By Paneetha Ameresekere Human Rights (HR) are very much an issue in the EU’s new GSP+ duty free criteria, EDB’s Director General, Sujatha Weerakoon told this newspaper on Wednesday (June 12). Sri Lanka lost this facility nearly three years ago due to the non investigation of alleged HR abuse in the closing stages of its [...]
Compared To CHOGM In Perth By Paneetha Ameresekere The Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth held two years ago attracted US$ ($) 2.5 billion worth of FDI, but CHOGM in Colombo to be held in November is expected to attract only 40% of that amount, i.e. $ 1 billion worth of investments. The [...]
By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema A Sri Lanka and Israeli collaboration is to commence a modern fish farm in Chilaw using technology and expertise developed in Israel. Aquaculture Projects Limited with local partner, Senura Aquaculture Projects Lanka (Pvt) Limited is to commence the commercial fish farm using technology and expertise developed in Israel over the past [...]
Despite reports of toxic levels of dicyandiamide (DCD) in powdered milk imported from New Zeland, Sri Lankan consumers have shown an almost alarming disregard to their health, and continued to purchase imported milk. According to the marketing department of a leading supermarket chain, the reports — that were later revealed to be false by the [...]
Drying up of net foreign inflows (NFI), coupled with the crash of regional markets last week, had its impact on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) at Thursday’s (June 13) trading which saw the ASPI declining by 1.22% and the S&P SL 20 Index by 1.47% over its previous day’s close on a “low” Rs. 480 [...]
Rate pressure was visible in both the call money market and market repo rates due to a mix of banks having to meet their statutory reserves ratio (SRR) requirements, coupled with certain foreign funds exiting from the government securities market, which saw the weighted average rates (WAR) of call money rates go up by five [...]
We have often heard President Mahinda Rajapaksa referring to himself and probably his government as well, of being custodians, inferring that this responsibility of their’s encompasses the country and its peoples. However of late, such noble statements have not been forthcoming. Probably his hands may be full of other things now, as a result he [...]
Sri Lanka Insurance, once again declared the largest life insurance bonus of Rs 4.2 billion rupees for all its life policy holders. The staggering Rs 4.2 billion declaration is the highest ever life insurance bonus declared so far in the country. “Sri Lanka Insurance is able to declare unprecedented bonuses year on year due to [...]
By Paneetha Ameresekere BlackBerry, the Canadian company which also owns the brand name of a smartphone that carries the same name, has appointed Softlogic as its local distributor. “Sales have been stagnating, that’s the reason for this appointment,” Hitesh Shah, the company’s Director Commercial Business for India and for the region told this reporter on [...]
CBSL further Relaxed Foreign Exchange Controls last week. Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in a bid to stimulate economic growth eased foreigners and locals ability to transfer money in and out of the country. CBSL also cited a resilient financial sector and improvinging macroeconomic fundamentals to have encouraged this move. “Achieving greater efficiency in [...]
