy to remain resilient amidst a volatile macro-economic landscape that prevailed in the third quarter of the year (July-September 2020). The group consisting of the bank and its two subsidiaries, UB Finance Company Ltd and National Asset Management Ltd reported a Profit [...]
Phase 2 of CSE digitalisation mapped
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has prepared the blueprint for the second phase of the three-stage digitalisation of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). SEC Chairman Viraj Dayaratne told the Business Times that this will go online by December. The first phase of the SEC/CSE digital strategy themed ‘Hyper-Leap to the future’ to digitalise all [...]
Tea auction delayed, export factories slowdown
While the Colombo tea auction was delayed by a day this week as a result of the ongoing curfew imposed in the Gampaha district, some factories have temporarily closed. The auction was delayed by one day but there was no problem in terms of auction trades, Colombo Tea Traders Association Chairman Jayantha Karunaratne told the [...]
Pyxle International and Trabeya to merge
Pyxle, a global digital consultancy based in Sri Lanka which helps middle market companies accelerate their digital transformation journey, on Thursday announced that it would merge with Trabeya, an advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence products and solutions company serving a global customer base, with its operational team out of Sri Lanka and its headquarters [...]