Colombo room occupancies fall to 8-year lows- Trans
Asia
The Trans Asia Hotels Ltd has reported pre-tax profits of Rs 207.8 million
for the 2000/2001 year, up marginally by two percent from the previous
year but the company has expressed concern over the current downturn in
tourism.
“The prospects for the tourist industry in Sri Lanka and indeed globally
are dim,” said company chairman David Crichton Watt, reflecting on the
Katunayake airport attacks and the US crisis.
Overall although Trans Asia maintained its market share, room nights
of the Colombo five-star sector eased by 10 percent to the lowest recorded
level for the past eight years.
According to the company report, occupancy levels and room revenue fell
due to the loss of crewmembers from three airlines totalling 1,500 rooms
per year.
NAMAL gets a boost
The NAMAL Optima Fund received a good response from corporate and individual
investors, officials said.
The NAMAL guaranteed scheme of Rs 250 million was fully subscribed while
the DFCC Bank guaranteed scheme attracted Rs 559 million against the offer
of Rs 750 million made available to the investors. The balance subscription
of Rs 43 million was received in the “un-guaranteed” scheme making a total
subscription of Rs 852 million in the fund.
ETF installs modern software system to boost service
The Employees Trust Fund (ETF) Board has successfully completed the installation
of a modern and versatile Member Administration Software System (MASS)
to boost its service.
The software for the MASS was developed by Mphasis BFL a globally renowned
IT solutions company with operations in 11 countries including India and
USA, the company said in a statement.
This World Bank funded project worth US$ 740,000 (over Rs 60 million)
was awarded to Mphasis in January 2000. The contract was to design, develop
and implement an integrated MASS, supply IBM AS/400 e-Server 730 model
with existing AS/ machines.
The integrated MASS provides for remittance (of member contribution)
through various methods like receipt reversal and cheque returns, various
levels of validation and confirmation of transactions, linking employer
remittances to member contribution through allocation and posting to past
period.
POINT OF VIEW
What’s the best thing to do with an old tyre?
By W.M.P Luckshman Dias (Msc. (Civil Eng.) USA, AMIE, SL)
Traffic is increasingly growing on the roads resulting in a greater degree
of wear and tear of vehicles and the need for frequent maintenance. Road
maintenance funds at all levels of government are becoming inadequate to
cope with worn-out streets and highways.
The result is that many of our roads are unsafe. Asphalt concrete together
with rubber crumbs of scrap tyres has been a recognised road-surfacing
technique in engineering. In this unique process of re-cycling scrap tyres,
they are ground into granules about 1/4" in diameter and smaller. The granules,
called rubber crumbs, are then mixed with the asphalt and aggregate material.
A different process called Arizona process, or wet process, takes finely
ground tyres and heats the rubber with asphalt cement to form a binder
material. The rubber-modified paving asphalt (RMPA) process uses six tyres
per tonne of asphalt concrete. This translates into about 6,000 tyres per
lane mile of 2" road. Since the rubber granules are not melted during the
mixing process, it will not cause any air pollution. Since granules are
not melted during the mixing process, it will not cause any air pollution.
There is no special paving equipment required when using rubber modified
paving asphalt. Traditional mixing and paving equipment is used with one
exception. Steel rollers with a detergent liquid must be used to compact
the paving material rather than rubber-type rollers, to prevent sticking.
RMPA offers three advantages over conventional asphalt concrete - it
lasts, is flexible and has better fatigue life. Since the RMPA contains
rubber crumbs and is elastic, the impact on the tyre is absorbed by the
road surface compound without permanent damage. This results in reduced
wear and tear. A road or highway built with RMPA is a dense, well-drained
roadway featuring a stone-rich upper surface with protruding particles
of rubber. This surface assures high skid resistance for a very long time,
even when the coarse stone aggregate become polished from vehicle use.
The surface structure of RMPA reduces road reflection even when the road
is new or has been in use for some time.
Volume expansion during hot season days causes conventional asphalt
to ooze up to the surface. RMPA does not “bleed” since rubber granules
bind the asphalt and give the surface a non-skid structure. When considering
traffic noises, they cause serious problems, particularly in cities and
close to well-travelled highways.
The process of scrap tyre re-cycling was developed in Sweden in the
late 1960s. It has been exclusively marketed in the US for over a decade.
To date, the process has been used in more than 65 road paving projects
in 19 states in the US and four Canadian provinces. RMPA will cost more
per tonne because of the rubber granules and additional engineering services.
However, when the longevity and performance benefits are considered, RMPA
is competitive on a life cycle basis with conventional asphalt concrete.
Because of RMPA’s increased fatigue resistance, a reduced thickness of
the product can be used in some applications, making it comparable in cost
to conventional asphalt concrete.
Sri Lanka being a developing country could be benefited by switching
to this technology.
HSBC’s Internet Banking services by December
By Akhry Ameer
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) relaunched its website
last week with a new approach in addition to a warmer look and feel.
The relaunched website is accessible by logging on to www.hsbc.lk. The
bank will also commence Internet Banking services to its internal customers
by December 1 and will go public during the first quarter of next year.
The relaunch is part of the Sri Lankan branch’s initiative to localize
its website and increase web presence by introducing Internet banking by
December this year.
The website was previously controlled by its regional office offshore.
“The earlier website was not interactive and too simplistic. We wanted
to make it a more interactive site consistent with the look and feel to
that of the HSBC global brand while retaining a local flavour,” Mr. Sarath
Piyaratne, the bank’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer
The principle behind the new website’s design is that it is need-based
and the user will be able to isolate the option he is looking for within
three mouse-clicks.
Explaining this principle further Mr. Piyaratne said most other banks’
sites are brochure-driven. They list out the products and details. “Ours
is designed based on customer’s need rather than describing the product.”
The relaunched site will have options describing basic needs of customers
like, ‘building your home’, ‘managing your money’, ‘money on demand’, ‘travelling
light’, etc.
These phrases lead the customer to the best instrument related to the
need. Some of the features of the website include a more comprehensive
information base, options download application forms, an ATM/Branch locator
and a home loan simulator. The home loan simulator is a unique feature
as it helps individuals work out their own loan payment plan. In addition,
the website will also be supported by a special call centre for detailed
voice queries and other specialized personnel who will respond to queries
by email.
emPrise IT ties up with Microsoft
emPrise IT, a Mircrosoft Pocket PC 2002 launch partner, said the company
will work together with Microsoft to provide its aVya – Field Force Automation
Application suite on the devices powered by the next generation operation
system. The company said in a press release that aVya extends the ERP/CRM
functionality right on to the hand of the mobile work force and allows
them to interact and exchange information from the field.
aVya Application Suite includes aVya Field Sales, aVya Field Service,
aVya Warehousing and aVya – Trader. “Mobile commerce is changing the way
we do business, exchange time critical data and information with our clients,
employees and partners.
Given our focus on the enterprise customers that need to extend their
back office to mobile workers who need to access corporate data anytime,
anywhere, can clearly see the advantages of the Windows Powered Pocket
PC 2002 software,” said Nayana Serasinghe, Chief Executive Officer of emPrise
IT.
ITI purchases modern sound analyser
The Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) recently purchased an “Investigator
Sound Level Analyser Type B & K 2260” from Denmark at a cost of Rs.
1 million. This equipment has several state of the art features and provides
great versatility in sound monitoring.
It could be used for continuous noise monitoring in remote places where
the measured data can be transferred to a home or institute- based PC through
a telephone connection and modem without a person actually having to be
at the measuring site, an ITI statement said.
The instrument is useful in environment purposes, as it can in addition
to noise measuring also provide an analysis and therefore used for design
of noise abatement processes.
David Pieris teams up with IOL to sell SERVO
The David Pieris Motor Company (DPMC) has teamed up with Indian Oil Corporation
(IOC) to market its world class lubricants brand “SERVO’’.
SERVO is a product of the Indian Oil Corporation, one of the largest
commercial organisations in India with a turnover of US$ 24 billion.
The product is accepted as one of the fastest growing lubricant brands
in the Middle East, IOC’s Far East, Africa and Asia General Manager (Lubricants)
C.P Joshi said.
IOC has joint venture with many world leading petroleum companies such
as USA Lubricants in USA, Petronas in Malaysia and Mitsubishi in Japan.
DPMC Director Thusitha Molligoda said this is the first time the company
is marketing a world- class lubricant.
Southern hotels launch new discount card
The Ruhunu Hotelier’s Association, representing tourist hotels in the Galle,
Matara and Hambantota districts, is launching a new discount card next
week.
Janaka de Silva, president of the association, told The Sunday Times
Business that the organization planned to promote 3,000 such cards and
raise Rs 600,000 (at Rs 200 per card) to fund the activities of the association.
The “Ruhunu Charika (discount card)” would give its holders an opportunity
to make use of discounts and other privileges at 16 hotels (from Galle
to Yala) which include priority reservations, upgrading, VIP status, free
use of recreation facilities, etc.
The card will be launched at a ceremony on October 26 at the Unawatenne
Beach resort, Galle.
Compaq recall AC adapters
Compaq Computer Corporation has announced a worldwide voluntary recall
and replacement programme for about of 1.4 million AC adapters used with
certain commercial notebook computer products. These AC adapters can overheat,
posing a potential fire hazard.
While there have been only five failures reported out of the 1,400,000
AC adapters affected by this recall, Compaq considers this defect a potential
risk and is taking a proactive measure to ensure the safety of its customers.
None of these reported instances involve personal injury or property damage.
Compaq has initiated an exchange programme through which affected Compaq
customers will receive a new replacement AC adapter for each recalled AC
adapter. There will be no charge to Compaq customers who participate in
the exchange program, a statement said.
Affno’s work for BOI hailed among the world’s best
BOI Sri Lanka’s website designed and built by Affno has been rated by British
publisher Euromoney’s prestigious Corporation Location magazine in 20th
place above France (24), California (26), Costa Rica (31), Scotland (32)
and Hong Kong (36) whilst India failed to make it to the top 50 this year.
“We are happy and proud that our client’s website has been hailed among
the best in the world,” said Suren Kannangara Affno’s CEO, commenting on
making it to the global top 50.
“Looking ahead, we hope this becomes a source of inspiration to the
many private sector companies, banks and government organisations in Sri
Lanka who are still lagging far behind even in terms of basic standards,
let alone coming anything close to world class,” he added.
Kannangara said Sri Lankan companies need not be overwhelmed by the
complexity of building an e-business. “You can take one step at a time
as vividly demonstrated by BOI. A well thought out, skillfully executed,
and regularly updated informational website is the first step. Promoting
its presence to a targeted audience is the next. Thereafter the various
e-business functionalities could be included in stages,” he noted, according
to an Affno press release. |
