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Business
News
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Coins boosts spirits at 'Yuga Dekma' The presence
of Three Coins at this mega event demonstrated the vast strides
that have been made in the development of world class products in
areas outside the north and east of the country, a spokesman for
the company was quoted as saying in a statement. "We were quite pleased with the response of visitors to the specialty beers of the Three Coins Company and are excited by the sensitivity to style and quality from a segment of the population which has had to make do with basic or pedestrian products," he said. SL
CIMA student excels in Business Strategy Jayawardene
who plans to become a management consultant, has never won any prizes
in the previous stages of the exam. She is a product of the Mercury
Institute of Management (Pvt) Ltd that saw its first batch of students
sitting the CIMA exam having started operations earlier during the
year. Mercury Institute conducts courses for students sitting the CIMA and ACCA exams both full time and part time. The institute currently has about 600 students. The institute's lecture panel consists of MBA degree holders, lawyers, qualified chartered accountants and financial analysts. It also plans to commence courses for CIM and CFA exams in the near future. Awards
for energy savers Lanka Electricity
Company (LECO) received the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation award for
outstanding efforts to reduce losses in the distribution network.
LECO has reduced
the losses to 6.9 percent though a systematic analysis and implementation
of several projects. LECO's network loss reduction programme saved
an estimated Rs. 65 million and Rs. 132 million in the two years
considered, by way of fuel cost savings alone. "LECO's
loss reduction helped the Ceylon Electricity Board to avoid 38 GWh
of power cuts in 2002," SLEMA said in a statement. Minister of
Power and Energy Karu Jayasuriya presented the awards at the annual
awards ceremony of SLEMA held on August 9. The Professor
Mohan Munasinghe Award was presented to the Engineering Manager
and his team at Ceylon Tobacco Company for energy efficiency projects
implemented at their factory. "SLEMA
was impressed by the energy forecasting and benchmarking exercise
conducted by the team," it said. Royal Fernwood
Porcelain won the merit certificate for the exemplary LPG savings
made in their factory by recovering waste heat of the kiln and using
it to dry greenware, before the product enters the kiln. The project
cost Rs. 2.1 million and it was fully paid back in just six months. A team of researchers
lead by Upali Daranagama received the SLEMA Award for the best energy
related study. Their systematic in depth study of the tea withering process has revealed that 30 percent of electricity used in the withering fans can be saved. Industries
unveil competitiveness plans The footwear,
leather and ceramics industries unveiled their plans two weeks ago.
The spices and allied products industry has drawn up an ambitious
plan to increase the value of exports five-fold to over $500 million
in the next five years. Dr. Devapriya
Nugawela, chairman of the sectoral task force, said the industry
aims to increase the export volume of value added products to over
50 percent of total exports. The industry
plans to set up an independent governing body called the Spices
Council comprising of all stakeholders that will act as a lobby
for the sector. The world trade
in spices, related products and herbal healthcare products is estimated
to be $200 billion annually with an annual growth rate of five percent.
"But even
though Sri Lanka's spices are famous for their inherent qualities
and our herbal health care products have a history of over 2,000
years, we contribute only a mere $100 million a year," Nugawela
said. The industry
also wants to recognise the importance of chilli as a spice and
make the island, which now imports half of its chilli requirements,
self-sufficient by 2005. In the coir
industry - where Sri Lanka is the world's largest exporter of coir
fibre and coir products - there is an urgent need to move out from
a low value, broad focus outlook to making high value products for
niche markets. The industry
has proposed the setting up of a Coir Centre that will oversee the
development of the sector. Indrajith Piyasena,
chairman of the task force on coir, said the industry aims to increase
exports of coir-based products by 50 percent to $25 million over
the next five years and the export share of value-added product
to 70 percent from 57 percent today while maintaining a work force
of 40,000 despite the continuing trend towards automation. The tea industry
has proposed creating more locally owned brands, the setting up
of "Ceylon tea houses" overseas, joint promotion with
the Tourist Board and SriLankan Airlines, and forming alliances
with overseas marketers. While Ceylon
tea has a 21 percent share of the global export market, its export
earnings is only 2.5 percent of the global market for tea-based
beverages which is estimated at $2.5 billion annually. Mahen Dayananda,
head of the tea sector task force, said there was potential for
the industry to increase output to 325 million kg a year and exports
to 310 million kg. But, he warned, there were several threats to
the industry. New exporters such as Vietnam and Indonesia were offering
cheaper alternatives and India was turning more towards the manufacture
of orthodox teas where Sri Lanka was market leader with a dominant
32 percent share of the orthodox tea market. Vietnam was offering orthodox teas that were "terrifyingly close" to Ceylon tea, he said. The food and food processing industry, which contributes almost 19 percent to the Gross Domestic Product, also plans to create a governing body to act as the voice for the industry, said Mario de Alwis, chairman of the sectoral task force on food. It wants to address issues such as high import tariffs on raw materials and packaging, improve training and research and development, as well as quality standards, he said. |
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