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IMF loan “urgency”‘t beg for aid: CB chief
June 12, 2009 (AFP) – War ravaged Sri Lanka will not beg for foreign aid even as a 1.9 billion dollar bailout from the IMF has been delayed, the island’s central bank chief said on Friday.“We will never go after donors or lending agencies with a begging bowl.We are capable of standing on our own […]
Sri Lanka state workers take home 53.6-pct of 2008 taxes
June 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state salaries and pensions ate up 53.6 percent of tax revenues in 2008, while 129,135 workers were added to an already bloated public sector, which is the biggest in South Asia, the latest official data shows. The finance ministry said 71,323 workers were added to state services in […]
Sri Lanka private sector, UNHCR pave the way for returning refugees
June 12, 2009 (LBO) – A United Nations agency is getting private sector support to help re-settle a part of the 660,000 refugees in the country who are starting to return to their former homes, officials said. Brandix Lanka, a top Sri Lankan apparel group, is working with the UNHCR to provide water and sanitation […]
Sri Lankan shares close up 0.8-pct
June 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks closed up 0.8 percent Thursday as investors targeted fundamentally strong stocks while expectations were also strengthening that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail out would come, brokers said. The Colombo All Share Price Index closed up 0.80 percent (17.68 points) to end at 2,220.11 while the Milanka […]
Dark Continent
June 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon is planning to finance renewable power plants in Africa with the help of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an official said. Commercial Bank officials did not say who their engineering partners in Uganda would be. In July 2007 Sri Lankan power company Eco Power […]
Northern Banking
June 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said banks have been given the nod to open 67 new outlets in the last three weeks in the north of the island after the area was freed of Tamil Tigers. “This trend of banking expansion in the Northern Province is expected to grow with the […]
Geothermal energy industry could create 17,000 Australian jobs: report
BRISBANE, June 11 (Asia Pulse) – More than 17,000 jobs could be created in Australia’s geothermal energy industry by 2050, a new report says. The geothermal industry, which involves extracting heat stored in the earth to generate power, is growing in Australia with almost 400 tenements for projects and around $A1.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) in […]
India orders no-fishing zones in security move
NEW DELHI, June 11, 2009 (AFP) – The Indian government is to ban fishing near sensitive facilities as part of an ongoing major security upgrade spurred by last year’s attacks on Mumbai by Islamic militants, an official said Thursday.No-fishing zones will be created along 7,500 kilometres (4,650 miles) of designated coastal zones to protect “important” […]
Sri Lanka Mitsubishi agent makes loss
June 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s United Motors Lanka Limited (UMLL) group, agents for Japan’s Mitsubishi lost 90 million rupees in the March 2009 quarter as revenues dropped 13.0 percent to 7.30 billion rupees. For the year to March the firm lost 2.53 million rupees while revenues dropped 13.0 percent to 7.30 billion rupees. […]
On-song Sri Lanka set for Super Eights
NOTTINGHAM, June 11, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka emerged as one of the favoured teams in the World Twenty20 after their clinical destruction of mighty Australia and the West Indies in the first round.