Minister meets BOI Zone Manufacturers Association
Dr Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion met with the Presidents, Secretaries and Representatives of the Manufacturers Association from the 12 Export Processing Zones of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka.
Participating in this session were Channa Palansuriya, Board Member of the BOI, A.M.C Kulasekera, Deputy Director General (Investment) and L.D. Dickman, Deputy Director General (Infrastructure) of the BOI, senior officials of the BOI and leading entrepreeurs and investors. The objective of this meeting was to create an ongoing dialogue between the government and private sector to discuss challenges faced by industries following the recent global economic downturn, according to a BOI statement.
Discussions also centered on increasing the salaries of zone workers. On this issue and other relevant matters pertaining to the zones, entrepreneurs made a number of suggestions and recommendations. These included the need for boarding houses and other welfare facilities for workers. The BOI recently started work on a hostel for 1,500 workers at the Katunayake Export Processing Zone. The new facility will be built on three acres of land and will include accommodation, recreational and medical facilities, a restaurant and a shopping area.
SriLankan removes fuel surcharge from most fares
SriLankan Airlines will remove its present fuel surcharge on fares throughout almost its entire route network from January 1, 2009 and pass on the benefits of reduced fuel prices to passengers. Already the airline has completely removed this surcharge on all tickets to short-haul and medium-haul destinations. These include all cities in India and the Middle East, as well as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Beijing, Male, and Karachi, according to an airline press release.
The fuel surcharge on fares between Colombo and just five long-haul destinations – London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, Tokyo - has also been greatly reduced. A flat rate surcharge of EUR 25 will be levied for one-way fares purchased in Europe, and EUR 50 for return tickets. Tickets purchased in the UK will have a surcharge of GBP 25 one-way and GBP 50 return. Fares from all other points to these five destinations will have a surcharge of US$25 one-way and US$50 return.
SriLankan introduced the Fuel Surcharge in July this year for short, medium and long-haul journeys when fuel prices reached a record high US$147 per barrel of crude. Fuel prices have declined in recent months.
JKH says purchasing all 25 mln shares
John Keells Holdings (JKH) said this week that it was repurchasing 25.4 million shares under a repurchase announcement at Rs.90 per share.
The company informed the Colombo Stock Exchange that the total number of acceptances of the offer amounted to 20,671,358 shares. The other 4,828,641 shares will be repurchased from those shareholders who applied for additionals, pro rata on the basis of their existing shareholding as at October 10, 2008.
Inflation dropped significantly in November 2008
Inflation fell to 16.3 % last month (November), for the fifth consecutive month, the Central Bank said.
Annual average inflation rate also decelerated to 23 % for the first time in 26 months since September 2006. At the same time, the core inflation, which measures the price movement of non-food and non-energy items of the CCPI basket, stabilized at the previous month’s level of 18.1%, on a point-to-point basis, the Bank said.
It said the rate of headline inflation decreased significantly in November from 20.2 % in October 2008 having continuously decelerated from the peak of 28.2 % in June 2008, due to the declines in transport prices (3.1 %) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel prices (1.9 %).
“The pressure on the price level emanating from the international commodity prices has further moderated in November. Further dampening of international prices may lessen the external price pressure on domestic prices in the forthcoming months as well. The moderation in demand
pressure on prices following the tight monetary policy stance adopted in the past is also evidenced from the steady deceleration in monetary aggregates. These favourable developments on both demand and supply sides are likely to subdue future inflation expectations and the inflation could reach a single digit level by the middle of the next year,” the statement added.
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