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Sri Lanka urged to relax exchange controls
July 11, 2008 (LBO) – A top Sri Lankan businessman whose companies have invested overseas says the government should relax exchange controls to make it easier for local firms to invest abroad, especially India with which trade deals are being struck.“We need a system where the central bank gives us freedom to invest in India […]
Sri Lanka-India trade deal to open investment, services from August
July 11, 2008 (LBO) – The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to be signed between India and Sri Lanka in August will allow professionals to work in either country but with safeguards to meet local concerns, economists said.The CEPA deal will make it easier for Sri Lankan companies to invest in India in areas like […]
Freight Fracas
July 10, 2008 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council (SLSC) says their dispute with foreign shipping lines over a handling charge at Colombo port remains unresolved despite repeated protests and court action. The dispute between Sri Lankan exporters and foreign shipping lines has moved into mediation mode, on a supreme court directive, and a […]
Tech Centre
July 10, 2008 (LBO) – India’s Reliance Communications has joined with Sri Lanka’s PC House (PCH) and its subsidiary Greenwich Lanka to maintain and develop off-shore internet data centers (IDCs).Reliance hopes to use the island as a hub for its marketing activities and as an overseas development center, the companies said in a statement. The […]
Crowd-powered NowPublic news site buys rumor website
SAN FRANCISCO, July 10, 2008 (AFP) – Virtual news-gathering website NowPublic said Thursday it has bought rumor-backing Truemors to go beyond eye witness accounts to exposing developments “bubbling under the hood.” The deal, for an undisclosed amount, expands the news coverage of the Vancouver-based NowPublic, which delivers news and events recorded by eyewitnesses using their […]
Indian traders down shutters to protest at retail giants
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, July 10, 2008 (AFP) – Traders in India’s southern Kerala state shut up shop on Thursday in a show of opposition to the entry of retail giants into the area.The president of the Kerala Merchants and Traders Coordination Committee, the largest body of traders in the communist-ruled state, said the strike was “total.” “Around […]
Oil prices calm after US$10 slump
NEW YORK, July 9, 2008 (AFP) – Oil prices held steady Wednesday after two days of sharp declines, as news that Iran tested a long-range missile capable of hitting Israel pushed up prices temporarily. The market shook off news of another slump in US oil inventories and also digested a pledge by the Group of […]
US refueling tanker contract to go up for new bid
WASHINGTON, July 9, 2008 (AFP) – The Pentagon Wednesday reopened a 35-billion-dollar contract to produce a new generation of air refueling aircraft, acknowledging flaws in an earlier air force decision to award it to Northrop Grumman.In an embarrassing about-face, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Northrop Grumman and rival Boeing would be asked to submit […]
Sri Lanka western province economic dominance slips
July 10, 2008 (LBO) – The dominance of Sri Lanka’s Western province which housed the capital Colombo, in the country’s economic activity has fallen below 50 percent in 2007, the island’s central bank said.Using gross domestic product (GDP) data compiled by the government’s statistics office, Sri Lanka’s central bank said the share of Western province […]
Sri Lanka strike forces minister, state workers, to boost productivity
July 10, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s post minister, one of a coterie of 108 ministers in the island, said he had personally got the postal service moving during a one-day token strike, while the head of an over-staffed state enterprise wished for strikes every day. There has been no general strike in the island […]