Regional stock exchanges
Dignitaries at a meeting of the South Asian Federation of Exchanges held in Colombo, listen to a speech. From left: Nayan Mehta, CFO – Bombay Stock Exchange, Vajira Kulatilaka, Chairman – Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE – partly hidden), Thilak Karunaratne, Chairman -Securities and Exchange Commission and Rajeeva Bandaranaike, CEO – CSE. Pic by Indika Handuwala [...]
Multi-skilled workers soon in state sector
Concerned about public discontent over the delivery of services, the Government is undertaking an immediate review of public sector staff in government offices. The focus of the study is to see how public delivery services could be improved under the current staff strength which, according to government data, has a ratio of one officer per [...]
SriLankan’s new fleet order out of compulsion, not necessity
SriLankan Airlines this week began taking delivery of the first of six A320neo aircraft, an investment decision made by former airline executives though such a decision is not recorded in any of the annual reports of the airline during the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led government. SriLankan Airlines CEO Suren Ratwatte confirmed on Friday that the airline was [...]
Worry over China-Lanka tariff plan
With the Sri Lanka –China Trade agreement close to be finalised, local manufacturers are vehemently protesting against certain agreements reached on tariff lines and trade, more favourable to China. An agreement was reached under Sri Lanka’s Tariff Liberalisation Programme (TLP) to cover 90 per cent of both tariff lines and trade value with 10 per [...]
Lee Hedges to scale down Colpetty Mills project
Lee Hedges Investment Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Lee Hedges controlled by property tycoon R. Vamadeva, will seek shareholder sanction to abandon the Rs. 2.8 billion 15-storey mixed development complex in Colombo 3 (‘Colpetty Mills’) and, later propose to scale down the same to construct it at a lesser cost, officials said. This will [...]
Moratuwa MC’s positive notice under RTI
The Moratuwa Municipality, in what is seen as a positive act of transparency and good governance, on February 27 took a newspaper advertisement announcing to the public a list of projects for which Rs. 27 million has been allocated. The notice placed by the municipality said it was meant “for all persons that (who) may [...]
Can of worms
The (telephone) conversation went like this: Me – Hi, I’m trying to unravel the mystery of this mysterious gazette on bond issues that was raised before the Commission of Inquiry on the controversial bonds. ‘Friendly’ economist (FE) – So, what about it? It’s clear as daylight that there has been a mess-up about the issuance [...]
Property developers propose setting up new association to fast-track approvals
While many local and foreign properties (both residential and commercial) are coming up in Sri Lanka with chunks of investments, clearing the paper work and getting the approvals from relevant authorities is always cumbersome. Property developers in Sri Lanka at a recent panel discussion in Colombo urged the formation of an association to be set [...]
Procurement Appeal Board reserves verdict on BIA aircraft refuelling facility tender issue
Sri Lanka’s Procurement Appeal Board has reserved its verdict on the tender award pertaining to the upgrading and construction of a new aircraft refueling facility at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake after hearing submissions made by complainants against the selected bidder, a Greek company, official sources revealed. Some of the other bidders who had [...]
Sri Lanka’s public procurement to be streamlined, made more transparent
Sri Lanka has taken major strides towards enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency in the public procurement system making it more accountable, streamlined and cost effective. In this endeavour, National Procurement Commission (NPC) has devised an Action Plan, which will contribute to the efforts of the government financial management reforms. The Commission was established under [...]
SriLankan inducts first Airbus A320neo
SriLankan Airlines has commenced the induction of the first of its latest Airbus short haul A320neo which arrived on Monday. The cash-strapped airline, which has been shedding some of its new, leased long haul A330 aircraft with a 300-passenger capacity, is inducting A320neo and A321neo family aircraft in its fleet, with half the passenger capacity [...]
Blimey! Jack Mackerel reduces risk of heart attacks
Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by a sea brimming with a variety of fish, ideal for balancing the family’s consumption of protein. However the type of fish that is popular here is Jack Mackerel which is not available in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lankans have no choice but turn to canned Jack Mackerel as [...]
Gazette notices pertaining to bond issues were backdated and misled public
Treasury Secretary Dr. R.H. S. Samaratunga has said that he was unaware about a ‘press statement’ issued by the Ministry of Finance until he saw it in the newspapers. The Secretary, who is the chief accounting officer of the ministry, was giving evidence on Monday before the Commission of Inquiry probing the controversial Treasury bond [...]
PMS becomes first Axis partner to receive ‘Gold’
Seen here receiving the gold certification from Country Head Axis Communications, Akalanka Wijesundera is Group General Manager of Prima Group Sri Lanka, Tan Beng Chuan. Also pictured (left) is Sunil Leeniyagoda, Director/Group Treasurer PMS and Services and (right) Crysantha Perera, General Manager/Country IT Head, PMS Prima Management Services (Pvt) Ltd [PMS], a subsidiary of the [...]
Sri Lanka lacks female role models to look up to
While 57 per cent of the 21 million population are women with this working population being less in Sri Lanka, the country lacks female role models to look up to, says Sulochana Segera, Founder and Chairperson of Women in Management (WIM). She made this comment while speaking at the launch of the 7th ‘Top 50 [...]
What was the curriculum during Trump’s schooling years?
An interesting discussion on what it was like in school during US President Donald Trump’s schooling years ensued on Tuesday when the British Council organised a regional conference on teaching, learning and life beyond school. “I can’t help pondering, what were the teachers teaching, what was the curriculum at the time when Trump was schooling,” [...]
Wavenet’s solutions at Mobile World Congress
Wavenet, a provider of advanced solutions and platforms to Telecom Operators around the world, launched its next generation Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) solutions stack at the 12th edition of the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona last month. In a media release, Suren Pinto, CEO of the company, said that with over a decade of [...]
Ceylon Chamber forms ‘Dairy Association for Sri Lanka’
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), at the request of leading industry stakeholders, has taken the initiative to form the Dairy Association of Sri Lanka. This association will facilitate the sector to deliberate on matters of relevance, reach consensus and lobby their issues and concerns with policy makers for upliftment of the Sri Lanka’s dairy [...]
Tourism fair “Sancharaka Udawa” in May
The seventh edition of tourism fair, ‘Sancharaka Udawa’ will be held at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Centre at the BMICH on May 5-6. This exhibition was first organised on a small scale seven years ago, by the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO), with the intention of providing a platform to showcase [...]
Valiant struggle to restore lost deposits of F&G continues
Depositors of the failed F&G (Finance and Guarantee) Property Developers (Pvt) Ltd and F&G Real Estate Co Ltd (F&GRECL) numbering around 5,000, have been fighting a losing battle for the last 10 years to get their deposits back amounting to Rs. 7 billon. Though boards of directors have been appointed to continue the work of [...]
Letter
What happened to F&G? Some years back the Supreme Court appointed a Trust headed by a retired Auditor General with a retired valuer, chartered accountant and banker and a few others. They functioned for a few years and compiled Asset Registers valued at more than Rs. 6 billion. There were close upon 2500 depositors with [...]
Religious observances to mark 150 years of Ceylon Tea on Strathspey Estate, Upcot
Strathspey Estate, situated at Upcot, managed by Maskeliya Plantations PLC which is, owned by Richard Pieris, recently held numerous religious activities to invoke merit to tea pioneer James Taylor and those who were involved in this industry in the past and blessings for the current people. “Mr. Taylor of Loolcondera Estate, Hewaheta, Galaha, now acknowledged [...]
Mahindra setting up a vehicle assembly plant in Sri Lanka
In an ambitious endeavour to expand its business footprint internationally, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will soon set up a vehicle assembly plant in Sri Lanka. This is the first time that a genuine automobile manufacture plans to enter the vehicle assembly arena in the country after over seven years of doing business, Nalin Welgama, Chairman, [...]
Better road infrastructure needed to improve productivity
The recent discussion on the traffic conditions in Colombo and suburban roads has become very popular with many people discussing the need and methods of controlling traffic. Road traffic conditions have worsened in the recent past with the increase of the number of vehicles on the road and more importantly due to road infrastructure not [...]
Micro Cars-BAIC JV to assemble electric cars
Sri Lanka’s Micro Cars plans to assemble electric vehicles (EVs) under licence from China’s Beijing Automobile International Corporation (BAIC). With the rapid growth in demand for Electric Vehicles (EV) in the country, Micro Cars will be venturing into assembling the very, first EV in Sri Lanka with BAIC’s latest Electric Vehicle EC180 EV “We are [...]
Eurocars officially unveils the 718 Cayman
The new 718 Cayman, which made its debut at the 2016 Beijing Auto Show, races into the 2017 model year with fresh styling, turbocharged engines and a price tag below that of the 718 Boxster, according to a company media release. Eurocars, importer and dealer of Porsche cars in Sri Lanka, unveiled the 718 Cayman [...]
DIMO wins 1st place for ‘Best Integrated Annual Report in South Asia’
Diesel and Motor Engineering PLC (DIMO) recently achieved recognition for its annual report. DIMO’s 2015/16 annual report was adjudged as the Winner in the Integrated Reporting category, at the SAFA (South Asian Federation of Accountants) Best Presented Annual Report Awards 2015, beating many other annual reports from SAARC Countries, a media release of DIMO revealed. [...]
New vehicle registrations slump by 6 % in January
Sri Lanka’s vehicle registrations fell by 6.1 per cent to 42,443 in January this year from 45,218 in December 2016 amid the lowering of finance facility and significantly higher increase in import tariffs. The implementation of the 2017 budget proposal to restrict credit to 50 per cent of the total value for car purchases has [...]
Electronic payment methods on the cards for vehicle imports
The Motor Traffic Department (MTD) and the Customs have been directed to introduce faster payment methods electronically in a timely and cost effective manner, enabling e-payments at Customs for vehicle importation. This directive was issued by Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) in its latest report recently. The Committee was of the view that the [...]
Rallying call for improved integration of regional stock exchanges
Traditionally, stock exchanges were natural monopolies, non-profit outfits. The local stock exchange is owned, and governed by its members who enjoy a high monopoly in the trading of domestic securities and are secluded from meaningful cross-border competition. But now the story is becoming different. Competition is acting as a spur for exchanges to persistently enhance [...]
SLT says investments in data and broadband products impacted growth increase
Sri Lanka Telecom PLC results for the year ending 2016 has revealed a healthy revenue growth by 8.5 per cent and profits up by 28.6 per cent compared to 2015. The group comprises its holding company and eight subsidiaries including Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd, the mobile arm. The group recorded a net profit of Rs.4.8 billion [...]
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC says excise tax drop
The Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC) says that its contribution to Government revenue, through excise tax fell to Rs. 87.4 billion during the year ending 31st December 2016. Company results also indicate that expenditure in 2016 was greater than that of the same period of the previous year as a result of a 10 per [...]
HNB says wise asset and liability management practices helped growth
Prudent Asset and liability management practices coupled with the timely re-pricing of the bank’s loan book and a simultaneous healthy growth of 17.3 per cent in net advances last year enabled a strong growth in income from Core Banking, HNB has said. Net Interest Income for the year grew by 30.5 per cent to Rs. [...]
Union Assurance says going to court won’t impact results
Directors at Union Assurance are of the view that it has followed due process and acted in accordance with the prevailing laws in its tax submissions for years of assessment 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14, the company’s latest financial statements say in response to the Department of Inland Revenue’s raised assessments on the company for [...]
Proposed contract labour laws contrary to tripartite consensus reached at NLAC
The government has placed before the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC), fresh legislation to regulate contract labour in the country, coming at a time when irregular employment is spreading on a mass scale both in the state and private sectors. Raising this issue, the Ceylon Federation of Labour (CFL) in a statement said that there [...]
Many countries succeed without enshrining social and economic rights in constitutions
Constitution is a social contract within a particular group of people that reflects their historical background, their values, social goals, aspirations and identities, etc, according to Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President of the Centre for Policy Research at New Delhi. He was delivering a lecture on the topic “Implications of incorporating social and economic rights [...]
Tourism Minister clears the air on Sigiriya fiasco
Tourism Minister John Amaratunga insisted on Monday that the tourism authorities could only monitor the various tourist attractions around the country and had no direct involvement in the running of these sites. He noted that heritage sites were managed by different institutions (not coming under his purview) and noted that it was the Education Ministry [...]
Few more hurdles to overcome for CIFL depositors
For long-suffering depositors of the failed Central Investment and Finance Ltd (CIFL), finally there could be a silver lining but not without hiccups. German investor, Ms Vandall Financial Services FA is now prepared to take over the CIFL with a Rs. 5 billion investment, but the only hitch is the delay in the Central Bank [...]
Company Secretaries Ananda Sirisena & Co opens office in Australia
Ananda Sirisena & Co, a registered corporate secretaries and incorporator, recently put Sri Lankan company secretaries on the global map by launching its first overseas office in New South Wales, Australia. “The much sought after firm which has successfully incorporated companies for more than 30 years in Sri Lanka was founded by S. Ananda Sirisena [...]
Sri Lanka links up with Surbana Jurong to become consultancy powerhouse
Sri Lanka is taking a major stride towards providing one-stop consultancy solutions across the entire value chain of urbanisation, industrialisation and infrastructure domains joining hands with a large Singapore based consulting firm, Surbana Jurong Pvt Ltd (SJ). The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) has signed an MOU with Surbana Jurong to set up [...]
Access to Sri Lankans to life-saving transportation service – DrinkDrive
An innovative new transportation service is working to save lives and encourage Sri Lankans to take the responsible route home. First launched on Christmas Eve, 2016, DrinkDrive is a unique platform that provides professional chauffeurs who drive clients safely home in the client’s own vehicle at a reasonable rate. The chauffeurs arrive in pairs and [...]
SLT partnered SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium completes project
Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT) and the SEA-ME-WE 5 consortium recently completed the challenging, 20,000 km subsea cable infrastructure developed by a 16-nation consortium. The SEA-ME-WE 5 subsea cable system, spanning over 16 countries from Southeast Asia to Western Europe, is a technological breakthrough, which marks a global communications milestone. It is designed with a [...]
No noise, nature-wise answer to trishaw troubles
With government plans to impose controls over 2-stroke and 4-stroke three wheelers in Sri Lanka, LAUGFS Solutions has embarked on research and development (R&D) to find an effective and sustainable solution to address the many concerns surrounding conventional three wheelers. Keeping in line with LAUGFS’s strong focus on sustainable energy solutions and innovation-led entrepreneurial culture, [...]
SL corporates need to focus on branding and 10-year strategies
Most Sri Lankan corporates still follow traditional advertising whereas the world has moved far ahead into branding of products and services of an organisation. Branding is a key element for an organisation to sustain for a long term with a strategic plan for at least 10 years ahead. Lots of foreign companies invest in branding [...]
Sri Lanka to embark on first elevated Light Rail Transit (LRT)
Sri Lanka is embarking on the first elevated Light Rail Transit (LRT) line between Colombo and Malabe as a remedy to heavy traffic congestion in Colombo, abandoning an earlier plan for a monorail system. Light rail is a metropolitan electric railway system which operates single cars or short trains along exclusive right of way at [...]
Hemas says pharma exports are on the cards
Hemas Holdings’ subsidiary J.L. Morrison Son and Jones (Ceylon) Plc which will construct a Rs. 2 billion pharma manufacturing plant at the SLINTEC Nano Technology Park in Pitipana, Homagama, is eyeing exports in the longer term, officials said. While commercial operations are expected to commence in 2019, Trehan Perera, CEO JL Morison told the Business [...]
Lanka Hospitals sets sights on Seychelles -Male
Lanka Hospitals Corporation Ltd (LHCL) has plans to set up operations in the Maldives and the Seychelles, officials say. “We are already conducting special clinics in these two countries since 2014. We’re at the feasibility study stage of starting a LHCL branch in Male and Seychelles,” Dr. Prasad Medawatte, Group CEO LHCL told the Business [...]