Sparks fly in year-end celebration
Year-end fireworks at the Colombo Port City. What is in store for us in 2023; another bad year or smooth recovery? Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Sri Lanka’s further indebtedness over improper use of project funding
Sri Lanka is embroiled with indebtedness running to billions of rupees owing to improper use of foreign funding for infrastructure and development projects and failure to complete it in the stipulated period, a recent Auditor General’s report has uncovered. Moreover, most of these foreign projects had been started on an unsolicited basis and as a [...]
Accountability will quicken the country’s recovery
The Sri Lankan tile industry, with output at nearly 30 million square metres (sqm) annually, has shrunk to 16 million sqm owing to the unprecedented economic crisis in the country. Mahendra Jayasekara, Managing director, Lanka Tiles PLC pointed out to the Business Times recently that this was due to the high-interest rate, foreign exchange shortage, [...]
Akuregoda Defence headquarters facing funding issues
The much delayed construction work of Sri Lanka’s Pentagon-styled Defence headquarters building complex at Akuregoda, Battaramulla is now expected to be completed in 2023 after nearly 12 years of construction, official sources divulged. Sources from the Treasury said that the project will continue with the raising of funds as and when it is needed but [...]
Port City to start four mega projects with $1.5 bn
With infrastructure development slated for completion by the third quarter of 2023, the Colombo Port City, is set to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) amounting to US$1.5 billion during the development phase, a Finance Ministry report on investment opportunities has projected. At least four mega projects with an investment inflow of $953 million were in [...]
Kuwait Compensation Fund still has Rs.3.92 bn
Even after over 30 years, the Kuwait Compensation Fund set up at the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLBFE) still has Rs.3.92 billion remitted by the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), Finance Ministry records revealed. This was the balance amount after payment for compensation from a total sum of US$348 million remitted by the UNCC [...]
Phew! What a year
Phew! What a year, probably the worst in decades. I was pondering over the events in 2022 when the silence of the household was shattered by Aldoris’s food tuk-tuk coming down the lane with its blaring tune. Waiting for him at the gate was the trio. “Oya hithanawada aluth avurudda (2023) giya avuruddata (2022) wediya [...]
Corruption at the dawn of 2023
“What has brought most Third World countries down, and what has led to their failure in development, has been corruption! So, Lee Kuan Yew after he became Prime Minister of Singapore, made it a point to punish not the junior people but the very senior people. A Deputy Minister went on holiday with his friend, [...]
Educational transformation gets underway giving priority to IT division
The Government is ready to initiate necessary procedures towards an educational transformation according priority to introduce modern information technology systems and updating the existing systems to streamline administration in school education and examination divisions. The plans required to carry out an educational transformation within the country have already been devised since it is needed to [...]
Viraj says adieu at SEC
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Viraj Dayaratne is bidding adieu to his post this week. He is the chairperson since late 2000 and is a lawyer by profession. Mr. Dayaratne has been instrumental in developing the local capital market when he started the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) digitalisation during the COVID-19 pandemic. He appointed [...]
Dialog launches Sri Lanka’s first fully immersive Metaverse
Dialog Axiata PLC has launched ‘Futureverse’ – Sri Lanka’s first fully immersive, interactive and experiential Metaverse where people can shop for Dialog products and services, socialise, attend events, and play games in one persistent virtual world. Futureverse is an immersive and interactive virtual world where users can create their own custom avatars. This virtual world [...]
Sri Lanka enters the New Year with hopes of IMF EFF in1Q 2023
Sri Lanka enters the New Year 2023 with renewed hopes of treating the ailing economy with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescription of sugar coating bitter pills, several economic analysts said. State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe said that the board approval for US$2.9 billion IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) could be expected during the [...]
HIP to aggressively promote afloat repairs in 2023
The Hambantota International Port (HIP) is supporting Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC) to handle running repairs to vessels while they remain afloat in the harbour. The majority of vessels directed to HIP for afloat repairs come with damages experienced below the water line. CDPLC carries out permanent repairs on these ships with service assistance from HIP, [...]
Jetwing Symphony issue oversubscribed
Jetwing Symphony PLC on Friday said its Rs.500 million rights issue was oversubscribed – receiving a total of Rs.600 million – on Wednesday when it was open for public subscription, giving a boost to the country’s tourism industry. Jetwing Symphony PLC is a holding company which owns six Jetwing hotels – Jetwing Colombo Seven (Colombo), [...]
BIA receives a Nihon Kohden Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) was recently installed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), which receives around 1.5 million passengers every year, donated by Hemas Surgicals and Diagnostics (Pvt) Ltd. ‘Sudden Deaths’ due to cardiac arrest has become one of the leading causes of deaths in Sri Lanka. Receiving Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and an electric [...]