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Accountants
under scrutiny after Enron, WorldCom Speaking at
the conference titled "Interest of the Public and the Accountant",
President of the ICASL Asite Talwatte said that with the recent
scandals of Enron and WorldCom being brought to light, the public
at large had begun to question the integrity of the accountant.
He was of the view that a conference of this nature was timely,
in order to rebuild the faith that the public have lost in the accounting
profession. Ashok Chandak,
President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India further
emphasised the need for professionalism. "We, as financial
people, must renew our ethical values so that we may safeguard public
interests and be able to fight corruption to meet with public expectations,"
he said. Minister of
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake invited the ICASL
to actively participate in a dialogue with the government, and make
their critical analysis on how to improve public accounts in the
island. Director of
the International Accounting Standards (IAS) Global Office, Dr.
Paul Pacter delivering the keynote address said there was a great
need for accounting globalisation, which he described as the need
for all countries to use one single accounting standard. "With foreign investors seeking investment opportunities all over the world, and with so many cross border mergers between companies taking place, the benefit of global accounting standards would be immense." He said that today, at a time when the public has begun to question the role of the accountant, companies must aim to have more disclosures in their annual reports. (SG) Investment
zone in Trinco for Singaporeans? A team of Singaporean
businessmen who visited the island recently was pleased with the
prospect of peace in the island, he said. "Sri Lanka's
geographic position gives it the potential to become a centre for
entrepot trade to serve the sub-continent," said Kotelawala,
who is also the Honorary Consul for Singapore in Colombo. "They
were interested in this aspect." The government was keen to
attract Singaporean investments into Trincomalee, which has been
home to the Prima Singapore flour mill for two decades, he said.
"There was a good response from them to the idea of having a reserved area for them," he said. "They also feel it essential to have a highway linking Trinco with Colombo." Raise
tobacco taxes call from WHO A WHO study
of 80 countries shows that cigarette prices fell in many poor nations
over the decade to 2000, while in rich countries they generally
increased. Last week, WHO raised its estimates of deaths worldwide
from tobacco-related diseases from four million to 4.9 million a
year and said it would be revising upward its projection of nearly
10 million deaths annually by 2020, the Times said. Over 70 percent
of those deaths will occur in developing countries, it said. The WHO estimates there is overwhelming evidence that higher prices reduce consumption, especially among the young and poor. According to World Bank estimates, a 10 percent global increase in the real price of cigarettes (over and above inflation) would induce about 42 million smokers to quit and deter millions of others from starting. This would prevent a minimum of 10 million tobacco-related deaths, nine million of them in developing countries, the report added. Experts
gather in Dubai to promote Emirates They came to
its 'Corporate Communications Conference - A Global Vision', to
devote their expertise to promoting a company which last year, in
the wake of the September 11 terrorist bombings, defied expectations
by posting record profits despite an industry-wide bookings slump,
and by unveiling orders for new aircraft worth $15 billion. Recognising
the importance of the occasion and of the audience, Maurice Flanagan,
Group Managing Director, in a presentation, called on his communications
team to help Emirates achieve its strategic objectives for the rest
of the decade. "We will
launch new routes to North America, Africa and Europe, and prepare
for the opening of our new cargo terminal in 2005. We will develop
our many other businesses like Dnata, Emirates Holidays, Arabian
Adventures, Mercator and Galileo." "Above
all, we will continue to expand our multi-cultural, multi-national
staff - so essential to our success - from 18,000 now to 33,000
by 2010. And we will do all this without joining an airline alliance.
We will remain fiercely independent - and successful," he was
quoted as saying in a statement. Senior Corporate Communications executives outlined their forward plans. Mike Simon, Emirates' Director of Corporate Communications, urged his team to use their skills to spread the word about Dubai and its airline and to help its rulers achieve their future vision. News
in brief "Islamic
banking is not just for Muslims alone. Applied objectively it can
improve the lives, financial and investment choices of millions
of people all over the world through equity participation, risk
sharing and fair dealing," said M. Thowfeek, Managing Partner,
First Global Associates at a recent Colombo seminar on "Islamic
banking vs conventional banking". As part of
a series of awareness programmes, this was the second workshop by
the organisation and attended by serious bankers (both Muslims and
non-Muslims). "Western
conventional bankers consider Islamic banking and finance as a new
industry and a new phenomena which is gaining momentum in the global
financial market," he said. Islamic banking
is an alternative system of banking, on a profit and loss sharing
basis, which can bring solutions to many of the economic ills revolving
from interest-based systems and interest-based transactions that
had damaged the fabric of our society and brought hardships to individuals,
corporate entities and the government at large, Thowfeek said. Mobitel
links up with Standard Chartered Under this
programme, every Standard Chartered credit card user who uses his
credit card to pay his Mobitel bill will be granted a five percent
rebate on their mobile bill while every purchase of a Mobitel phone
using a Standard Chartered credit card will receive discounts of
up to 10 percent, a Mobitel statement said. Expanding
trade with Japan The Japanese
ambassador will make the keynote address at this seminar on October
31 at the CCC auditorium. Other speakers include resident representative
for JETRO, chairman of the Industrial Development Board and director
marketing, Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Pike, new
director at CTC He joined British
American Tobacco in January 1996, as a GM designate and is currently
the Managing Director and CEO of Pakistan Tobacco Company. The board comprises
(executive and non executive directors) - Lt. Gen. Denis Perera,
chairman, Paul Hiltermann, Managing Director/CEO, Jayampathi Bandaranayake,
Deputy Managing Director, Vijaya Malalasekera, Corporate and Legal
Affairs Director, Saktha Amaratunga, Finance Director, Chandra Jayaratne,
James Mather, Ken Balendra, Lakmali Gunawardena Nanayakkara and
Pike. Harcourts
presents star awards This year's
function will involve more professionals in the medical field and
set the tone and mood for a free and frank interaction between professionals
in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. NSB's new
"Friends" savings scheme The Friends
Savings Account (FSA) offers benefits that can be enjoyed from infancy
to adulthood, while enjoying a permanent life long income for the
self-employed, a supplement income for those earning monthly wages,
an income that would secure a child's future and for housewives
to be independent, officials said. (HS) 10th Anniversary
gifts from SMB The bank announced
that it would also launch a pension scheme on October 29 for all
its employees. Incorporated in 1992, SMB is a member of Ceylinco
Consolidated. SriLankan
flies to Bodh Gaya This raises
SriLankan's destinations in India to seven, the other six being
New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Trichy and Trivandrum, an
airline statement said. Flights to
Frankfurt will begin on December 4. The airline said from December
3 there will be nine flights each week to London with daily flights
to Singapore. "The prospects for peace have turned the economic
climate in Sri Lanka for the better," says SriLankan's CEO
Peter Hill." This has made it possible for us to start growing
our business again." Ceylinco
promotes T-bills in supermarkets The company
has launched a promotional programme at Park 'an Shop outlets and
Arpico Super Centres. The objective of the programme is to create
awareness among the public on government guaranteed (gilt edged)
treasury bills and bonds which give better returns and easy liquidity
as against conventional savings and fixed deposits. XCELLA replaces
Usha This range
of products comes from Usha Industries Ltd, a Hayleys Group subsidiary,
and will be marketed across the island through Hayleys Consumer. Hayleys Consumer
Durables General Manager Fuard Saibukandu said these products which
were earlier branded as "Usha", would be backed by the
exclusive Hayleys two-year guarantee and continue to deliver the
same high quality associated with the Hayleys name for many decades. Ravi urges
opening of trade councils A ministry
press release quoted the minister who recently toured Thailand,
Vietnam, China and Japan, as saying that trade councils help small
market players to effectively compete with main businesses in bilateral
trade. During his
visit to Vietnam, the minister signed a MoU to promote trade between
the two countries and exchange information and expertise in production,
processing and export marketing fields. New consumer
protection law seen as ineffective The business
community has also complained that it has not been told how the
new authority would work and that there had not been enough debate
about the new law. The proposed
Consumer Affairs Authority Act fails to empower the consumer with
enough substantive rights, unlike in the Indian consumer protection
law, said Rohan Edrisinghe, Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. "The proposed
legislation must contain a separate section of rights of the consumer
and should be easily understood," he told a seminar on "Consumer
protection for the advancement of society," organised by the
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Legal Aid Foundation. He suggested
that a separate consumer complaint court be set up to improve the
efficacy of the law. Edrisinghe also criticised the level of secrecy
that was maintained in drafting the legislation and called for more
transparency in the process, which would enable various consumer
groups and civic society to debate and discuss the provisions of
the bill. Chandra Jayaratne,
the immediate past president of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce,
said the private sector had not been informed as to how the new
authority would function and implement its tasks. "We the
private sector, are in doubt as to whether the new authority will
have the ability to control poor products from entering the market,"
said Jayaratne. An authority-based
consumer review programme could even stifle productivity if they
were to adopt old methods, for which he suggested that a people's
organisation advocacy could be set up to safeguard the consumer. When contacted
a week after the seminar, Jayaratne still had not received a copy
of the final draft of the new act. The new legislation
provides for a merger between the Department of Internal Trade and
the FTC. The new entity would have wider and more comprehensive
powers to ensure adequate safeguards to protect the local consumer. The government
has decided to establish a separate commission to deal with monopolies
and mergers, which originally came under the jurisdiction of the
FTC. This would
give the new Consumer Affairs Authority the ability to focus on
unfair anti-competitive practices and extend its jurisdiction over
government enterprises and Board of Investment projects, which were
previously outside the purview of the FTC. The new authority
will also cover both goods and services including professional and
technical services. Prof. A.V. de S. Indraratne, chairman of the FTC, said that the Consumer Affairs Authority Bill has been approved by the Cabinet and is expected to be tabled in Parliament before the government budget. (Suren) Internet
service from Lanka Bell Lanka Bell
customers do not need to pay a separate monthly rental, only their
telephone bills. The service
offers 100 hours of free surfing on the Net with no rentals, bills,
or deposits, said Joey Mendoza, managing director of Lanka Bell. "We have
to make technology more affordable," he said. Lanka Bell
says it has connected more than 50 users a day since the inception
of Bell Net. "As business
men we are keen on our investment as well as our social responsibility,"
said Mendoza. "We have a commitment. The economic and political
climate is very encouraging for expansion." The firm will
expand its Internet services in a few months by setting up a high-speed
broadband Cyber Cafe. Lanka Bell
also plans to offer its new service to universities in an attempt
to make students more Internet savvy and hopes to support selected
schools by giving students free Internet training and opportunities
to surf the World Wide Web. The company
also plans to expand its coverage to the East within the next couple
of weeks having provided digital telecommunication services to the
northern region. (RC) |
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