All Blogs
Sri Lanka needs changes to build knowledge economy: World Bank
March 26, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka needs to improve access to broadband communications and the internet and reduce costs to become a ‘knowledge economy’, the World Bank has said. . If not, the country risks creating a ‘digital divide’, a new divide between haves and have-nots, economist Ismail Radwan said in a new study […]
Sri Lanka stocks close higher; windfall for Ceylon Theatres, Cargills stockholders
Mar 25, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks closed higher with the value of two illiquid Ceylon Theatres group firms rising steeply after a record share split which left stockholders richer by 6.6 billion rupees on Tuesday. In bond markets the Central Bank rejected all bids at the auction held to sell 22 month and […]
Stronger Unit
Mar 25, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is wrapping up plans to merge six state-run regional development banks and a draft bill to give legal effect to the merger would be ready by June this year, a finance ministry official said. Ruhunu, Rajarata, Sabaragamuwa, Kandurata, Uva and Wayamba development banks are now run as autonomous […]
Sri Lanka tourist arrivals fall 5.8-pct; UK tops February
March 25, 2008 (LBO) – Foreign visitors to Sri Lanka fell 5.8 percent in February with a steep fall of Indian tourists and UK generating most visitors to the island, data from the tourist promotion office showed. Total arrivals fell to 40,551 from 43,051 in the same month of 2006 with the top generating market […]
Factory Estate
March 25, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hemas Holdings has put on sale its industrial complex in Welisara, a northern suburb of the capital Colombo, where it made consumer products like soap and toothpaste. The move follows the group’s shift of manufacturing to a new location in Dankotuwa, also north of Colombo, to take advantage […]
Cyber Market
March 25, 2008 (LBO) – Greater use of information technology in Sri Lanka’s largely subsistence agriculture sector will help both farmers and consumers alike by reducing costs, a researcher has said. Harsha De Silva, lead economist at LIRNEasia, a think tank, said a system using IT that addresses the information needs from the decision making […]
NTT Communications joins giant trans-Pacific cable
TOKYO, March 25, 2008 (AFP) – Japanese and US telecom giants NTT and AT&T said Tuesday they were joining a next-generation underwater cable project to speed up booming Internet traffic between Asia and North America. The entrance of NTT Communications Corp., a unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, ensures that a branch of the […]
Google push for wireless Internet on unused television spectrum
SAN FRANCISCO, March 24, 2008 (AFP) – Google wants US regulators to sign off on a plan to pack wireless Internet services into “TV white space” left empty as buffer zones between television broadcasting frequencies.Google on Monday sent the Federal Communications Commission its pitch to use TV white space for mobile Internet or telephone services […]
Bear Stearns price hike helps Wall Street extend rally
NEW YORK, March 24, 2008 (AFP) – US stocks powered higher Monday as a sharply higher price announced for the takeover of troubled investment bank Bear Stearns eased concerns about a financial sector meltdown. News of a surprise rebound in existing home sales also brightened the mood on Wall Street, where analysts said sentiment appeared […]
Dollar gains some ground; US home sales pick up
NEW YORK, March 24, 2008 (AFP) – The dollar regained some strength Monday after an industry survey showed a surprise rebound in existing US home sales in February following six straight months of decline.Traders said the better-than-expected sales of existing homes, which rose 2.9 percent to an annual rate of 5.03 million units according to […]