Category: Economy

SAINT PETERSBURG, June 10, 2007 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called for a revolution in world economic relations, saying institutions created by the West were “archaic, undemocratic and inflexible.” Speaking to an audience of world leaders and top chief executives at a showcase business forum, Putin said the emergence of developing economies […]

June 8, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday ordered an immediate halt to the eviction of minority ethnic Tamils from the capital, a day after hundreds were expelled at gunpoint, a court official said. The Court issued the order following a complaint by a political activist group that Thursday’s police operation was a […]

June 8, 2007 (AFP) – Nine badly mutilated bodies were found in a garbage dump just north of Sri Lanka’s international airport Friday, police said, prompting officers to start a bigger search.“We don’t know the identity of the victims,” a local police official said by telephone. “We are now digging the area because there could […]

June 07, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka plans to accelerate and broaden its development activities despite the internal conflict, the island’s president said Wednesday, as an expanding budget deficit threatened to undermine growth this year. We need to fearlessly combat terrorism and develop without making it an excuse, President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a statement […]

June 7, 2007 (LBO) – India’s Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has put in a bid between 160 million dollars to 180 million for the Sri Lankan wireless fixed access operator Suntel, Indian news reports said. The Economic Times newspaper said the MTNL bid was believed to be the highest, though company officials declined to […]

June 7, 2007 (AFP) – Armed police forced hundreds of ethnic minority Tamils out of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo Thursday as part of an effort to clear the city of feared Tamil Tiger cells, officials and witnesses said. Police stormed Tamil-majority areas of the capital under the cover of darkness and forced guests at […]

June 07, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s should trim redundant ministries, increase wages for senior officials and be more transparent to help propel the country forward, the US envoy in Colombo said. The CIMA business leaders’ summit will discuss how good, mediocre or bad companies can make the leap to be great companies. “Reduce the […]

June 06, 2007 (LBO) – The Commercial Bank of Ceylon says it is broadened the availability of forex hedging products, allowing even individuals to use them in addition to large corporates and small and medium businesses. These products will also help customers to diversify their cash investment portfolios, Commercial Bank’s Head of Global Treasury, Dula […]

June 06, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Finance Ministry has disputed a report by the auditor-general that weak collections led to a revenue loss of 360 billion rupees. The loss, it said in its annual report for 2006, was not more than 6.2 billion rupees of which half related to the VAT refund fraud which […]

June 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has reached its reserve money target for May with several billion rupees to spare, indicating that inflation will continue to move down in the future, the Central Bank said. “The achievement of reserve money targets will lead to the continuous deceleration of the growth in broad money and […]

SINGAPORE, June 3, 2007 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels are a threat to shipping in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister told a regional security conference Sunday in an appeal for global action against the guerrilla group. Rohitha Bogollagama said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were one of the few “terrorist organisations” […]

June 2, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Saturday it would not allow trucks coming from rebel-held areas in the northeast into Colombo after police claimed to have discovered explosives destined for the city in a goods carrier.Residents in areas bordering rebel-held Wanni in the northeast were told not to send trucks south after police […]