Author: lbostgadmin
India closer to opening up $450 bln retail sector
NEW DELHI, July 23, 2011 (AFP) – A top Indian government panel has approved a plan to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country’s vast retail market in what would be one of the country’s biggest economic reforms. “Business confidence will grow. It will definitely benefit the farmers as well as consumers, besides attracting […]
Sri Lanka hotel by China firm to be US$355: minister
July 24, 2011 (LBO) – A Chinese firm which will invest 355 million US dollars in a hotel and shopping complex in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo will help draw more tourists from the fast growing Asian giant, a government minister said. A Chinese defence contractor China Aviation Technology Import-Export Corporation (CATIC) is being sold seven […]
Sri Lanka Vietnam links soar after embassy starts
July 23, 2011 (LBO) – Economic and people-to-people exchanges between Sri Lanka and Vietnam have soared after the establishment of an embassy barely two months ago, Hanoi’s envoy to Colombo Ton Sinh Thanh said. With growing affluence, Vietnamese have started travelling abroad in a big way, with Europe and South East Asia being top destinations. […]
India private carrier Jet Airways slips to Q1 loss
MUMBAI, July 22, 2011 (AFP) – India’s largest private sector airline, Jet Airways, has swung to a quarterly net loss from a profit a year earlier, it reported Friday, as rising fuel costs offset a rise in passenger air traffic. India this week lowered its growth forecast for this financial year to 8.6 percent from […]
Sri Lanka mulls compulsory rubber auctions: minister
July 23, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations industries ministry is exploring the possibility of introducing a compulsory auction system for rubber like the tea industry, plantations industries minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said. “The government has decided to investigate the possibility of having a compulsory auction system like what we have in the tea industry also […]
US panel votes to bar aid to Sri Lanka
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2011 (AFP) – A US congressional committee voted Thursday to ban aid to Sri Lanka unless the nation shows “accountability” over the bloodshed in the final stages of its civil war in 2009. In a voice vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a measure that would ban all US government funding […]
Sri Lanka tea crop steady
July 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea crop is steady at the half-year mark although there was a dip in June, with global tea statistics showing a big shortfall in East Africa while output is up in India, brokers said. The production of low grown teas, which make up over half the crop, was […]
Sri Lanka Aitken Spence hotel reopens as health resort
July 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotels has reopened its oldest hotel after refurbishment, converting it into an ayurveda health resort with solar power panels and plans for a biogas plan using kitchen waste. The 64-room beach front Neptune Hotel on the southern coast has been renamed Heritance Ayurveda Maha Gedara, a […]
Bunker Business
July 22, 2011 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka unit of Indian Oil Corporation has said strong sales of bunker fuel to ships in the last three months of the last financial year helped offset losses in the previous three quarters. Lanka Indian Oil Corp chairman G C Daga said that during the financial year ended […]
Sri Lanka stocks slump almost one-pct
July 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka share prices closed weaker Friday, falling steeply on thin turnover after rising slightly at the opening, and recovering slightly towards the end of trading, brokers said. The main All Share Price Index closed at 6,537.25, down 0.94 percent (61.72 points) while the more liquid Milanka index fell 1. […]
Sri Lanka braces for rupee flood from dollar bond
July 22, 2011 (LBO ) – Sri Lanka’s banking system is braced for a flood of rupees following the sale of a billion dollar bond but Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal says the groundwork to temper a shock, has already been laid. Inter-bank call money rates have also edged up above 8.0 percent in recent […]
Sri Lanka names squad but not skipper
July 20, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Wednesday announced its one-day and T20 squad for Australia’s tour of the island next month, but stopped short of naming a skipper. Tillakaratne Dilshan, who was named captain for the just concluded tour of England, was included in the 20-man squad scheduled to play five ODIs and […]