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Beyond Beaches
Surviving through two decades of fluctuating fortunes, tourism is now moving to giddier heights of the big spenders and a niche of expensive boutique hotels. With war fears somewhat allayed, analysts expect an annual 20 percent growth rate for tourism over the next five years if the ceasefire holds.rn rnIn the first year of the […]
Earth Slip
The Government has approached the United Nations in Geneva for US$ 27.5 mn rnin short term relief to rebuild houses and infrastructure damaged in recent floods.rn rnA full scale flood damage assessment is currently underway by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Minister Karu Jayasuriya said Thursday. rn rnldblquote We have already Rs. 100 mn in […]
Quick Time
Sri Lanka Telecom has started rolling out the first phase of its plan to innovative broadband access technologies for residential and business customers. ADSL or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is essentially a continuously open data line to an Internet Service Provider that works over conventional telephone lines.rn rnADSL in addition allows the ability to transfer […]
Peace Rally
Banking stocks stole the market Thursday, with National Development Bank and NDB Bank (NBL) netting 50 percent of the Rs. 457.21 mn in total turnover. Brokers say NBL accounted for 28 percent or 127 mn and NDB 22 percent of total volumes traded.rn rnldblquote Investors are seeing value in NDB stocks even at current levels […]
Building Blocks
Standard concession agreements are being drawn up for the road sector, spelling out the financial, technical and legal A to Zs for potential private developers.rnrn Concession agreements spell out government policy in areas such as how many years a developer operates a project, to government concessions and guidelines on tolling.rn rnldblquote Concession agreements will form […]
Fail Safe
A blueprint for a proposed social security net for retrenched workers has got the Treasury go-ahead, with the changes to be gazetted in two weeks.rn ldblquote The treasury has approved the proposal we put forward and we hope to reach a final decision in two weeks, before we can officially announce it dblquote , Labour […]
Short Circuit
rnRegulators are holding back on a date to auction overseas call access codes due to a lack of interconnection between operators.rnrnPreviously, the auction set for mid May was put off for a June date, again due to interconnection issues and a lack of rules governing the sale. rn rnNow, a draft set of rules are […]
Racing On
The All Share index moved 15 points closer to the psychological 1000 point mark, closing at 969 on Wednesday. Despite the current gloom surrounding the peace process the market has so far moved up 115 points this June, buoyed by the confidence generated at the Tokyo aid meet.rn rnBuying is largely from local institutional and […]
Lease Backed
Cash rich National Savings Bank (NSB) bought up Rs.200 million worth of securitised paper last week, locking its returns for up to five years.rn Ceylease and Peoples Merchant Bank (PMB) issued the lease-backed securities in a bid to finance increased demand for leases and to diversify fund sources.rn rnPeoples Merchant bank also structured and placed […]
Credit Drip
The World Bank Wednesday approved the first tranche of US$ 125 mn in support credit, to shore up the countrys poverty reduction strategy.rnrn The Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC) will build on the framework in the lquote Regaining Sri Lanka vision for accelerated development.rn rnThe support credit comes on the back of government success in […]