The Hirdaramani Group’s first ‘green’ factory, which is an investment of around US$ 5 million, will be called C K T Apparel Pvt Ltd and will be located in Agalawatte, in the Kalutara district. “We will start construction of the factory towards the end of June. The factory will be ready for commercial operations by April 2008,” said Arjuna Kuruppu, the CEO of the Hirdaramani Group’s Knit Cluster.

The services sector will show good profits this year, especially in segments such as telecommunications, transportation and banking and will contribute significantly to the GDP growth, according to stock market analysts. Vajira Premawardhana, Executive Director, Lanka Securities Company (Pvt) Ltd noted that the telecommunication firms will rule the roost this year in the services sector.

After a Supreme Court decision last week barred any further action on the proposed purchase of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) shares by Malaysian company Maxis Communications, the Court will only hear the case again on 17 September 2007. This means that no new developments will take place for at least three months or perhaps even longer, telecom industry analysts said.

Moving away from the recent cluster of editorials which focused on the crisis facing the country, we shift gear today to a more positive development taking root in the country’s industrial sector.That’s not saying we are unconcerned about the state of play in the country which is suitably illustrated by the article below from JBIZ, the once-powerful group of chamber organizations that speaks for the entire chamber movement AND HAS SUDDENLY WOKEN UP FROM A DEEP SLUMBER, and the meeting this week in Colombo by Sri Lanka First, the business-peace grouping, to evaluate the APRC (All Party Representatives Committee) peace proposals.