Category: Opinion
Opinion: BOI/BOC/PB fiasco, Are board positions worth fighting for?
October 19, 2019 (LBO) – Thursday morning the Colombo business community woke up the news that President Maithripala Sirisena had given instructions for the dissolution of the boards of directors of the Board of Investment (BOI), Bank of Ceylon (BOC) and Peoples Bank. After the news broke there was much speculation on the legality of […]
Opinion: Khashoggi Killing – Imagine if Sri Lanka had done it
October 16, 2018 (LBO) – Imagine a team of 15 highly trained Sri Lankan intelligence operatives board a private plane and embark on a journey to Istanbul, one of the greatest cities in the history of the world. This team of operatives includes those well versed in interrogation, torture, forensics, and someone who is an […]
Opinion: Hardly any women on the National List, who is to blame?
October 9, 2018 (LBO) – After hearing about a women’s business forum, and reading a joke on twitter about how the panel addressing the crowd was all men, thoughts came to mind of how these types of events could be more meaningful. What can they really accomplish to bridge the divide of opportunity that exists […]
Opinion: Sri Lankan rupee under pressure – How not to crack
By Economic Intelligence Unit of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce The Sri Lankan currency (LKR) has weakened against the US dollar in 2018 (9.4% as at 26 September 2018) with close to 4% of the depreciation being recorded in the last two weeks.Currencies like the Indian rupee, Indonesian rupiah and Philippines peso have also seen steep […]
Opinion: Central Bank intervention likely to exacerbate foreign selling of Sri Lanka bonds
September 29, 2018 (LBO) – The main subject of discussion on the Colombo cocktail circuit has been the Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR) and its significant recent weakness against the U.S. dollar (USD). The LKR seems to have halted its slide, hovering just under Rs170 to the dollar. This recent price stability in the LKR is […]
OPINION: 90,000 Northern families in shanties or homeless. What happened to Govt. promised housing?
By Jekhan Aruliah In October last year I had the privilege of participating in the blessing of a new water well in the Killinochchi District of the Northern Province. Its construction had been funded by the UK based charity Child Aid Lanka. The family on whose land the well is built, together with neighbours who […]
Opinion: A response to article “Pulling back the curtain on privatization of plantation sector”
By Devaka Wickramasuriya I have read with much interest the recent article where Dr. Romesh Bandaranaike has shared his “unique perspective” of Sri Lanka’s plantations. At the outset, I totally disagree with Dr. Bandaranaike’s contention that privatization was necessary as the plantations were the biggest source of political patronage in the country. While some political interference […]
Opinion: Understanding the Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA
By: Ganeshan Wignaraja and Amitendu Palit July 28, 2018 (LBO) – While the global trade war threatens to disrupt the momentum of global trade and the prospects of global economic growth, encouraging signs of commitment to trade are visible elsewhere. Countries across the world continue to remain committed to free trade notwithstanding anxieties over the […]
Opinion : Financial reporting and the impact on capital market development
By Nandika Buddhipala Introduction The origination of financial reporting can be closely connected to the requirement to collect and record data which evolved into a stage where the capacity of the human brain was not sufficient to accommodate and memorize the evolving volume of data and transactions. Interestingly the existence of record keeping can be […]
Opinion: Suren Ratwatte was underpaid as CEO of Sri Lankan Airlines
July 23, 2018 (LBO) – A recent uproar has been created by the Right to Information Commission’s disclosure of the executive compensation package of former Sri Lankan Airlines CEO Suren Ratwatte.The disclosure indicated that Ratwatte made approximately US$20,000 monthly basic salary as CEO, plus perks which can be estimated at US$5000 per month. The indicates […]
OPINION: The Sri Lankan tourist industry’s ignorance of the North starts at the top
By Jekhan Aruliah I must first congratulate the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority (SLTDA) before I criticise it. Just a few days after the publication of my article in June 2018 complaining their “Sri Lanka Tourist Attractions” map showed nothing in the Northern Province other than Jaffna’s airport, the SLTDA replaced that barren old map. […]
‘s growth
By Dr. Ganeshan Wignarajah Fixing Sri Lanka’s Labour Market: Comparative Lessons July 17, 2018 (LBO) – The recently published ‘Sri Lanka Development Update 2018’1 by the World Bank focuses on creating more and better jobs for an upper middle-income Sri Lanka. It usefully analyses the state of Sri Lanka’s labour market and identifies challenges to […]