Category: Industry
Direct Link
Mar. 16 (LBO) – Deutsche Bank AG’s Colombo branch plans to scale up its presence here by luring big corporates and multinationals to use their state of the art cash management and electronic banking system. “We have no plans to do retail banking in Sri Lanka. But we want to grow our business by focusing […]
Done Deal
Mar 15 (LBO) – The Treasury inked a deal with China National Machinery and Equipment Corporation on Wednesday, to build a US$ 455 million power plant in Norachcholai. Two decades overdue, the 300 megawatt plant as well as supporting infrastructure will be entirely funded by the Chinese government, Ranjith Fonseka, General Manager for the sole […]
Extra Support
Mar. 14 (LBO) – The International Finance Corp. said Tuesday that they have tied up with four Sri Lankan banks to increase access to finance small and medium enterprises (SME) in the island. IFC, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, hopes the partnership with Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Hatton National […]
Digital Actuaries
Mar13. (LBO) — Sri Lanka’s accountants have come up with a digital solution to combat the shortage of actuaries in the country. The solution involves the use of a standard model, which uses minimal subjective judgments and can be calculated on a software like Microsoft’s Office Excell. The acute shortage of actuaries in Sri Lanka […]
Basic Pay
Mar13. (LBO) — Sri Lanka™s public sector unions are threatening a 24hour strike later this week as a dispute over a proposed pay hike continues.Essential health services will not be disrupted in the midnight-to-midnight 24 hour strike scheduled to begin Mach 15. The consortium of trade unions joining forces to form the Public Sector Salary […]
Expensive Chat
Mar. 13 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s two private wireless local loop telecom operators have been called up to pay around Rs. 400 million as duties for importing handsets, industry officials said. Last month, the island’s Board of Investment (BOI) slapped a 33 percent import duty on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) handsets with immediate effect. […]
Safe Passage
Mar. 13 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will push for an open skies agreement with India, on the sidelines of trade talks in May to liberalise service sectors of both countries.Both sides are finalising positions for talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), with areas like shipping, tourism and financial services also making the list. […]
Hot Potatoes
Mar. 11 (LBO) – Vanaspati, pepper and haggling over negative lists has pushed back trade talks between India and Sri Lanka on liberalising its service sectors, to May.The next round of negotiations under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries was to be held at the end of March. “There are few […]
Wider Base
Mar.10 (Dow Jones)–Sri Lanka’s Softlogic Holdings Ltd.said Friday it has bought the consumer electronics and automobiles units of diversified Uniwalkers Ltd. as part of an expansion plan. “This is a part of our strategy to diversify, expand our operations and increase annual turnover levels,” said Ashok Pathirage, the company’s chairman. He declined to disclose the […]
Scrapping By
Mar10. (LBO) — The government doubled a cess on nonferrous metal exports in a move to keep down raw material costs of small scale brass and copper based metal based industries in Sri Lanka.A Ministry of Finance and Planning statement said Friday, the increased cess is as per an August 2005 gazette notification and under […]
Small Fry
Mar. 09 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised the minimum investment limit by five times to US$250,000 with immediate effect for foreigners operating restaurants, health centres, shops and other businesses in the country, officials said Thursday. Presently, some 1,600 such foreign owned entities are registered with the Board of Investment (BOI), provided they meet the […]
Hillside Homes
Mar 09 (LBO) – A group of Singaporean investors will put in US$ 6 million to build a luxury condominium complex in hill country Kandy.A pilot project for Dynasty Developments Pvt Ltd, construction of the apartments block is to begin end March this year and be completed by third quarter 2007. About 12 of the […]