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Business

Selling "murukku" on Pettah pavements
By Naomi Gunasekara
While all of Pettah was busy doing business, he was seated on a pavement paying little attention to what was going on around him. Dressed in a clean sarong and shirt, with a cardboard box well covered with polythene, 65-year-old Y. M. Edward patiently awaited his turn to ply his trade.

"I have some more time to start my business," he said leaning against an old pillar on a Monday morning. A pleasant man with a head of grey hair, Edward had brought very little to sell. "I have brought a little today," he said, opening a box full of crisp, sugar-coated murukku.

His murukku was light brown, packed in small polythene bags, each with six or ten pieces of murukku. "I bring a lot of other things during the week. But sales are poor on Mondays," he said while taking out a neat packet. Twenty years in the murukku business, Edward prepares the murukku at his small home in Mabola after a day's business. It is not difficult to prepare these, he tells me with a wide grin, revealing the only tooth left in his mouth.

"You have to make a dough out of flour, butter, sugar, egg and coconut, roll it on a board, cut it into strips and deep fry them. Once the strips are fried they can be coated with sugar or sprinkled with salt and chilli powder." Although he is seated on a pavement down Main Street, Pettah, his business centre is Fort, says Edward, who completes the sale of 100-odd packets of murukku and potato chips by 2.30 in the afternoon. "This food is hygienic and can be given to little children because it is fresh - made daily," he says, adding that most of his customers come from the banks in Fort. "The bank staff love them. There are "missies" who buy 10-15 packets at times."

The murukku packets sold at Rs. 6 and Rs. 10 help Edward, a father of seven, to keep his home fires burning.

FAPAA Exco meeting in Colombo June 3-4
The Federation of Asia Pacific Aircargo Associations (FAPAA) will have its 29th Executive Council Meeting in Sri Lanka from 3-4 June, 2002, at the World Trade Centre, Colombo.

The Sri Lanka Freight Forwarders' Association, the apex body representing the freight forwarding industry in Sri Lanka, will host the FAPAA ECM for the second time after 11 years. The SLFFA has made arrangements to attract more than 100 international and 50 local delegates for this prestigious event. The prime minister and several senior government ministers have been invited and are expected to participate in the inauguration of the ECM, a Ceylon Chamber of Commerce statement said.

FAPAA is a regional grouping of National Freight Forwarders' Associations in the Asia-Pacific Region. Formed in 1985, it is a very strong body comprising the National Aircargo/Freight Forwarders' Associations of Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. FAPAA, apart from fostering greater co-operation among regional Aircargo/Freight Forwarding Associations also acts as a vital point of contact with IATA and FIATA. Asia-Pacific being now recognised as the world's largest airfreight market, FAPAA has a very active role to play in promoting and safeguarding the interests of the main players in the aircargo industry.

Diren R. Hallock, past chairman of the Sri Lanka Freight Forwarders' Association is the current chairman of FAPAA. He is currently serving his second two-year term as the Chairman of FAPAA. The two-day programme includes presentations by several international agencies such as IATA, FIATA, Cargo 2000 and country reports from all member countries. The association has also planned a number of exciting pre and post-meeting events for all delegates and attendees to make their visit to Colombo an exciting and memorable experience, the statement said.

Containers seek exemption from VAT
The Association of Container Transporters, which represents container haulage companies in Sri Lanka, has urged Finance Minister K.N. Choksy to exclude the freight transport industry from the new tax -VAT (Value added tax) payment.
It said in a statement that freight transportation should be categorised as a service provider similar to shipping, aviation or freight forwarding.

"Container transportation (freight transport) is a vital sector which plays an important role for the export and import industry. Most of the imports are either consumable goods for the masses or raw materials for the export trade," the statement said.
It said the reduction in the cost of transport would eventually help lower prices of consumable goods and a give competitive edge in pricing to Sri Lankan exporters who are struggling to compete in the world market.

Tour operators visit from China
The first group of tour operators from China will arrive tomorrow on an educational tour of Sri Lanka. The group consisting of 35 tour operators will visit Kandy, Sigiriya, Galle and Bentota, during their five-day stay. They will also visit Maldives for one day, prior to their departure on May 18.

The arrival of the group will coincide with Sri Lanka being granted most favoured nations status by the Chinese government which has been granted to 22 other nations.

"Lots of Chinese are travelling to South Asia and we hope there will be more arrivals in Sri Lanka as well," said Afgar Mohideen, Chairman of United Holidays, the local agents handling the group's visit to Colombo, adding that China has been identified as one of the largest tourist markets and their arrival coincides with Sri Lanka being identified as a approved destination.

Delmege group announces new appointments
The Delmege Forsyth group, one of Sri Lanka's oldest conglomerates, has announced the appointment of four new directors including Hilmy Cader, the Bahrain-based CEO of Marketing Technologies International (MIT) to its boards of companies.

Cader, a group statement said, has been appointed to the board of Delmege Distributors Pvt Ltd. Nilantha Fernando has been appointed managing director of Delmege Interior Décor; Bernard Wijetunga -former deputy managing director of George Steuarts Travels - has been appointed managing director of Delair Travels and Ravi de Silva has been appointed executive director at Delmege General Equipment Pvt Ltd.

The directors of the Delmege group are: F.G.N. Mendis (chairman), Lakshman de Mel (vice chairman), Dr. K. Weerapperuma (group chief executive), U.A. Gunawardene (CEO), J.S. Mather, F.P. de Alwis, N.A.P. Wijeratne, C.N.S. Mendis, Niranjan Mendis, Nihal Abeysekera, R.K.W. Gunasekera and Lalith de Mel.

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