Author: lbostgadmin
South Asian governments urged to ease visa restrictions
Mar 03, 2010 (LBO) – Reducing visa restrictions and non-tariff barriers, and improving customs procedures are among a host of steps South Asian countries can take to boost private sector-led growth, the Asian Development Bank said. The report also highlights the need for South Asia to remove barriers to intra-regional investment, and to promote cross […]
Joint Action
Mar 03, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will host the 46th conference of governors of South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) and 30th meeting of the SEACEN Board of Governors in February 2011, the Central bank said. It said in a statement that at the last meeting held in February 2010 in Cambodia, governors discussed […]
Offshore Prospects
Mar 03, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard, a listed ship builder, said it will deliver six vessels this year and will focus more on offshore work with the search for oil off the island’s north-west coast. More than half the yard’s business comes from India. Nakauchi also said exploration for oil and gas […]
Sri Lankan stocks close 1.22-pct down
Mar 03, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks closed down Wednesday as retail investors took profits ahead of the general elections, while institutional investors took strategic stakes in high valued companies, brokers said. The All Share Price Index closed at 3,774.03, down 46.63 points while the Milanka index of more liquid shares fell 1.61 percent […]
Sri Lanka Treasuries yields up, amid monetization
Mar 03, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s 3-month Treasury bill yields moved up 12 basis points to 8. 38 percent at Wednesday’s auction, but only a part of maturing bills was sold to real buyers, the government’s debt office said. By the first week of February the central bank’s Treasury bill stock had climbed to […]
Sri Lanka think tank highlights regional market prospects
March 02, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan exporters have a virtually untapped opportunity in south Asia’s huge market that could compensate for difficulties in accessing traditional Western markets, a new study has said. “For Sri Lanka, south Asia is increasingly becoming important as a trading partner,” said Saman Kelegama, director of the Institute of Policy […]
Sri Lanka overall budget deficit nears 10.3-pct of GDP in 2009
Mar 02, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s budget deficit for 2009 has exceeded 10.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), with a planned 7.0 percent deficit derailed by weak revenues and sharply higher expenditure, a finance ministry report said. The pre-election fiscal report said the revenue deficit (the gap between total revenues and current expenditure) […]
Sri Lanka plans 8-pct budget deficit for 2010: fiscal report
Mar 02, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is planning a budget with a deficit of about eight percent of gross domestic product for 2010, a finance ministry report said, after provisional data said the 2009 gap has increased to over ten percent of the economy. In 2009 the government hoped to run a deficit of […]
‘s murder
March 2, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police are to question dozens of military intelligence officers in connection with the internationally condemned assassination of a senior editor, a spokesman said Tuesday. Investigations into the January 2009 slaying of Lasantha Wickrematunga, chief editor of the anti-establishment Sunday Leader, had led them to military personnel, said police […]
Sri Lanka extends emergency rule ahead of vote
March 2, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has used his executive powers to extend a state of emergency that gives sweeping authority to police and troops ahead of next month’s parliamentary polls, an official said Tuesday. The president on Monday night signed a proclamation extending the tough laws by a further month, an official […]
Warm winters distress reindeer herders in Russian Arctic
LOVOZERO, March 2, 2010 (AFP) – In a billowing cloud of white, Russia’s Arctic herders drive thousands of panting and wild-eyed reindeer through the knee-deep snow to the first slaughter this year. But warm winters in recent years have forced herders here in the far northern Kola Peninsula to delay for months the rounding up […]
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March 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should not be given a “blank cheque” to revive its war-torn economy unless the political problem that generated the conflict is settled, an international non-governmental advocacy body has said. The ICG said donor governments and the UN should tie their aid to an end to impunity for human […]