Busy year for Colombo bourse
It’s going to be a busy and a productive year for the capital markets. The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) digitalisation phase 2 due in two months’ time will enable those living overseas to open CSE’s Central Depositing System (CDS) accounts. “The second phase will allow Sri Lankans living abroad to log into the CSE app [...]
Plantations come under government scanner
The government has threatened to take over two plantations companies if they don’t come up with the plan to cut losses and overcome a financial crisis. Under a plan to assess the financial soundness of the plantations, two plantation companies were summoned on Tuesday for a discussion and asked to present a proposal to overcome [...]
Shipping industry wants ECT fast-tracked
Sri Lanka’s shipping industry has requested authorities to fast-track the operationalisation of the East Container Terminal (ECT) in a bid to overcome the perception that Colombo Port is congested and can accommodate vessels without berthing delays. Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents (CASA) Chairman Iqram Cuttilan said they had written to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority [...]
Government steps into CPC bailout
The Government is aiming to rescue the debt-saddled Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) from the threat of bankruptcy with around Rs. 600 billion in debt and currently running at a loss, official data confirmed. According to Finance Ministry statistics, total CPC debt due to state-run People’s Bank and Bank of Ceylon had reached Rs. 592.7 billion [...]
Travel blocks for Sri Lankans eased
Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has improved on its regulations this week to ease travel to the country mainly by Lankans resident abroad. Officials at the authority stated that other than foreign guests they have come across a number of issues with Sri Lankans visiting the country with a dual passport or when they [...]
Airport and Aviation sector to recover with Treasury bailout
Airport and Aviation Services and national carrier operations are set to recover by the end of this year with government’s stimulus package and ease of air travel restrictions even amidst current revenue losses, the Finance Ministry says. The airport and aviation sector has suffered a massive financial loss recently owing to a drop in traffic [...]
Trash to cash
One man’s trash, they say, is another man’s cash. Even during these depressing COVID-19 pandemic times, sometimes an event lifts the hopes and spirits of people. Wednesday’s opening of Sri Lanka’s first power plant generating electricity through garbage is one such event. The launch of the Aitken Spence backed-Western Power Company (Pvt) Ltd is the [...]
Printing money to prosperity!
The global financial crisis in 2008/2009, according to one of the explanations, was caused by a mathematical equation. I know that many would consider this a joke, but it was not so; let me explain to you the story behind it. It was known as the Black-Scholes equation, developed by two financial economists – Fischer [...]
Estate workers’ Rs.1000 wage hike endorsed
The new plantation wages decided by the tea and rubber wages board will be gazetted despite receiving over hundreds of objections from stakeholders likely to be impacted by paying the Rs.1000 minimum wage. Labour Commissioner General Prabhath Chandrakeerthi told the Business Times on Wednesday that since this wage hike of Rs.1000 is a government decision [...]
Property buyers returning to the market, industry says
Since the beginning of the year there has been an increase in real estate activity by property buyers and sellers, according to Sri Lanka’s leading property portal LankaPropertyWeb. The company stated that a comparison between the number of visits to lankapropertyweb.com during the month of January in 2020 and 2021, showed an increase of 23 [...]
SLAVO: Expedite ECT process, increase capacity
The Sri Lanka Association of Vessel Operators (SLAVO), representing shipping lines and feeder owners /operators, has raised concerns on the lack of importance given to the development of the East Container Terminal (ECT) due to theories adopted by various regimes during the past several years. “It is noted from print media and television shows that [...]
SLSI raising the bar towards productivity
The Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) has cottoned onto a new high in efficiency with its extended working hours in certain departments giving an impetus to the national productivity agenda. SLSI new Chairman Nushad Perera told the Business Times on Tuesday that the SLSI’s ‘import inspection’ department was transferred into a day and night service [...]
Nanoparticles in the fight against microbes
A nanometer is one billionth of a metre. And when the size of an object is between 1-100 nanometers, it is recognised to be in nanoscale. Materials at nanoscale display unique physical, chemical, mechanical, and optical properties that could bring about eruptive technological breakthroughs. Medicine is one area that has started to benefit from nanotechnology; [...]
Non-COVID related health clearance checks on expatriates
Sri Lankan regulations to carry out health clearance of expatriates resident or employed in the country, not related to the COVID-19 pandemic, have become the subject of discussion at the Board of Investment (BOI) since they are causing a strain on companies in the free trade zones. FTZ Manufacturers Association General Secretary Dhammika Fernando told [...]
Manufacturing and service sectors drive SL’s economic recovery
Sri Lanka’s industrial sector is set to drive the country’s economy this year (2021) with real GDP growth expected to gain by 4.8 per cent due to more favourable base effects from the earlier forecast of 4.2 per cent, Fitch ratings agency predicted. The manufacturing sector remained expanded in January 2021 owing to the expansion [...]
Agricultural supply chain digitisation gets underway
The Government is now adhering to a new agriculture development policy according to priority to digitising agriculture crop storage and distribution ensuring that essential food produce including rice remains at stable prices. This will be achieved by coordinating paddy, vegetables and fruits purchasing and marketing programmes using information technology eliminating middle men in the supply [...]
NGOs, finance companies and money lenders
Till around the mid-1980s Sri Lanka’s poor was mainly dependent on money lenders for credit. Then came formal microfinance started by NGOs following the example set by Grameen and others in the 70s. The market share of NGOs microfinance grew with a large fund from JTF/NDTF, a fund for on-lending to micro finance provided by [...]
Disapamock to facilitate E-learning
Disapamock, Sri Lanka’s most comprehensive and trusted digital educational workspace, is launching its online platform to assist students sitting for the local O/L and A/L examinations to improve their exam performance. The platform is offering access to its vast resource of digitized material to students, schools and private tuition institutes. The service is a great [...]
Fonterra’s high-nutrition Mineral Mix packs improve smallholder dairy farm productivity
Fonterra Brands Lanka, in a move to help its smallholder dairy farmers improve dairy cattle health and increase milk yield, has enabled sustained market access to high-nutrition minerals mix packs. In a media release, Managing Director of Fonterra Brands Lanka and Indian Subcontinent, Ms. Vidya Sivaraja said: “We are pleased to make these locally-produced, high [...]
Challenging times for Sampath Bank in 2020
Sampath Bank, despite the challenging conditions in 2020, has continued to prioritise the needs of all stakeholders. And, notwithstanding the extraordinary difficulties encountered during the year, Sampath Bank continued to grow in 2020 with the bank’s asset base expanding by 15.4 per cent to cross the historical Rs. 1 trillion mark to reach Rs. 1.1 [...]
NDB achieves profit growth, resilience in challenging year
The National Development Bank PLC posted solid financial results for the financial year ending December 2020 with profit after tax (PAT) up by 8 per cent to Rs. 5.5 billion in a challenging environment amidst the COVID-19 pandemic In a media release issued by the bank, Dimantha Seneviratne, Director/ Group Chief Executive Officer reflecting on [...]
Foreign investment review process reactivated
In the wake of dwindling foreign investment inflows owing to the COVID-19 impact and economic setback, a new mechanism has been proposed with the aim of providing easy access to investors at a single point, official sources said. A Committee comprising eight high officials of key ministries, departments and statutory boards headed by Treasury Secretary [...]
Economic growth by adding a robust D2M layer to business processes
Sri Lanka is not in the subset of countries that embraced global industrialisation revolutions at the same pace as other developed countries. The country is still in the developing country classification although the world has passed three industrial revolutions whilst many developed countries are now adapting to the 4th Industrial revolution. Our manufacturing sector was [...]
Wrong political decisions on ports affect Sri Lanka’s future as a key regional hub
Owing to the sphere of China’s growing influence in in the Indian ocean, India has viewed this as a growing threat to its regional security. Even before Sri Lanka handed over the Hambantota Port to China on a 99 year old lease the Sri Lankan government had many strategic choices on the table to decide [...]
Sri Lanka – excellent hub for BPO of conveyancers, but lacks talent
While it’s very differently challenging to recruit conveyancers in the UK, Sri Lanka is an exceptional hub for business process outsourcing (BPO) of conveyancers. Though there are enough and more law graduates who have the paper qualification, the knowledge and the ability to learn new technology, it lacks the right talent to grasp customer expectations, [...]
CSE to engage listed companies in a two-part series on corporate governance
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) will be conducting a two-part series of online forums themed ‘Beyond Basics: Excellence in Corporate Governance’. The first session is set to take place on March 3 from 3:30 p.m. onwards while the follow-up session is set for March 18 from 3.00 pm onwards, the CSE said in a media [...]