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Railway carriages from India

Railway carriages from India

3 new Colombo city railway lines to ease traffic congestion

The Government is building three new railway line-routes connecting Colombo and the suburbs, the first new tracks in 70 years since the end of British colonial rule, to ease growing traffic congestion in the business capital city. These three railway lines will be constructed from Ragama to Kirulapone via Colombo Fort, the other route to [...]

Wise decisions – the game-changer at CSE

The infamous circulars sent by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) have come full circle. Thankfully, they are now in the past and hopefully, lessons learned despite a blame game still being continued by those who were burnt heavily. What the past has shown is that illiteracy and little knowledge are dangerous and detrimental. How the [...]

India steps in to help Sri Lanka out of debt abyss

India, in a latest change of slightly strained economic relations, is now holding close and constructive discussions with Sri Lanka on a US$1.1 billion swap facility, debt freezing arrangement, and development aid, official sources confirmed. The Indo –Sri Lanka technical level discussions on the postponement of debt repayment and the offer of $45 billion loan [...]

Tourism faces tall order of Govt. target

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has been given the tough task of achieving 800,000 arrivals by the end of the year that is expected to cash in revenue of US$1.5 billion. Tourism Promotion Bureau officials said that the Presidential Task Force for Tourism had informed the Central Bank that they needed to ensure they achieved the [...]

New faces, new scam

New faces, new scam

It was a rainy evening, the previous day. However, on Thursday morning the weather had cleared with bright sunshine streaming through the branches of the margosa tree which looked forlorn as if it waited with anticipation for the weekly under-the-tree chat by the trio. This morning, however, they were chatting at the gate with Aldoris, [...]

Cry of the savers

Cry of the savers

For us – the retirees, the deposit interest rates have been cut down by half so that we have to go begging in our old age to live a life beyond ‘parippu and pol sambol’.” I didn’t exaggerate, but it was exactly the harsh statement of an angered retiree whom I came across recently. And [...]

Government strictly adheres to prudential financial management

The Government will strictly adhere to prudential financial management and monitoring in obtaining foreign loans for development projects specially focusing attention on the repayment capacity. The Finance Ministry has planned external borrowings of project and programme loans mostly through bilateral and multilateral sources amounting to around US$1.8 billion, as well as foreign commercial loans around [...]

Mobility in Sri Lanka: Beyond the import ban

Mobility in Sri Lanka: Beyond the import ban

Prior to the import ban, Sri Lanka was importing around US$ 1.5 billion worth of motor vehicles annually. The expenditure on petroleum imports (for motor vehicles) was $2.9 billion in 2018. Our travel speed within the city of Colombo was estimated by the University of Moratuwa as 8 kmh. Our air quality was classified as [...]

Enacting laws alone will not solve problems of female workers

Although several laws exist in the country, a holistic view has to be taken before bringing in new laws to address issues pertaining to discrimination of women in the workplace. In some ways new laws can act to the detriment of employed women. The problem today lies in finding pragmatic ways to implement laws that [...]

Sri Lanka’s top nurse wins ‘Most Popular Woman’ contest at Vanithaabhimana

Sri Lanka’s top nurse wins ‘Most Popular Woman’ contest at Vanithaabhimana

Ms. Pushpa Ramyani De Soyza was named the Most Popular Woman in Sri Lanka at the Grand Finale of Sri Lanka Vanithaabhimana 2020/2021 held on Monday. The ceremony, which was held parallel to International Women’s day on March 8, at the Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre, felicitated the female trailblazers of Sri Lanka in their [...]

Anverally and Sons wins Gold at NCE Annual Export Awards

Anverally and Sons (Pvt) Ltd, one of Sri Lanka’s oldest exporters of tea which exports to more than 100 countries, won the Gold award in the ‘Extra-Large’ category of the ‘Tea and Tea Products’ sector at the recent 2020 Annual Export Awards of the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE). Themed ‘Resilient Exporters,’ [...]

Sri Lanka’s first ever end-to-end fully- integrated online supermarket launched

SUPERBOX, Sri Lanka’s first ever end-to-end fully-integrated online supermarket specialising in grocery has been launched to cater to households all over Sri Lanka. The service intends to deliver groceries and other items swiftly, conveniently and safely to the doorstep. SUPERBOX is geared to offer a wide range of products to customers across categories of fresh, [...]

Depositors of failed finance companies struggle to survive

Depositors of failed finance  companies struggle to survive

Some highly depressed senior citizens over 80 years who have deposited their hard-earned retirement gratuities and lifelong savings in what is called now defunct financial companies are desperately seeking to know what is happening to their deposits still lying in those companies. One of these desperate depositors, ailing and over 80-year-old W. K. Ruberu wonders [...]

People’s Bank reports highest ever balance sheet growth in 2020

The People’s Bank has announced its results for the year ended December 31, 2020 reporting consolidated net loan growth of Rs. 315.7 billion, representing a 21.6 per cent growth year on year and accounting for close to one third of overall net sector credit extended during the period. Close to two third of credit was [...]

CWC wants Collective Agreement

The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), the largest trade union body in the plantations, continues to insist that they want the age-old Collective Agreement to be in place despite ensuring workers a wage of Rs.1000 through the Wages Board. “We have not said we are leaving the Collective Agreement,” CWC MP M. Rameshwaran told the Business [...]

Sri Lanka can produce its entire requirement of power through renewable sources

This is good news for all electricity consumers. There is a major shift in the country to renewable energy from wind power and solar power from fossil fuel and in the process a strong possibility of bringing the present high prices of electricity to one third its present price. This was stated to the Business [...]

Banking sector hit hard by the pandemic, but resilient

Sri Lanka’s banking sector has got the biggest brunt of this pandemic but it is still strong and resilient, according to industry analysts. While there’s some thinking that adequate provisioning hasn’t been made for the state – declared moratorium, senior commercial bankers were adamant that more than 60 to 70 per cent provisioning cover has [...]

New strategy for gem and jewellery industry ensures shining future

Sri Lanka’s gem and jewellery sector is now poised for a glittering future with new efforts of the government to strengthen its position as an industry hub achieving a US$1 billion export target this year. As per Department of Customs’ statistics, earnings from gem and jewellery exports recorded a growth of 2.59 per cent to [...]

Agony of EPF earners, bank interests and a solution

Agony of EPF earners, bank interests and a solution

At the time of retirement, many workers receive their EPF as a lump sum. In addition to the above sum of money, some private sector organisations like the universities pay another lump sum of money called the Gratuity Fund which is calculated on the number of years served and last salary drawn. A person who [...]

Vistas of hope for ICT professionals

Vistas of hope for ICT professionals

Auxx Me Network Pvt Ltd and POLYMATH College Pvt Ltd joined hands recently to provide the required knowledge to those who are interested in pursuing a career in information technology. This project is carried out with the collaboration of the Skills Development Fund Ltd, an organisation that comes under the purview of the Ministry of [...]

Switzerland, US to jointly support migrant workers

The Swiss and US governments have jointly come forward to initiate the Safe and Resilient Migrant Workers (SRMW) project in Sri Lanka. Designed to provide much needed guidance and skills development for Sri Lankan migrant workers, SRMW will be fully integrated with the US Agency for International Development supported US$18 million youth employment and entrepreneurship [...]

Friedrich Naumann Foundation hosts online dialogue on tea

The South Asia office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), bringing to light the challenges faced by tea producers in India and Sri Lanka, has organised an Online Business Dialogue under the topic “RESTART ASIAN ECONOMIES: Ideas and Actions for the Tea Industry” on March 15 from 1700-1830 hrs (IST). “Tea is the most consumed [...]

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