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Bourse
cools after high prices Market insiders welcomed the round of profit taking, saying it had taken some of the heat out of a hectic market. "It's healthy," said Naren Godamunne, vice-president of DFCC Stockbrokers. DFCC remained one of the most traded stocks, with a number of large buyers - said to include prominent businessman Harry Jayawardena - consolidating strategic stakes. DFCC ended the week one rupee higher at Rs. 180. Large parcels of shares also changed hands in conglomerate Aitken Spence, which closed the week at Rs. 120, unchanged from the previous week Singapore-based fund Arisaig Partners was once again said to be on the buying side of some large transactions. The blue chip
Milanka Index - which has more than doubled its levels of October
last year - lost 15.88 points to finish the week at 1263.62. Despite
this week's slide, analysts are confident the market will continue
to climb. "The buying support is there and with retail support
the market can go up," said Godamunne. India,
Lanka forge closer economic ties Officials of the Commerce Ministries of the two countries are to meet in Colombo early next month to try to resolve most of the outstanding problems in the free trade deal. Sri Lanka is seeking to position itself as the gateway to the huge Indian market as well as increase exports to India and redress the balance of trade which is now heavily weighted in India's favour. New Delhi has asked for restrictions to be removed on exports of Indian teas to the island and more preferential tariffs on bulk cement exports. Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake, who headed the team for the talks on the free trade pact, said that the two countries are still grappling with the operational difficulties of a traditional and simplistic FTA covering only commodity trade. They should move on to a second-generation FTA that includes services, investment and intellectual property rights, he said. Sri Lankan exports to India under the FTA have been hampered by a variety of fiscal levies imposed by state governments, he said. Exports to India of Ceylon tea and garments, the island's key export earners, have not got off the ground as anticipated under the FTA. Sri Lanka has asked India to allow imports of Ceylon tea from all Indian ports, removing current restrictions that now limit exports through the ports of Calcutta and Cochin. The annual quota of 15 million kg of Ceylon tea has been grossly under-utilised because of these restrictions. During the talks in Delhi, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) chairman Daham Wimalasena signed an agreement with his counterpart in the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), M. S. Ramachandran, on the long term lease of part of the oil tank farm in China Bay, Trincomalee. IOC also plans to enter the local petroleum market by taking over 100 CPC filling stations around the island. It also might use the tank farm in Trincomalee to provide offshore bunkers for merchant shipping. Following Wickremesinghe's
visit to Delhi, both sides have begun talks on allowing the use
of the Indian currency in Sri Lanka, given the increasing numbers
of Indian tourists visiting the island, according to Trade and Commerce
Minister Karunanayake. He discussed the issue with his Indian counterpart
Murasoli Maran. New
Sec-General at Ceylon Chamber He takes over
from Chula Jayasuriya who is migrating with his family. He serves as a consultant to the Ministry of Labour and Manpower in Sri Lanka, assisting the implementation of the newly formulated Employment Policy for Sri Lanka. Since 1990, de Alwis was with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), holding the positions of Director, Member Services and Vice President for Asia, based in Singapore for six-and-a-half years. In this position, he covered the work of 19 PATA member countries in Asia. Currently, he serves on the PATA Vision 2025 Committee. Keells
sausages stir a hornets' nest in India So concerned
is Ms. Desai about this new menace to the local industry that she
has shot off letters to the Chief Ministers of both the States,
informing them of the development and seeking their help to get
fair treatment for the local poultry farmers. In addition to the production cost of the sausages back home, the exporting company, in this case Keells Food, also has to pay import duty and a number of other levies and dealers' profit margins, she points out. Ms. Desai and other industry players now suspect that the sausages under discussion are produced from chicken legs or leg meat imported into Sri Lanka from the US. "Chicken legs or leg meat is considered dark meat and high on fat amongst the health conscious consumers in the US,'' says Ms. Desai who says that these unwanted chicken portions have been dumped at throw-away prices in many countries including Sri Lanka for some time now. "The industry is now of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds to presume that sausages and other products exported from Sri Lanka could have been produced from leg meat from the US,'' she says. While Sri Lanka has a 50 percent concession in duty under the Indo-Sri Lankan Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Ms. Desai points out that the agreement also envisages that the products should be of origin from that country. If the sausages are made from leg meat from the US, it would amount to blatant violation of the FTA and considerable loss of revenue to the exchequer, not to mention the injury to the domestic producers, she points out adding that the local industry would appreciate a quick investigation and resolution to this problem. CSC
in talks to join SCI consortium The government is committed to reviving the CSC and making it a viable company because of the strategic importance of a national carrier and the need to offer exporters cheaper freight rates to help them be more competitive, he said. "We are thinking of joining with SCI in their consortium," he said. The consortium consists of the SCI, K-line, Zim Israel, Yang Ming Line and Malaysian International Shipping Corp. The absence of an effective national line was sorely felt last year when many shipping lines jacked up freight rates and stopped calling at Colombo after underwriters imposed huge war risk insurance surcharges on vessels following the Tamil Tiger rebel attack on the Katunayake airport in July. The CSC owns and operates two 1983-built cargo vessels, the 10,325DWT Lanka Mahapola, with a capacity of 450 containers, and the 3,080 DWT Lanka Muditha, with a capacity of 110 containers. Muzammil said the CSC had no funds to buy or charter more vessels but would explore the possibility of joint ventures with the private sector to run a viable container feeder service. He said he was
also thinking of getting private sector support to make CSC management
more competitive. The corporation, which suffered 16 years of continuous
losses after 1982 and was only turned around in 1998/99, hopes to
get the government to write off accumulated debts of around Rs.
1.5 billion. The CSC wants to have a regular passenger ferry service between Colombo and Tuticorin initially and later extend it to other ports, he said. The Colombo-Tuticorin route was "the most economically viable route", he said. Both countries plan to appoint teams of officials from their ports, customs, and immigration authorities and the defence and foreign ministries to work out ways of implementing the proposal, he said. The CSC might have to charter a fast passenger ferry to be deployed on the service, he added. SAARC
standardisation meet in Karachi A government statement said several heads of national standards organisations from SAARC countries including India, Bangladesh and Pakistan would address the conference. Harmonisation and mutual acceptance of each other's standards constitute an important element for regional standardisation in SAARC. The subject of standards is therefore of high priority to SAARC chambers and the business community as increasing cross border trade in SAARC and future free trade agreement in the region would seek regional uniformity and harmonisation in industrial technical environment and social standards prevailing in the region. The statement said harmonised standards based on internal standards would provide competitive advantages in the global trade share of SAARC. The first such conference on Harmonisation of Standards in SAARC was held in September 2001 in Colombo jointly organised by the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL). Colombo
wins Emirates award The award presented at the airline's annual Reservations Conference in Dubai in May, recognises the efforts of Emirates' Colombo station in the aftermath of the Tamil rebel attack on the Bandaranaike International Airport last July and the events of September 11 in the US. It was received on behalf of the station by Chula Abeysinghe, Ticket Office Manager and Janaka Hewavitharana, Reservations Manager at Emirates Colombo, from Scott McMahon, Head of Revenue Optimisation at Emirates and Peter Quinn, the airline's Manager, Reservation Services. CIMA/CIM
explore modern call centres The seminar aims to raise awareness on Call Centres and will explore opportunities that abound for the business sector to capitalise on this business activity. One as a means of strengthening current Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies, and two, as "call centre outsourcers" providing services for international companies.
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