Insurance regulators are gearing to separate firms with life and general insurance into two different companies, in a bid to make them more transparent, amidst opposition from the industry.“This is to keep in line with the trends in the rest of the world. Also there is a growing need to have a clear line between the assets in the company and the liabilities backing these assets for shareholders as well as the regulator,” an Insurance Board of Sri Lanka (IBSL) source told The Sunday Times FT.

Human rights concerns are spilling over into the area of trade, diverting attention from potential trade benefits to the country. This week, the US ambassador said that concerns about Sri Lanka’s human rights situation have ‘eclipsed’ US attention on providing trade benefits to the country - despite Sri Lanka’s investment in ethical manufacturing. Sri Lanka’s garment industry is lobbying for trade concessions from the US to retain US market share.

Sri Lanka Telecom(SLT)’s CDMA service is currently facing a massive revenue loss owing to inefficiencies in billing and shortages of CDMA phones, a senior official of the SLT audit division told The Sunday Times FT. CDMA phones were unavailable in the market despite sales promotions by SLT which paid Rs. 300 per employee to sell each CDMA unit under a circular issued recently by SLT CEO while suspending landphones from being issued which raised eyebrows of subscribers.

Amidst the controversial announcement by the Finance Ministry on the entire expenditure of the US$ 500 million sovereign bond, some economists were optimistic about the move. Lead economist at Lirneasia, Dr. Harsha De Silva said the government had used the money quite wisely. "Contrary to what people suggest, I think it is prudent cash management and at no point have I said it is not. However, the government should have been honest about it."