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Sri Lanka starts selling sovereign bond
Oct 08, 2007, (LBO) – Sri Lanka is starting road shows in a number of financial centres to sell its maiden sovereign bond with teams from the finance ministry and central bank already having left the island, officials said. The government said in July that the it was hoping to raise 500 million dollars through […]
Fitch gives Sri Lanka sovereign bond BB- rating; warns against bad budgets and war
Oct 08, 2007 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has given a speculative BB- rating for Sri Lanka’s upcoming sovereign bond but warned that a worsening conflict could cause a credit downgrade and called for lower inflation and better budgets. “Steering inflation back down to single digits will be essential for sustaining strong economic growth and containing […]
” bond: Fitch
Oct 08, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s opposition United National Party is not expected to “willfully default” a proposed 500 million dollar sovereign bond if the party comes power in the future, Fitch Ratings has said. The 500 million dollar proposed bond ran into controversy after UNP leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said […]
Expensive Road
Oct 08, 2007 (LBO) – A new elevated highway connecting Colombo’s Fort areas with Malabe, a fast developing suburb will cost nearly 40 billion rupees, a Malaysian firm that is charged with studying its feasibility has said. Meanwhile a senior Sri Lankan official said the priority now was to push through a light rail project […]
” in tourism promotion
Oct 08, 2007 (LBO) – French travel agents are visiting Sri Lanka on a tourism promotion which includes what’s billed as a treasure hunt where they search for clues and discover the island’s hidden charms, the Tourist Board said Monday. Sri Lanka received 559,603 visitors the whole of last year. The visit by over 40 […]
Sri Lanka tea exports fall but earnings rise
Oct 08, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea exports up to August this year were sharply lower than in the same 2006 period but export earnings were higher, a tea broker said. The island exported a total of 200.8 million kg of tea in January-August 2007, 15 percent lower than the 218.1 million kg shipped […]
Church protest at Philippines condom plan
MANILA, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) – A proposal by the Philippine parliament to spend 22 million dollars buying condoms and birth control pills has been condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, it was reported Monday.The president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, told the Manila Standard Today that the money […]
‘s dysfunctional communications family
Oct 08, 2007 (LBO) – It’s a strange question. It has always been Posts AND Telecom, even back in the bad old days when it was an inconsequential Ministry given to a junior/marginal Minister. It has been one of the few constants in the ever-changing kaleidoscope of Ministry nomenclature. But it is a choice. A choice, […]
Sri Lankan military forces journalists out of Jaffna
COLOMBO, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military has forced three people making a documentary about the decades-long Tamil separatist conflict to leave the embattled northern Jaffna peninsula, a media rights group said Monday.The team from Quick Silver Media was forced to leave last week despite having prior permission from defence authorities in the […]
Sri Lanka accused of stage-managing UN rights mission
Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) – The head of a prominent Sri Lankan human rights group on Monday accused the island’s government of seeking to “stage-manage” a visit by a top United Nations official.Minority Tamil legislator Mano Ganeshan said Colombo was tightly controlling the five-day visit of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, […]