British Airways picks turtle project

The Turtle Conservation Project (TCP) at Rekawa was selected by British Airways as a 'Highly Commended' project at the recently concluded "British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards" .

Over 120 projects were submitted from 43 countries world-wide, and the Turtle Conservation Project in Sri Lanka was the only project to be selected for this global award from the southern region which includes Africa, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent.

The projects were judged by an international panel chaired by environmentalist Professor David Bellamy and other distinguished dignitaries, a British Airways news release said.

The British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards which have been running since 1989 recognises organisations in the tourism industry which have made a positive contribution towards the local natural and cultural environment.

The coveted title of 1998 Global Winner went to a project on Ghana's Cape Coast, which is reversing the environmental devastation of logging and agriculture.

Kids go to International markets

Young Entrepreneur Tomorrow's movers and shakers joined in to get a head start in the world commerce. Over 5000 students from 40 schools will participate in this year's Young Entrepreneur Sri Lanka (YESL) programme.

The programme introduced last year is intended to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, understand business and economics and be work force ready.Children from grade one to grade thirteen are included under three categories that range from very simple activities that deal with themselves, their families and the people and places around them to personal economics and activities that contribute to trade and commerce to the running of national and global business ventures.

The grade 13 programme is especially interesting because they have to run a business for a short stretch of time in a manner that any ordinary company might do and also wind up the company in the same fashion.

The programme was launched in March last year with over 1000 students from eight selected schools. All participants have made profits in their respective ventures, President of the association Patrick Amarasinghe said.

The present project looks at exporting these products, hence giving the students a taste of the global economy. In this respect the association and the National Chamber of Exporters. Some of the products produced so far include stationery, ready to eat and fresh food items and other similar items.

Some of the products to be introduced include Insurance policies for the school children sold by the school children in association with Ceylinco Insurance.

Walltile says

Lanka Walltile says, the profit and loss account for the year ending March 31 1999, shows a trading profit of Rs. 247,168 mn which includes Rs. 33.6 mn earned as profits from the sale of Horana Plantations during the previous accounting year.

In our news item, we have missed the word from previous year.

MOU brings Sri Lanka closer to Tamilnadu

The Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL), the umbrella organisation of Sri Lanka's private sector, recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Tamilnadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Madurai, the largest chamber of commerce and industry in the whole of India in membership strength.

The MOU was signed by the two presidents, Lal de Mel, President, FCCISL and R. Rethinavelu, President, Tamilnadu Chamber of Commerce at a meeting at the Taj Samudra Hotel, Colombo.

The Tamilnadu Chamber is the largest Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India in membership strength. It has a membership base of over 5600 members and over 350 smaller chambers of trade and industrial associations are affiliated to it. Established in 1924, the Chamber is celebrating its Platinum Jubilee this year.

Under the MOU, the two organisations will co-operate in, and exchange information and views on the promotion and expansion of trade and industrial relations between the two countries.

They will also invite and assist each other in the promotion of trade and industry missions, exhibitions and similar events in their respective countries.

Mr. Rethinavelu said that in keeping with the commitment and responsibility expressed by the two heads of state in signing the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement, Indian businessmen were trying their utmost to create a healthy ambiance and a strong launching pad for all the SAARC nations to march ahead and attain their ultimate economic prosperity through self sufficiency and export multiplication.

He added that Indian businessmen were impressed by the economic liberalisation in Sri Lanka. Successive governments in Sri Lanka had openly endorsed the free market system and liberal policy measures including laws and regulations conducive to foreign investments. He said they were impressed by those favourable aspects which have given Sri Lanka one of the most business friendly environments in Asia.

Mr. Mel said he firmly believed the two private sectors had a lot of responsibility in making the Free Trade Agreement a successful and mutually beneficial one. The MOU signed between the two organisations also would contribute towards this.

Informix Technology on offer

The latest Informix technology used for storage and handling of textual information and digitised photographs in the new U.S. passport system, is now available to institutions in Sri Lanka, Informix Corporation's sole representative in Sri Lanka CyberSoft (Pvt) Ltd, said in a press relesase.

The U.S. Department of State has chosen the Informix Dynamic Server as the data base engine of the new U.S. passport system which will produce passports that include digitised, printed photographs, the release added.

Govind Nangrani, Chief Executive Officer CyberSoft said this method of producing digitised, printed photographs that enhance security in any system will be most useful to the local passport office as well to other government institutions that have strict security regulations.

"This process is a foolproof system that will be very useful in Sri Lanka," he said.

Explaining that the new method saves time so that the user may significantly increase production, Nangrani said Informix Database Technology recognises and processes the digitised images through its efficient handling and replication of BLOBS (Binary Large Objects).

For example to generate a passport, photographs are electronically scanned into the Informix database and stored as BLOBS.

MBSL promotes quality mind-set in children

Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka Limited (MBSL) believes that the future progress of the country can be influenced by creating a quality and teamwork culture amongst school children. A press release said MBSL has closely followed the initiatives taken by the business community, in the USA to promote, the now well known "Koalaty Kid" program, which encourages children to become quality conscious, even in their school work and form small teams to tackle problems they face, and with teachers and parents to improve school facilities.

MBSL has also studied the recent initiatives in India. Quality Circles have been formed in schools and a recent convention was held to promote "Total Quality Management (TQM)" in academic institutions.

Ministry of Industrial Development too initiated a program to introduce quality and productivity in schools. MBSL therefore, joined hands with the ministry to initiate a pilot project to introduce a "Quality Kids" Program which will encourage a quality mind -set in children and promote the formation of Quality Circles.

The first program was held recently in the MBSL Auditorium for teachers and students of 15 school selected for the Pilot Program. The schools were: Devi Balika Vidyalaya, St. Paul's Girls' School - Milagiriya, St. Joseph's College, Sri Sumangala Balika Maha Vidyalaya, Royal College, S. Thomas' College - Mt. Lavinia, Zahira College, Musaeus College, Nalanda College, Ramanathan Hindu Ladies College, Vishaka Balika Maha Vidyalaya, Methodist College, Ananda College, Muslim Ladies College, and Dankotuwa Balika Vidyalaya.

Presentations were made by Sunil G Wijesinha, Managing Director, MBSL, and HD Jayaweera, Principal, Alethea International School. Quality Circle Case Study presentations were made by the students from Alethea International School, Devi Balika Maha Vidyalaya and Dankotuwa Balika Vidyalaya.

SIA to promote tourism in Lanka

Singapore Airlines which celebrates 30 years in Sri Lanka next year has experienced a signigicant increase in inbound tourism on the Colombo Singapore route and has found the Sri Lankan market a very satisfactory one, Executive Vice President (Commercial) of SIA Michael Tan said.

Addressing the Annual Regional Meeting of SIA in Colombo last week, Mr. Tan said Sri Lanka has great potential as a tourist destination and in the last six months the airline's passenger traffic on the Colombo Singapore route grew by 18 percent.

SIA hopes to begin a hard hitting tourist promotion programme in Asia in August this year, together with the Ceylon Tourist Board. Mr. Tan said this would be well timed as tourism confidence in the Asian region is growing and must be encouraged as much as possible. In the last six months, the airline had increased its capacity and upgraded its aircraft which has spurred its market growth.

Commenting on the Asian economic crisis Mr. Tan said that SIA was not as badly affected as some of the other airlines because they had a route system which was well spread out and not too dependent on any one route. He said this was a contributing factor to the airline being able to show a group profit of Singapore $1.033 billion for 97-98.

Also present at the press conference were Joseph Chew, Senior Vice President of West Asia and Africa, R. Sivaratnam, Chairman of Aitken Spence, Mr. Huang Cheng Eng, Senior Vice President Market Planning and Paul Goh, General Manager of SIA's Sri Lanka branch.

'The beer hunter' tours Sri Lanka

Michael Jackson, an authority on beers the world over, will soon be in Sri Lanka to participate as one of the chief guests and judges at Culinary Art 99, the annual food and beverage competition organized by the Chefs Guild of Sri Lanka at the BMICH this month.

During his stay here, Jackson will officiate as a judge at Culinary Art 99 and a special stout cocktail competition which will be one of the highlights of the main event on June 26 (Jackson is a professional beer judge at the Great American Beer Festival and a regular panelist at the Great British Beer Festival).

His visit will also include presentations on beer and food to several notable organizations across the country including the Sri Lanka Chefs Guild and the Hotel Schools Association.

ISC with people of south in mind

An Investor Services Centre (ISC) of the Colombo Stock Exchange was opened on June 1999 in Matara. This is the First Investor Services Centre to be set up as a part of the CSE's strategy to extend the domestic investor base says a company release.

The ISC will provide investors in the Southern Province with similar facilities as enjoyed by investors in Colombo. The ISC will provide investors access to on-line trading, share prices and on-line information, stockbroking services and other connected facilities such as opening of CDS Accounts and deposits of share certificates.

The ISC will also act as an Information Centre for market information and listed company information beneficial for investors, researchers, students etc. The ISC will also conduct awareness programmes to educate the investors, undergraduates, teachers, students and others on the capital market.

Three stockbrokers, Forbes ABN Amro Securities, MMBL Phillip Securities and Jardine Fleming HNB Securities are currently offering stockbroking services at the ISC in Matara.

Appointment

Mr Chandra Jayaratne, Non-Executive Director of Ceylon Tobacco Company Limited resigned from the Board with effect from 31 May 1999.

Consequent to the above resigation, the Board of Directors of the Company will comprise:
Lt Gen J E D Perera, VSV
G. Thoma
J. D. Bandaranayake
V. P. Malalasekera
J. S. Mather
J. R. Patrick
B. T. Kurian
Desamanya K. Balendra
G. R. Armstrong

KLM air cargo office opened

By Gunapala Ranasinghe

A KLM cargo office was opened recently by the KLM Director Air Cargo, Nico J.J. Van der Linden.

Speaking at the ceremony, he said, "Sri Lanka can look to a bright future as the Colombo cargo market is a big one in the region." Speaking to pressmen later, the director said the country's economic outlook for the future was promising.

Air Cargo is a division of KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines. Mr. Linden further said Sri Lanka can boast of her garment industry which is globally reputed and recognised. He said the quality of our output at these garment factories is of high quality and has a reputation worldwide. Sri Lanka has a bright future and, therefore, it is evident that the country will do better in the new millennium.

He said his company would be represented through Freightcare (Pvt) Ltd., a subsidiary of Expolanka Group. He said further Expolanka Group are professionals in the air-cargo business and KLM which provides customer cargo services under the same roof, from May, has started operating an Air Cargo business unit separately, which gives a better service to customers.

"We are operating a cargo business in the metropolis not only to keep our present market but also with the intention of doubling it," said Mr. Linden. He said that from here they transport cargo up to the Gulf and from there KLM takes over the distribution. Presently they take 100 tons of cargo monthly, he said. That includes garments, electronic and leather products and even handicrafts. He added that KLM has a novel brand product in 'SELEC' to be introduced in Sri Lanka soon.

Madagascar beckons gem traders, miners

Lankan gem traders are now turning their attention to Madagascar, which is a newly found Gem Paradise bearing a variety of gems of superior quality similar to Sri Lanka's.

The gems found there, vary from Blue Sapphires, Geudas, Cats' Eyes and Alexandrites amongst others which are readily available in large quantities and still could be purchased at a fairly economical price.

Hundreds of Sri Lankans have already visited Madagascar and to educate and apprise the ground situation there, a seminar was organised by the Sri Lanka Gem Traders Association and the key-note address was delivered by Dr. P.G.R. Dharmaratne, Chairman Gem and Jewellery Authority. His interesting talk took in every little detail.

Dr. Dharmaratne also had a slideshow on gem mining fields, the sales outlets and the people in general.

Dr. Dharmaratne led a group of 13, which included M.J.M. Mubarak, R. Nanayakkara, the president and vice president of Sri Lanka Gem Traders Association, entrepreneurs and gem miners to Madagascar and they flew Airlanka to Singapore, Air Mauritius to Madagascar via Mauritius.

Air Mauritius operates 2 flights a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays for which the Colombo office provides connections on AirLanka to Singapore on Tuesdays and Fridays and provide hotel accomodation in Singapore at the airline's expense. Further hotel accommodation is also provided during transit in Mauritius en- route to Madagascar.

Air Mauritius also provides flight connections via Bombay on Wednesdays and Saturdays where connecting flights from Colombo will be on AirLanka. Those entrepreneurs who wish to explore the possibility of gem mining and purchasing could also have a transit stop in Mauritius, the exotic island and have a dream holiday package offered by Air Mauritius, Colombo office, which could be purchased along normal channels through travel agents.

The seminar was organised by the Sri Lanka Gem Traders Association jointly sponsored by Air Mauritius and All Nippon Airways as they felt it was their obligation to educate prospective visitors to Madagascar.

ANA- All Nippon Airways, which is Asia's largest airline offers daily flight connections to Japan via 2 gateway points, Singapore and Bangkok with 350 flights per week to 32 destinations in 4 continents, including Los Angeles, New York, Washington, San Francisco, Honolulu, Chicago,Vancouver..etc.

ANA also adds value to their product by providing the facility of Japan Rail Pass, which is the passport for convenient and economical ground trasportation in Japan. The Visit Japan Fare is offered at a discounted rate of 50% of the normal domestic sectors purely as a tourist promotion to Japan.

ANA also offers their frequent flyer programme called ANA Mileage Club- AMC where one could earn miles from day one of application and receive mileage awards redeemable for free domestic and international tickets, class upgrades, free room- nights at ANA Hotels, ANA gifts and value vouchers. Further all Platinum Members and Super Flyers are entitled to lounge facilities at Lounge Fuji irrespective of class of travel.

LR at Cruise & Ferry 99

Lloyd's Register (LR) is highlighting its services to the cruise industry on stand 17 at Cruise & Ferry 99, which opens today at Olympia.

LR's specialists will be on hand to demonstrate the new Provisional Rules for Passenger and Crew Accommodation Comfort, Special Service Cart (SSC) Rules software, and Ships Emergency Response Services (SERS). Provisional Rules for Passenger and Crew Accommodation Comfort set noise and vibration criteria for assessing passenger crew and comfort. They are primarily intended for passenger ships, high speed craft and yachts, although any ship can be assessed for compliance.

As well as giving operators a choice in levels of noise and vibration, the Provisional Rules offer alternative levels of certification. One provides for the assessment of a ship's initial design and trials behaviour leading to a Certificate of Compliance; the other also includes life cycle assessment supported by a periodical survey system and the assignment of a Class Notation.

LR's SSC Rules are based on a formulation which links the required statutory safety levels to the safety levels of the craft's design.

Types of craft covered include:

• all craft under the International Maritime Organization (IMO) International Code of Safety for High Speed Craft (HSC Code);

• mono and multi-hull designs which operate in planning, semi-planning, light or conventional displacement, air-cushion or foil-assisted mode;

• yachts which are over 24 metres in length.

Recovering loans main job of banks

The 98th branch of Hatton National Bank, was opened by Rienzie T Wijetilleke, Managing Director on May 5. HNB is the first privately owned commercial bank to be set up in Ragama, says a bank release. The branch is located at No. 64, Tewatte Road.

Mr. Wijetilleke said the growing demand for HNB's services had necessitated the setting up of branches islandwide. Mr Wijetilleke who described the changing face of the banking industry, pointed out that it is the depositors' funds that the bank lends and therefore the proper recovery of such funds is a prime responsibility of the bank.

He stressed that if funds granted as loans are not duly recovered, state assistance would not be available to private banks, unlike in the case of state sponsored banks and that it is the duty of borrowers to ensure that loans granted are duly repaid.

Since this is the first occasion when people in the Ragama region would be enjoying the services of a privately owned commercial bank "it is very important to bear this fact in mind", said Mr. Wijetilleke.

Mr. Wijetilleke added that the public today came to a bank not merely for traditional banking services, but for a variety of other facilites such as housing loans, loans to start up a business and also other services and assistance related to their day to day lives.

He said HNB was fully aware of these obligations and that it would ensure that all such services were adequately provided.

Dr. Lalith Wijeratne physician in charge of the Ragama Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Hospital thanked the bank for undertaking the refurbishing and maintenance of the children's ward at the Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Hospital. On this occaion the bank also made a cash donation towards the fund to provide wheelchairs for the patients of the Rheumatology & Rehabilitation Hospital. To coincide with this function the bank also refurbished Ward 11 of the Colombo North Central Hospital. The maintenance of these wards will be an on-going project.

Mind power workshop

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (Sri Lanka branch) is sponsoring a workshop on the mastery of self thorough Neuro Linguistic Programming.

The workshop will be held on July 3 and 4 and July 10 and 11 at the Colombo Hilton.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is for any individual interested in maximising the potential of the mind for the mastery of self. This will help them to be effective in achieving any professional, physical, emotional or mental objectives.

NLP helps to liberate the individuals' potential and focus their energy to channel their lives in exactly the direction in which they want to go.

The programme draws on proven techniques developed by some of the world's foremost peak performance experts.

The Science Digest states that NLP is the most promising advancement in the field of human development. It is 'software' for the hardware of the human neck-top super computer - a user's manual to achieve one's goals.

Corporate executives who have attended this workshop have gone back to their organisations with a renewed sense of purpose and new energy.

Most of them have followed 'Continuous Improvement' the four day corporate excellence workshop to further gear themselves and have started seeing amazing results in their companies against all odds.

The CIM is repeating this workshop over and over again to satisfy the ever increasing demand as there have always been many participants who could not attend due to places being filled far ahead of the workshop.

The Annual Distributors' Conference of Unilever Ceylon Limited

Kanadalama Hotel was the venue for the Annual Distibutor Conference held recently for the distributors of Unilever Ceylon Limited products.

The distributors numbering 60 and their spouses arrived at Kandalama on May 7. The following Saturday morning a workshop was held for the distributors. The Chairman, Mike Thompson in his keynote address focused on the topic of growth and shared the Company's strategies and objectives for the year. Emphasizing the importance of customer care, some very pertinent questions were placed before the audience regarding the degree of involvement of the distributors in the area of servicing their customers.

"It must be considered mandatory that every customer carries the entire range of Unilever products appropriate to his type of business..."

He added "Well, times are different. We now have to go out and fight for our share of the market and this means our mind-sets have to change."

The Sales Controller reviewed the performance for 1998 and evaluated the year todate performance. He also announced the exciting news about the introduction of a contest for the Best Distributor, which will commence in 1999.

The workshop also had interesting presentations on foods and merchandising and on the Y2K issue.

A question and answer session followed where some key issues were discussed and this brought them to the successful conclusion of the workshop.

After lunch the distributors and spouses had some exciting events lined up. There was a choice of visiting an ancient rock temple or participate in a six-a-side soft ball cricket match. The majority chose the cricket match and cricket - it was until 7 p.m!

On the 9th morning after breakfast, the distributors were presented with a group photograph of themselves. It was indeed a pleasant surprise for the departing guests.

Precision made Xylan's business partner

Xylan, an Alcatel company, today announced the appointment of Precision Tech Services Pvt Ltd as their business Partner to cover Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands. B.G. Poon, Regional Director, Asia said, "Our selection is based on stringent criteria and we found that Precision Tech Services Pvt Ltd and its subsidiary Business Solution Systems Pvt Ltd offered the best scope in reaching the entire spectrum of the market", says a press release.

Xylan's mainstay products include the OmniSwitch and Omnistact network switches, which serve the high-end of the network computing market, predominantly campus-wide switching. Comparing the official results for the last several quarters, the company's growth rate outpaced that of the five campus switching leaders.

Recently, Business Solution Systems Pvt Ltd finished the largest structured networking project todate at Ceylinco Millennium Towers estimated at Rs 60m. The project was completed in record time. Sardha Gunesekara, Deputy GM says, "Our Netcomm Group is capable of undertaking large enterprise-wide LAN/WAN solutions and this project is a statement of our in-house knowledge and expertise. Furthermore, with Xylan's appointment we can now expand our business into integrating LAN switching, ATM switching, layer-three switching, and wide area switching over a wide range of inter-faces and media."

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