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Cathay Pacific Airways launched "The World's Biggest Welcome" late last month with the airline's biggest ever campaign to boost tourism in Hong Kong.
The campaign which involves Hong Kong residents saw Cathay Pacific give away 10,000 return air tickets for Hong Kong residents enabling them to invite their friends and relatives living overseas to visit Hong Kong between 3rd April and 3rd July 2002, a company statement said.
Ticket winners will be determined in a free to enter lucky draw in which all Hong Kong ID card holders over the age of 18 can take part. The 10,000-ticket give-away is the biggest community project that Cathay Pacific has ever undertaken to boost tourism in Hong Kong.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Cathay Pacific Airways Chairman James Hughes Hallett said: "As the airline of Hong Kong and a member of the travel industry, Cathay Pacific has always worked hard to promote tourism - an integral part of our economy.
By flying in 10,000 people from all over the world, we hope to bring home a much-needed boost to our tourism industry. We think that there can be no better tonic to combat the hard times that many people have faced here this past year than to bring together far-flung families and friends."
Stanley Jayawardene, a former chairman of Unilever and director at LOLC, stepped down from the LOLC board late last month to make room for Ishara Nanayakkara.
"It was an unprecedented act of magnanimity in the interest of the company that he had served for over twenty years.
The Ishara group had purchased over 23% of LOLC's shares and it was felt that they deserved representation on the board. However, there were no vacancies on the board and Mr. Jayawardena decided to step down," the company said.
Jayawardena had been a director at LOLC from its inception in 1980, except for a short break between September 1980 and March 1983. He was appointed deputy chairman in July 1995.
Ishara Nanayakkara, who has taken Jayawardena's place is the Managing Director of Ishara Traders one of the largest importers of motor vehicles in the country. Ishara Traders has a well equipped workshop and LOLC is going to benefit from the synergies that exist between the two firms because much of LOLC's business is to do with motor vehicles, the statement said.
Nanayakkara obtained a diploma in Business Accounting in Melbourne and worked for two years with Yamagin Corporation, Japan, the largest exporter of reconditioned motor vehicles from Japan.
Dettol is launching a promotion to give away 15,000 First Aid Boxes to households and schools, the company said.
The promotion involvement a competition with entries to be accompanied with two Dettol-Extra soap wrappers, two liquid Dettol labels and two Dettol anti-bacterial plaster wrappers to become 'clean' winners.
"Dettol breeds a healthier and germ-free lifestyle. We want to inculcate in the minds of the general public, a feeling of 100% cleanliness which is a healthy habit we plan to propagate at a school going age," Rohantha Athukorale, Dettol Category Manager said.
Dankotuwa Porcelain will make a grand appearance at the AmCham Ambassador's Ball next week.
"The cream of society will gather to wine and dine at the Colombo Hilton and as a fitting tribute to them, Dankotuwa's world-class tableware will adorn the ballroom tables.
This is the first time in the history of the Colombo Hilton that an exclusive line of crockery is being used for such an occasion," a Dankotuwa press release said. This is not the first time that Dankotuwa Porcelain has been selected to grace an important event. In March 2001, Dankotuwa Porcelain was selected to hold the culinary masterpieces at the annual US Oscar Awards banquet also known as the "Governor's Ball". Considered to be one of the most glamorous events the world over, the banquet hosts 1,800 guests, including international celebrities and Hollywood's high society.
The drought has destroyed some 600,000 coconut trees or 1.5 per cent of the total extent, Plantations Industries Ministry officials said. About 15,000 acres are out of production with the worst affected areas being Puttalam and Hambantota according to a ministry survey of the damage caused by drought.
The shortage of nuts drove prices to unprecedented levels in recent weeks and forced some coconut-based industries such as desiccated coconut millers to stop production.
The situation was made worse by the low crops which are usual in the first two months of the year, said Denzil Aponso, head of the Coconut Growers' Association.
Nut prices began to fall after the government eased restrictions on edible oil imports in late January.
The coconut crop last year is estimated to have fallen by about 20-25 percent to around 2.6 - 2.7 billion nuts from three billion nuts in 2000.
Dr. Gamani Corea was earlier this month unanimously elected by the Council of Representatives of the South Centre as the Chairman of the Board of the Centre for period of three years.
The South Centre was established in 1995 as an Inter-governmental body of developing countries, which currently comprises 46 member states, which comprise the Council. Dr. Corea succeeds the late Julius Nyerere, a former President of Tanzania.
Dr. Corea's involvement in the multilateral scene began with his participation as a member of the team of experts, which helped to prepare UNCTAD 1. He subsequently held the post of Secretary General of UNCTAD for a period of ten years from 1974 in addition to holding several important posts in the multilateral sphere.
He has played a central role in South-South cooperation. He has been actively involved in the work of the South Centre, both as a member of the South Commission and member of the Board of the South Centre, and has also contributed to the work of the G-77, the Non-Aligned Movement and in particular SAARC.
In general, the South Centre works to assist in developing points of view of the South on major policy issues and to generate action oriented proposals for consideration by the collectivity of southern governments, institutions of South-South co-operation, inter-governmental organisations of the south and NGOs and the community at large.
By Akhry Ameer
The Sri Lankan IT industry will be represented at an international IT exhibition in Germany when a Sri Lanka Export Development Board (SLEDB) team of ten software-exporting companies hosts a Sri Lanka pavilion.
The CeBIT meet is the world's largest and most significant trade show for Information/Telecommunications (ICT) technology and attracts over 800,000 visitors. It will be held from March 13 to 20.
To make a bigger impact the SLEDB together with the Foreign Ministry and the Software Exporters' Association (SEA) have organised certain connected events beside the Sri Lanka pavilion.
A special Sri Lankan evening will be a focal point where the industry is expected to meet with non-resident Sri Lankan IT professionals and other invitees in Hall No. 11 at the exhibition venue on 16th March from 4-6 pm.
Another get-together is being organised for the Sri Lankan team to meet members of BITKOM, Germany's largest association of IT companies.
After the exhibition the delegation will travel to France to meet leading IT associations with the assistance of the Sri Lanka embassy in Paris.
This initiative follows a similar concept adopted by India, through which the participants will try to directly involve themselves or tie-up locally to propel their organisations further.
The ten software firms are Wavenet, Excelsoft, Lanka-Online, hSenid Software International, Softech, Ubizport, Prudential Technologies, Evosof Interactive and IE Technics.
These companies are mostly locally-owned and specialise in various forms of mobile technology applications, web-based enterprise solutions, time and expense management, freight forwarding and logistics, e-learning, e-commerce, dynamic graphics and 3D animation.
The SEA was set up about two years ago with the aim of promoting and developing the software export sector.
Logistics International Limited (LIL) has become the first company in the Hayleys conglomerate to win the Sri Lanka National Quality Award, the country's highest recognition for excellence in business management and execution.
A unit of the Hayleys Transport Sector Group, Maritime Holdings, LIL was adjudged winner in the Small Scale Service Category at the recent National Quality Awards for 2001. "LIL's achievement is a first for the container depot industry in Sri Lanka," the company's General Manager Chandima Allis said in a press release. The National Quality Award is modelled on the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award programme in USA. The audit is conducted by a team of auditors from the Sri Lanka Standards Institute and the private sector.
The Sri Lanka National Quality Award is based on an in-depth audit of seven inter-related areas, leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management and business results.
Logistics International Limited commenced container depot operations in early 1997 and has been selected the best container depot in the region including South Africa, UAE, India and Pakistan, by Textainer, one of the largest container leasing companies in the world.
McDonald's family restaurants in Kollupitiya and Rajagiriya have come out with another unbelievable mouth-watering offer - giving away larger Cokes and larger portions of fries with every McChicken, McSpicy and Big Mac meal at no extra charge.
A company statement said the McDonald's team was always on the lookout for every opportunity to provide the Sri Lankan public with new promotions to suit their taste buds.
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