News

Events and announcements

NDB branch

The Chilaw branch will offer medium to long-term project loans, working capital and leasing facilities for business enterprises. The branch will also operate special lending schemes such as SMILE, The Perennial Crop Development Project (PCDP) and Environmentally Friendly Project (E-Friends).

M. F. M. Fakir, Manager, Chilaw Branch, said: "We are very excited about our prospects in Chilaw. We found that lots of business people and industrialists from this area were going all the way to our Negombo or Puttalam branches to get facilities from NDB. Now those financial facilities and more will be available at their doorstep."

NCCSL AGM

"Khomba baby" range grows

The new products contain extracts of "Khomba" (Margosa) and Venivel (Coscinium fenestratum) traditional herbal remedies with antiseptic properties, making them unique in the local market, the company said.

New CIM chairman

Abeywickrema is the managing director of MTI Consulting Sri Lanka, the local subsidiary of the international marketing consulting firm, MTI. His prior appointments include being CEO of Spectrum Marketing (Pte) Ltd, the local distributor for Procter & Gamble and Marketing Director of Hemas Marketing (Pte) Ltd.

Construction exhibition

BAUCON ASIA is the largest exhibition in the construction industry in South East Asia and attracts more than 25,000 visitors from overseas, CDL said in a press release.

New ComBank outlet

In addition to the normal banking facilities, the outlet will also have instant banking (CAT machine), opening of savings and deposits both in local and foreign currencies and issue and encashment of travellers cheques, a bank statement said.

Quality convention

The ICQCC, one of the biggest international quality events held every year in a member country, attracted 820 delegates from 15 countries. Sri Lankan companies generally participate in all these conventions but this year due to poor economic conditions in the country, only one company took part, the SLAAQP said.

Sampath ties up with Ananda College OBA

"This credit card will benefit the school as well as outside customers," OBA Project Manager, Bimal Wijayasinghe said at the official launching ceremony. He said half of the annual fees for every purchase of this card would go to the Ananda College fund.

Sampath will also provide special facilities and discounts to cardholders and promote educational activities.

Cathay returns

It said the service had been suspended since July 24 when an insurance surcharge was introduced for flights operating into Colombo following the incidents at the Colombo airport.

Kieran Bowers, the airline's country manager for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, noted that Cathay Pacific Cargo has always played an important role in the Colombo market especially catering to Sri Lanka's garment exports to the US and tuna fish shipments to Japan. "We will continue to closely work with freight forwarders," he said.

New Sinhala book on marketing

This is the second in a series of marketing books in Sinhala by Sooriyaarachchi, past president of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing and currently General Manager -Personnel at Eagle Insurance.

The book is titled "Paribhogika Sathkaraya" and covers key aspects of customer care.

Interview

Blue Diamonds AGM

The company has been in the news in recent years due to differences between Ceylinco Group Chairman, Lalith Kotelawela and former Deputy Chairman, Daya Senanayake, over alleged irregularities by the latter in the running of Blue Diamonds (a Ceylinco subsidiary). Senanayake is no more a part of the group.

Are foreign workers to blame for Singapore's rising unemployment?

"It's bound to go up," he said recently. "I wouldn't be surprised if it goes back to 5 percent, which was what it was in 1998, maybe somewhat higher than that."

What adds to the general discontent is the fact that, while many Singaporeans cannot find jobs hundreds of thousands of foreign workers continue to be employed.

Of Singapore's 2.1 million-strong workforce, almost a third — an astonishing 612,000 — are non-citizens. Native folk wonder why their government lets all these foreigners come in and get jobs when so many of their own people are unemployed. Should this generous open-door policy on labour be stopped? Or at least drastically curtailed until the crisis passes?

The Singapore government has shown no indication that it plans to reverse its liberal policy on accepting foreign workers. Its position is that incoming foreign talent can lead to more jobs, as a flexible labour market makes Singapore a more attractive place for overseas investors. "Properly managed, the admission of foreign workers actually helps to create more jobs and to protect some existing jobs for Singaporeans," says Deputy Prime Minister Lee.

Unfortunately, it is the "properly managed" part that many Singaporeans are starting to doubt. Why so many foreigners, they lament? After all, in Hong Kong foreign workers make up just 13.5 percent of the workforce —as opposed to the whopping 29.2 percent in Singapore.

Steve China, secretary-general of the opposition national Solidarity Party, says he is open to bringing in foreigners for positions requiring skills or talent that local don't have. "But let us not set up a policy or attitude that discriminates (against) locals in favour of foreigners," he says. A particular problem area is the increasing influx of junior and middle-ranked professionals who are perceived as taking jobs that Singaporeans feel they could hold down. As a concession to public sentiment, the government has sought to curtail the intake of these people by raising the minimum salary required for a professional work pass.

The government should hold firm on its open door labour policy. In this global era, any attempt to set the clock back by putting up barriers, be they for trade, funds or workers, is doomed to failure. Foreign workers have contributed to keeping Singapore's economy humming over the past decades, and it is their influx that has topped up the labour market when local people have failed to provide the numbers to do so. The foreigners are held responsible for taking away much-needed jobs. But in most cases, the positions are ones Singaporeans either reject or are not qualified to fill.

The majority of such jobs involve manual labour that locals deem beneath their dignity; a small proportion are in top-end executive posts for which there are simply not enough qualified and experienced Singaporeans. To turn on the "outsiders" simply because there is an economic downturn would be extremely short sighted.

That said, the government and employers must be understanding. Qualified Singaporeans who have been retrenched should be considered ahead of younger foreign workers. Rejecting people simply because they are over 35 or 40, as is routinely happening, is as senseless as blaming foreign workers for the high unemployment. This need not be a zero-sum game. (Courtesy – Asiaweek)

Lanka Ceramic reports losses in uncertain climate

"The company has continued to operate, overall, in an environment in which it was restrained by many factors arising from weak economic fundamentals, which were not conducive to growth of private enterprise," company chairman G.V. Divitotawela told shareholders.

The company's net loss after taxes rose to 69 million rupees from 59 million in 1999. 

This was also due to the inability to achieve higher selling prices to offset the increasing cost of manufacture.

However, turnover of LCL and its 100 percent subsidiary LCL Distributors Ltd, through which local sales are channelled, rose by 6.5 percent from the previous financial year.

The company said the Ceylon Theatres group made a mandatory offer and acquired controlling interest of the issued share capital of LCL during the year, resulting in the board of directors being reconstituted to reflect the current shareholding.

The report said the company was unable to achieve the required volumes of production for a new range of crockery at both its factories, which led to losses. 

This was aggravated by fuel and electricity costs rising sharply by approximately 86 percent. This added 30 million rupees to the cost in the manufacturing process.

"Repeated attempts made by energy intensive industries to get concessions from the government proved futile, threatening their long-term stability," the chairman noted.

The report said a new executive deputy chairman and a finance director were appointed to the board in August this year.

The board of directors of the company, in addition to the chairman, comprises Air Vice Marshal P.M. Fernando (executive deputy chairman), J.A. Jayasekera (executive director), S.R. Casie Chitty (finance director), Prof. C.V.L. Jayatillake, Anthony A. Page, E.A.D. Perera, Ms. C. Muttukumaru, T.D. Jayanithie, V.R. Page and A.T. Edirisinghe.

ColorZone opens for business

According to Firoze Cassim, Chairman and Managing Director, the company employs over 150 workers and adopts several screen printing techniques such as table system, board system, semi- automatic carousel system, etc.

The company already has a high profile customer base such as Next Sri Lanka, NV Production, Hemas, Jewelknit, Readywear Industries, Ranliya Group, WW Group and Nobleswear. Some of the brands it services are Next, Disney, BHS, Blues, Woolworths, La Redoute, Ralph Lauren, Adams, J C Penny, Kickers, Warner Bros, Reebok and Slazenger.

Picture shows ColourZone Director Tissa Weerasinghe (right), a Sri Lankan based in France, and Chairman/Managing Director, Firoze Cassim (next to him) at the opening of the new screen printing venture at Pannipitiya.