Close watch on public pulse

The Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation has called for expressions of interest from organisations which do public opinion surveys to conduct socio-economic opinion polls to find out the public's views on government development activities.

"We're trying to do it every three months," a ministry official said. "The aim is to find out what people think about development programmes carried out by various government departments at the national, provincial and district levels."

Right now there is no system to get feedback from the people about what they think of government development work.

"We want to take the people's views into account in planning development activities, so that if anything is wrong, if people are not happy, we would have advanced warning of it," the official said. The first survey is expected to be undertaken in late April.

The data collected will be analysed by the ministry's Monitoring and Progress Review Division and the results fed to policy-makers, the official said. The surveys will be "problem-oriented" ones designed to find out what people think of issues, even going down to the local level such as rehabilitation of village irrigation tanks, he said.

Multi-regulatory authority in next budget

The move is to be announced in next month's budget. At the moment there are regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, Insurance Board and Telecom (TRC). "A single authority will help to streamline the regulatory process and also cut the cost of running separate regulators, offices and staff," an official, a top government economist, noted.

He said several other cost-cutting measures were being contemplated in the United National Front's, (UNF) first budget to be presented by Finance Minister K.N. Choksy. He said gas and fuel would also come under the regulatory process once petroleum is also opened out to the private sector.

The economist said last month's talks with an IMF delegation were positive and the fund has agreed to stretch the budget deficit to 8.9 percent of GDP against an 8.5 percent target set earlier. "The new target is also high but we need to find ways of trimming state spending," he said.

Economic growth this year is seen at 3.5 percent, he said.

Central Bank enhances financial limits

It said this enhanced limit would enable commercial banks to manage their foreign exchange positions while financing large import bills without causing excessive volatility in the foreign exchange market.

The net open position reflects the working balances in all foreign currencies held by a commercial bank at the end of the day. The statement said that one of the recent features of the foreign exchange market has been the improvement in forward market activities with forward transactions increasing in terms of both volumes and duration.

ADB president to visit Sri Lanka, Maldives

This is Mr. Chino's first visit to Sri Lanka, a founding member of the ADB. He is scheduled to visit projects in Vavunia, Polonnaruwa, and Nuwara Eliya.

In the Maldives, Mr. Chino will meet President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and discuss the importance of collaboration between the ADB and the Maldives to effectively eradicate poverty and address the unique vulnerabilities of the archipelago.

SLIM awards night on March 9

It said the 145 awards, to be presented at the awards night, recognise the work of advertising agencies in areas of television, radio and print. 

The introduction of new Marcom (marketing communication) categories has also received a positive response from the agencies. Entries for Marcom awards are responsible for 32 percent of the total number of entries received. 

The new Marcom awards cover areas of Direct Response Marketing, Public relations, Corporate Promotional Material, Internal, Event and Interactive Marketing, Packaging, Promotions and Point-of Sale, the statement said.

Unilever says tea import ban influenced plant closure

The anticipated tea bag volume for the factory by the end of December 2001 for 2002 was less than 300 tonnes. But actual demand for tea bags for the year so far is 50 tonnes for the domestic market and about 20 tonnes for export, the company said in a statement.

The volume of bulk tea blended in the factory had fallen to 3,000 tonnes last year from a peak of 20,000 tonnes, it said.

"In recent years the world demand for branded tea has shifted in favour of multi-origin blends," Unilever said. "The inability of the Mabole factory to cater to this changing demand owing to the ban on the import of orthodox teas to Sri Lanka for value addition and re-export contributed significantly to this fall in demand."

The import of orthodox tea has for long been a contentious issue and the tea industry has still not been able to reach consensus on the matter.

A task force on de-regulation under the Ministry of Plantations Industries is expected to decide on the issue by the end of March. Only imports of CTC teas for tea bags and speciality teas such as Darjeelings for blending and re-export are allowed now.

In 1998 Unilever's Mabole factory produced 2,200 tonnes of tea bags. But orders fell subsequently first due to the crisis faced by the Russian economy and then because consumer countries set up tea bagging plants close to their markets in order to save supply chain costs such as freight, it said.

"The cost of shipping tea bags is much higher than shipping bulk tea," it said. "Accordingly, it is cheaper to produce tea bags at locations close to the consumer markets."

Tea bagging accounted for 75 percent of labour used and 80 percent of the value of output of the factory which had a labour force, including managers and supervisors, of 518, Unilever said.

All operations of the factory ceased by December 2001 and following "unruly behaviour" of some employees during protest campaigns, the factory was closed down on February 6 in order to ensure the safety of all the employees and company assets, it said.

All employees continue to be paid their wages until the Labour Commissioner gives his ruling on the compensation payable, it said.

Danish business delegation to visit SL

The companies participating in this delegation include APV Thailand, AVK Overseas (Asia), Bur-meister and Wain Sca-ndinavian Contractor A/S, Cowi A/S, Danfoss Industries Pvt. Ltd, Danisco Ingredients India Pvt. Ltd, DHI Water and Environment, Dong A/S, D- line India Pvt. Ltd. ECO-Chem Waste Control (I) Pvt. Ltd, Emborg Foods Middle East, Fowler Westrup (India) Ltd, Fuller India Ltd, Grundfos Pumps India Pvt. Ltd, Intertec A/S, Kampsax India (P) Ltd, LM Glasfiber (I) Ltd, L&T Niro Ltd, Maersk Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd., Navision Software India Pvt. Ltd, NEG-Micon A/S, Novo Nordisk India Pvt. Ltd and Vestas RRB India Ltd.

They span the dairy and food processing machinery, industrial fittings for water and gas, diesel engine power plants, food ingredients, consultancy in water, sanitation and environment, production and supply of energy and associated services, pollution monitoring and control, seed processing machinery, cement plant machinery, pumps, electric and mechanical installations, digital mapping and geographical information system services, systems and packages related to concentration and drying for chemicals, fertilizers and other chemicals, wind energy systems and generators, consumer goods and healthcare sectors.

Two seminars will also be organised on 11 March on the energy and water sectors respectively.

The seminar "Danish Know-how and Technology for the Water Sector" will be presented by the Danish Hydraulic Institute, COWI, Grundfos and AVK Overseas, while the seminar entitled "Danish Know-how and Technology for the Energy Sector" will be led by B&W Scandinavian Contractor A/S, NEG Micon and Vestas.

The local coordinating bodies for this delegation are the European Business Information Centre (EBIC) and the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ECCSL).

Danes eye SL as gateway to Indian market

They also plan to make use of Danish soft loans that are available for funding certain types of projects in Sri Lanka, a Ceylon Chamber of Commerce statement said.

The visit on March 11-12, is being arranged by the Danish Embassy in New Delhi in collaboration with the Indo-Danish Business Association and co-ordinated by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the European Chamber of Commerce and Government ministries and agencies responsible for promoting trade and investment.

The focus on the Sri Lankan market was prompted by the Indo-Lanka free trade deal which gives Sri Lanka preferential access to the Indian market, the advent of a new pro-business government, and the truce that has raised hopes of an end to the war.

Ceylinco clears Rs. 2 bln mark

The company said in a statement that premium income grew by a healthy 30 percent last year enabling Ceylinco Life to remain the leader among private sector insurers, outperforming its closest rival by nearly Rs. 500 million.

"This record-breaking feat also enabled Ceylinco Insurance to reach Rs. 4 billion in its total insurance portfolio, which includes the General Division's premium income," it said.

The company's Life Fund grew by a massive Rs. 1.5 billion in the year under review, and stood at Rs. 5.2 billion on December 31, 2001, recording an increase of more than 40 percent. This is the biggest life fund in Sri Lanka's private sector, the statement said.

Maturity benefits and advance payments during the year amounted to Rs. 261 million, while a total of Rs. 53 million was paid out in claims. Ceylinco Life also disbursed Rs. 292 million as bonuses to policyholders in the final quarter of the year on the basis of the company's performance in 2000.

Emirates signs AIRBUS A380SA380s deal

Emirates' Chairman, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, signed the Memorandum of Understanding agreement to buy the engines, which have a list price, including options, of approximately $1.5 billion. (Dhs 5.5 billion) along with Lloyd Thompson, President of the Engine Alliance.

Sheikh Ahmed said: " As Emirates grows to become a truly global airline, we need an engine to power our future A380 flagship over the world's biggest air routes. After exceptionally exhaustive studies of the various engines on offer, we have selected the Engine Alliance GP7200 GP7000 as the one best suited to our present and future network.

"The GP72000 proudly bears the pedigree of two world leaders in engineering, and its specification, projected performance and price combined to convince us that it is the best deal for Emirates - technically, operationally and comm-ercially."Comprehensive negotiations are now taking place between Emirates and the Engine Alliance to finalise the GPA.

Emirates' order is for GP7270 engines, rated at 70,000 pounds (311 kN) of thrust, powering to power its 20 passenger versions of the A380-800 aircraft and GP7277 engines, rated at 76,500 (340 kN) pounds of thrust, powering to power the two freighters the airline has ordered.