A 10-year master plan to develop Sri Lanka’s capital markets and bring it in line with international bourses is being fast-tracked to two years to speed up the process.The ambitious plan by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) comes at a time when Sri Lanka’s economy is facing a multitude of problems like rising government spending and an expanding defence budget due to an escalation in the military conflict with the LTTE.

The garment industry is to visit Washington this month to lobby for duty free access into the US market, on the grounds of ethical manufacturing standards.“We will be visiting Washington from June 25 to 27 to meet US congressmen, senators, policymakers and industry, to ask for preferential access into the US for our garments on the basis of our ethical industry standards,” said Kumar Mirchandani, Chairman of the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), Marketing and Image Building Committee, speaking at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and BOI, Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2007, on Friday.

Every Monday morning, most Sri Lankans wonder what’s in store for them. Rather than look at the week ahead with a lot of vigour, vitality, drive and passion, we have become a nation of what one would call the “what next or so what” mentality.Never a day passes without distressing news on the warfront of combatants dying on either side of the fence. But that doesn’t worry too many people. “Why bother” is the commonly accepted expression.