Visas on arrival in India from Apr 14 for Sri Lankan visitors
Sri Lankans visiting India can get visas on arrival from April 14 onwards, the visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday.Speaking to Colombo’s business community at an event in Colombo amidst tight security at the Taj Samudra hotel, he said: “We have extended visa on arrival facility to Sri Lanka from April 14. [...]
Primary dealers seek urgent meeting with CB on bond issue
The Central Bank (CB) is yet to respond to a request from primary market dealers trading in Treasury bonds for an urgent meeting to discuss the crisis in the bond market exacerbated by allegations of insider trading, traders said. Soon after a crisis erupted on Friday February 27, 2015 when the CB accepted bids for [...]
Mattala open 24/7
The second international airport in the country at Mattala, despite the recent drama of partial shut downs, will continue to remain operational 24 hours, the state airport management company said on Friday. Airport and Aviation Services Ltd. Chairman Ananda Wimalasena told the Business Times that they had not made any decision to shut down the [...]
Former SEC official traded in stocks
Complaints have been received by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pertaining to transactions carried out by a former top official, according to sources. SEC officials are not supposed to trade on shares while holding office and when they do, it has to be communicated to the Commission members for approval. While the complaint hasn’t [...]
UDA sorts out certain contractual matters of TATA housing project
Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority (UDA) will be sorting out certain contractual matters relating to TATA housing project in Slave Island, Colombo with the company due to hand over the construction work to a prospective Investor, top UDA official revealed. “We are discussing some issues raised by some government ministers and parliamentarians with officials of [...]
Clarity on 15% interest helps some, hurts others
The Central Bank (CB) on Friday overcame one problem relating to the confusion of the special 15 per cent interest rate for senior citizens but appears to have created another issue, analysts said. Fielding criticism that senior citizens who reach 60 years after the cut—off date of January 31, 2015 are ineligible unless they had [...]
From Mahinda’s “Mahinda Chinthana” to the Maithri-Ranil’s “100 Day Programme”
Every successive Government has, prior to an election, offered a package of promises captioned under a slogan. The slogans have varied from: “Bringing rice from the moon” to “self-sufficiency in rice”; “Making Sinhala the official language within 24 hours”; “reconciliation”; “Wonder of Asia” to “100 Day Programme”. Among the promises offered the “100 Day Programme” [...]
Central Bank Governor under fire
It is rather ironic that less than one month after Ajit Nivard Cabraal stepped down as Central Bank Governor under a cloud of allegations, his successor Arjuna Mahendran is under fire over a bond deal in which his son-in-law’s firm allegedly had access to inside information. With this important chair being politicised by Cabraal, over [...]
Modi at chamber event, CB Governor flies to Singapore, LA
The following is a compilation of stories that appeared on Times-on-Line web during the week. Some of the stories may be repeated elsewhere in the Business Times with updates: =Ceylon Chamber hosts business forum with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address Sri Lanka’s top business leaders on Friday [...]
CDA to crack down on substandard virgin coconut oil companies
The growing demand for Sri Lanka’s virgin coconut oil overseas especially in Europe and importance of curbing substandard exports has prompted the Coconut Development Authority (CDA) to crack down on bogus virgin coconut oil companies, the CDA chief said. There is strong demand for Sri Lankan virgin coconut oil from the US, Europe, Japan and [...]
China doesn’t use Sri Lanka to threaten any other country’s security, asserts new Chinese Ambassador
China has no intention of using Sri Lanka to threaten any other country’s security, Yi Xianliang, the new Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka asserted to journalists in Colombo on Tuesday adding that India is a friendly neighbour and partner of China. Trilateral cooperation among China, Sri Lanka and India will benefit the three nations and [...]
15% interest rate scheme discriminatory
I am a senior citizen, 75 years old who had been employed in a state corporation. Corporation employees are not pensioners and are only entitled to EPF and ETF. With salaries in the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and the ‘90s being low compared with today’s salaries, the total contributions at retirement were very little. However since [...]
SLIM-Nielsen People’s Awards 2015 announces this year’s nominations
The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) in association with Nielsen this week announced the final nominees for the People’s Awards with the event being held on March 27 at the Water’s Edge in Colombo. SLIM said the final nominees for the main SLIM Nielsen People’s Brand of the Year were Dialog, LG, Samsung, Sony [...]
MasterCard offers host of privileges for UK Rugby World Cup 2015
MasterCard last week announced a range of premium exclusives for its cardholders in Sri Lanka for the upcoming Rugby World Cup 2015 in Britain. Having partnered with the 2011 edition of the Rugby World Cup, MasterCard has joined hands with Rugby World Cup Ltd this year as the Preferred Card and Official Payment System, the [...]
Japanese businesses to invest $100 mln in Sri Lanka thro’ Asia Capital
Belluna Co, a Japanese group is investing over US$100 million in Sri Lanka’s leisure sector through Asia Capital PLC. An agreement in this regard was officially signed by Kiyoshi Yasuno, President, Belluna Co., Ltd and Stefan Abeyesinhe, Group Chief Executive Officer, Asia Capital PLC. The local firm said in a media release that Belluna Co. [...]
Navein Perera appointed new COYLE chairman
The Chamber of Young Sri Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) appointed Navein Perera as its new Chairperson at the 16th AGM held this week in Colombo. He takes over from Sanjaya Jayaratne, who served from 2014 to 2015. Mr. Perera is the Managing Director of Sparklink Travels (Pvt) Ltd and a founding member of COYLE. “COYLE is [...]
Dreams with Colombo port city
The much hyped Colombo Port City, or shall we call it the ‘Dream City’ which will be the Disney World in Colombo, looks fantastic in the model displayed by the China Communication Construction Co Ltd. The contract for this dream world is going to cost US$1.4 billion to the citizens of Sri Lanka, of which [...]
Business delegation from Sri Lanka examines transfer of new technology from Japan
The National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) sent a business delegation to Tokyo on February 23-28 to examine the transfer of new technology to support the spice industry, among other matters.. It was led by NCE President Mr. Sarada De Silva and included NCE Secretary General Shiham Marikar. The following companies comprised the [...]
Major contracts given to Chinese while imports were preferred over local supplies, equipment
The previous regime not only handed over all the big projects like construction of highways, the Colombo Port City and many mixed development projects to Chinese companies and contractors, but also permitted equipment and material for these projects to be imported while locally manufactured products were not taken into consideration. Sierra Cables Managing Director, Shamendra [...]
Foreigners banned from gem mining as their technology can extract total Sri Lankan gem deposits in a single year!
The Government banned foreign companies from mining gems in this country, for if they are allowed to do so using new technology, the entire gem deposits in Sri Lanka would have been extracted within a year! This was revealed by Vajira Narammpanawa, Chairman, National Gem and Jewellery Authority, at the launch of ICA (International Coloured [...]
Candor facilitates Ironwood Legal Solutions, the first BOI approved LPO in Sri Lanka
Ironwood Legal Solutions (Pvt) Ltd has signed an agreement with the Board of Investment (BOI) for the first approved Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) Company in Sri Lanka. Optimistic about Sri Lanka’s increasing popularity of being an excellent knowledge hub in the region, Ironwood Legal aspires to become the largest LPO in Sri Lanka, a media [...]
Aitken Spence Logistics enhances operations with successful deployment of Oracle Warehouse Management
Aitken Spence Logistics, a local logistics and freight forwarder and part of the Aitken Spence Group, has successfully deployed Oracle Warehouse Management including third-party billing for Logistics Service Providers (LSP). This deployment, which integrated with their Oracle E-Business Suite, has enabled them to adapt readily to their changing billing requirements, and enhance their customer satisfaction [...]
Traditional marketing ‘far less effective’ than online
Traditional, offline marketing is “far less effective” when compared to online and interactive marketing, according to Jude Tissera, the Chief Executive of mobile marketing firm mobiOs. Further, he also went on to identify the mobile phone as the “most pwerful medium”. Mr. Tissera’s comments were made in a statement about the launch of his company’s [...]
Five young Sri Lankans for Intel’s global science competition this year
Five Sri Lankan students were selected to take part in the 65th Intel Science and EngineeringFair (ISEF) 2015, the world’s largest international pre-college science competition scheduled to be held in Pennsylvania, USA in May. The selected students were winners in their respective categories at the Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair (SLSEF) held recently in [...]
13th South Asian Management Forum to be held in Colombo on March 26-27
The Institute of Certified Professional Managers (CPM), a member of the Association of Management Development Institutions of South Asia (AMDISA), is hosting the 13th South Asian Management Forum at Hotel Taj Samudra on March 26th and 27th March. The Association of Management Development Institutions consists of management institutions in the South Asian Region and the [...]
DVB’s 2014 post tax profit in phenomenal 80% hike over 2013
DFCC Vardhana Bank (DVB) has closed the 2014 calendar year reporting an impressive post-tax profit of Rs.1 billion, up by 80 per cent against 2013 while the bank’s total assets were valued at Rs. 100 billion. “DVB’s achievement becomes more significant as 2014 was a difficult year due to challenging market conditions that prevailed throughout [...]
China-Sri Lanka trade ties firm despite tensions over Colombo Port City
Amidst underlying tensions between Sri Lanka and China over the Colombo Port City project, separate efforts are continuing to strengthen trade and development ties between the two countries, particularly on trade and commerce. This week an event in this connection was the China-Sri Lanka Enterprise Business Matching where a large number of Sri Lankan businesses [...]
Regime change happening across the world, says Indian academic
‘Regime Change’ has occurred not only in Sri Lanka and India but in other parts of the world as well including in the Middle Eastern countries in recent times. The factors that have contributed to these changes are many including geopolitics and the end of the Cold War, said Prof. Ashwani K. Sharma of the [...]
New regime’s foreign policy frees exports markets in the US and Europe
The new Government is geared towards protecting economic and business interests while the foreign policy will take care of accessing markets in Europe and in the United States for local exporters, which has been under threat in the past, according to Depty Minister of Investment and Highways Eran Wickremaratne speaking at a media seminar on [...]
Customs, CASA conduct joint seminar on ‘Cargo Targeting System’
The Ceylon Association of Ships’ Agents (CASA) jointly with the Customs ICT division recently conducted an awareness programme in Colombo to educate members on the Cargo Targeting System (CTS) promoted to be used by the World Customs Organization (WCO). The new system aims to provide many facilities for risk management by aiming to detect high [...]
Unions urge PM and Govt. to grant wage hike thro’ legal provisions
A group of unions has appealed to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Government to provide private sector workers with a monthly wage hike of Rs. 2,500 through legal provision passed in parliament as previously done in year 2005 and without further delay. “In … a situation where investors/employers are allowed to enjoy [...]
Justice still awaits residents of Colombo condo
On your assumption of duties, we look forward to a new era, where dispensation of justice will be quick and efficient not only from the courts of law which directly comes under your purview, but, also from other law enforcing authorities like the ColomboMunicipal Council, Urban Development Authority, Condominium Management Authority, Sri Lanka Ports Authority [...]
Need for FATCA Inter-Governmental Agreement with the US
The official website of the United States (US) Inland Revenue Service (IRS) shows that 67 Sri Lankan financial institutions mostly banks, few stockbrokers, finance companies and trust funds have entered into agreements on their own with the US Tax Office to assist the US Government to eliminate tax evasion by US persons. The well-knitted Foreign [...]
CAL’s female investment management team now the largest in the country
aCapital Alliance’s all-female investment management team, headed by Ashveeni Shanthikumar, CEO, CAL Investments, has rapidly evolved into the largest fund management unit in the country. “As part of its International Women’s Day 2015 celebrations, CAL is shining a light on this dynamic and successful all-women team that has contributed significantly to the company’s overall success. [...]
Santani fills wellness market gap in Sri Lanka
A new spa resort scheduled to open in November in Kandy will provide visitors a chance of getting away from the rest of the world, clear their minds and help cleanse ‘their’ insides with the selective food range. A digital detox is on the cards at Santani that will ensure ‘you’ are disconnected with the [...]
Vega’s super electric car to hit the roads next month for its first test drive
Sri Lankan Vega’s first super electric car after 11 months of production is about to hit the roads in the latter part of April for its first test drive, Vega car Project Manager Beshan Kulapala told the Business Times on a telephone call interview last week. Technology being one of the key aspect for a [...]
“Small Shareholders complain to SEC over malpractices by their brokers”
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has sent the following response to the article under the above headline which appeared in the Business Times last week. Extracts: The CSE wishes to clarify certain issues raised in the said article with regard to the role of the CSE in safeguarding the interests of the investors when handling [...]
Dialog wins big at Mobile World Congress
Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, won two global awards at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) held recently in Barcelona Spain. The company said its premier Mobile Payment Network eZ Cash beat out worldwide competition to win the Global Award for the Best Mobile Money Service. eZ Cash connects close to two million [...]
COSMOS gets six months licence extension
COSMOS Aviation would be granted a licence extension for a period of six months in the wake of a Supreme Court (SC) directive for the regulator to arrive at a compromise fomula with the flying school operator. COSMOS Aviation had complained to the SC about two weeks back saying its fundamental rights has been violated. [...]
