Tuesday’s breather
A motor cyclist with loads of goods seen in a picture taken on Tuesday when the country reopened for 19 hours. There was chaos on the streets as police enforced the rule that no one was permitted to use their vehicles for shopping and people were compelled to walk to the nearest shop. Pic by [...]
COVID-19 crisis to hit apparel industry targets
Sri Lankan apparel companies hit by the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced their capacity resulting in delays in production amidst growing tension among communities and concerns by trade unions that workers are under pressure. But everyone believes work needs to continue to ensure the economy survives. As a result of the reduction in capacity at the [...]
Government steps up saline production locally with private sector assistance
Sri Lanka has stepped up efforts to overcome the shortage in any eventuality of the fast depleting stock of saline in hospitals across the country encouraging the private sector to meet the local requirement of over 12 million 500 ml bottles annually. While the State Ministry of Production Supplies and Regulations for Pharmaceuticals is making [...]
Bitcoin – CB’s clarity in the making
Internal discussions at the Central Bank (CB) on cryptocurrency trading in Sri Lanka have taken a serious turn after an alarming rise in Bitcoin trading. The Business Times learns that there are at least three different Internet platforms that allow buying and selling Bitcoin, a type of cryptocurrency The latest data shows that one such [...]
Foreign debt servicing continues to sustain in fiscal tightening
Fiscal tightening of the treasury and the Central Bank’s accommodative monetary policy with flexible exchange rate will sustain the economic recovery, servicing debts in a timely manner, officials disclosed. The authorities are getting ready to settle maturities of Sri Lanka Development Bonds (SLDB) within the next two months. Answering a question raised by Business Times [...]
Airport reopening to accommodate repatriation flights
With plans to reopen the airport on June 1 the government’s main objective in doing so is to ensure the repatriation programme continues. Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga told the Business Times on Wednesday that the main objective of reopening the airport is to ensure that repatriation of Sri Lankans overseas could continue. The closure of [...]
New plan to assist people hit by COVID-19 third wave
The government is to implement a new management programme with containment measures based on a contingency financial (budgetary) plan for the containment of the third COVID-19 wave, Finance Ministry sources said. The need of such a plan has arisen as the government has spent Rs. 138 billion so far for direct expenses up to now [...]
Scaling down
Not a day passes without a local TV news channel highlighting the problems of paddy and vegetable farmers largely due to the human-elephant conflict. These days the focus, however, is on farmers unable to get their supply of fertiliser, as a result of which their crops are under-nourished. The same issue confronted the trio when [...]
Idling tippers and workers
Wasana is a busy service-provider in his thirties, who is always “on call”. He gets phone calls from the sand-traders in the Baddegama area. He is an experienced and efficient worker in providing his service, which is hard work that cannot be done by everybody – loading the tippers with sand using a shovel. When [...]
Innovative Sri Lankan engineer takes on the world with high capacity energy storage batteries
Guided by Sri Lanka’s ancient rainwater harvesting methods – through large tanks and catchment areas, a Sri Lankan entrepreneur with engineering skills and competence is progressing quite well with his large scale project producing high energy storage batteries in facilities in Sri Lanka and the UK. Several young, experienced and highly competent Sri Lankan engineers [...]
Aitken Spence non-tourism sectors record highest ever pre-tax profit
The Aitken Spence Group recorded a loss before tax of Rs. 2.8 billion for the year ending March 31, 2021 with the tourism sector reporting a loss of Rs. 7.8 billion for the year during a turbulent period affected by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. However the group’s non-tourism sectors delivered the highest ever profit before [...]
Hemas reports strong performance in 2020/21
Hemas Holdings PLC (HHL) has reported another resilient performance in the 2020/21 financial year with Home and Personal Care (HPC) and Learning segment represented by Atlas along with Healthcare being the significant contributors to the robust performance. “The third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to further disrupt the day-to-day business operations and create [...]
Like many conglomerates, JKH reports restrained performance in 2020/21
John Keells Group (JKH), one of Sri Lanka’s largest conglomerates, was adversely affected by the pandemic and its wide exposure to the leisure sector – one of the worst hit sectors –, reporting a huge drop in profits for the year ending March 31, 2021. In a review of its performance in the newly-released annual [...]
Despite COVID-19, CIC posts highest-ever PAT of Rs.3.84 bn
CIC Holdings PLC has braved the COVID-19 pandemic and an extraordinarily challenging year to record its highest ever profit of Rs. 3.84 billion for the financial year 2020/21, a phenomenal 250 percent increase over the previous year. The diversified conglomerate which consists of several key sectors aligned with a developing Sri Lanka inclusive of agriculture, [...]
Financial institutions to widen reach to meet consumer needs
The government will ease restrictions for financial institutions to widen the reach of their services by directing the Central Bank to issue guidelines to these institutions including banks to introduce new products, Finance Ministry sources said. Immediate attention has been focused on guidelines for institutions providing services for payment related mobile applications and revision of [...]
Developing the agricultural marketing sector
The government has given the highest priority to develop the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka in the Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour election manifesto of the government. To make it a reality, there should be an efficient agricultural marketing system because marketing is considered the engine of agricultural development. The following recommendations have been developed [...]
LEADS helps in COVID-19 efforts to combat pandemic
LEADS, an NGO which works on childrens’ issues recognising the great need at quarantine centres across Sri Lanka, has responded to requests for help from the administration of quarantine centres in Kandakadu, Ampara and Palamunai. LEADS was successful in raising support with the help of the public in providing for the urgent requirements at the [...]
MAS Holdings donates Rs. 130 m to support Lady Ridgeway Hospital project
MAS Holdings and its associates, have honoured their pledge to support the ‘Little Hearts’ project of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital, one of the largest children’s hospitals in the world, by raising funds to upgrade its infrastructure in cardiac care, towards their ongoing national healthcare efforts In 2019, at the request of the Sri Lanka College [...]