Author: lbostgadmin
Online Tribute
Sept 22, 2011 (LBO) – Ray Wijewardene, a Sri Lankan aviator and tropical agriculture specialist is being remembered online at www.raywijewardene.net, led by volunteers who want to preserve his legacy. Though a scientist and inventor he was best known publicly for his enthusiasm for aviation and flying small aircraft he had built himself. While in […]
Sri Lanka manufactures lobby to curb rubber farmer trade access
Sept 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan rubber products manufacturers are lobbying to double an export cess on raw rubber exports as prices remain high amid strong demand and tight local supply. Manufacturers want the export cess, that had been raised to 12 rupees a kilo only earlier this year, doubled to 24 rupees, according […]
Galle literary festival in Sri Lanka gears up for 2012
Sept 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Galle literary festival is notching up writers and sponsors for 2012 but it would remain ‘intimate’ giving audiences an opportunity to engage more closely with writers, organizers said. The festival started in 2007 amidst a three decade old war which ended two years later. The festival has since […]
Big Ticket
Sept 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank is positioning itself to push ‘big ticket’ deals in global markets partnering with Singapore’s DBS Bank as the end of a war bring new investment opportunities, officials said. NDB Bank group chief executive said Russell de Mel said an investment banking partnership with Singapore’s DBS […]
Box Terminal
Sept 22, 2011 (LBO) – A Sino-Lanka consortium that is to build a container terminal in Colombo’s new deep-water South Port has signed a deal with Sri Lanka’s investment promotion agency entitling it for tax breaks. Building of the 500 million US dollar terminal by the consortium consisting of China Merchants Holdings, Sri Lanka’s Aitken […]
Sri Lanka stocks extend losses, rupee weaker
Sept 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks closed 0.4 percent lower, while the rupee ended at 110.30/35 to the US dollar after an intervention rate was dropped 10 cents, brokers and dealers said. Dialog Axiata closed flat at 8.50 and Sri Lanka Telecom closed at 48.00 In forex markets the rupee closed at 110.29/30 […]
IMF warns global economy in danger zone
WASHINGTON, September 20, 2011 (AFP) – The global economy has entered “a dangerous new phase,” with a recovery that is much weaker than was predicted just months ago, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. Emerging market economies that have been the recovery’s driving force, such as China and India, will not escape unscathed from the […]
India says poverty begins below 50 cents a day
NEW DELHI, September 21, 2011 (AFP) – India’s economic planning body has said any villager earning more than 50 cents a day is not poor and should not qualify for government welfare — a figure condemned by experts. Those with a daily income of 25 rupees (50 cents) in villages and 32 rupees (65 cents) […]
NASA bus-sized satellite to crash-land this week
WASHINGTON, September 21, 2011 (AFP) – What goes up must come down. But where? That’s the big question when it comes to a 20-year-old NASA satellite the size of a tour bus which is careening toward Earth and set to crash-land later this week. The US Department of Defense and NASA are tracking the six-ton […]
Bank Link
Sept 21, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank said it was in talks with DBS of Singapore to strengthen its investment banking operations. NDB said a memorandum of understanding with DBS will e signed today. DBS started in 1968 as the Development Bank of Singapore but is now a financial services group with […]
Asset Quality
Sept 21, 2011 (LBO) – RAM Ratings Lanka has confirmed Sampath Bank’s long- and short-term financial institution ratings at AA and P1 with the long-term rating carrying a stable outlook. We also derive comfort from the Bank’s healthy internal capital-generation rate of 20.38% as at end-Dec 2010, which stands the best among its similar-rated peers. […]
Box Movements
Sept 21, 2011 (LBO) – Container cargo volumes at Sri Lanka’s Colombo port fell in July although still higher so far this year compared with the same period in 2010, with a noticeable downturn in transhipment traffic. The total number of containers fell 2. 6 percent in July 2011 to 354,054 TEUs (twenty-foot foot equivalent […]