Over The Sahara

Indias Sahara Air flew in its first paid-passenger-flight to Colombo on Monday taking Sri Lanka a step closer to the coveted regional tourism hub status.ldblquote Your government has realised that tourism is the main industry for Sri Lanka and has opened the skies, dblquote said CEO Sahara Airlines Ltd, Uttam Kumaar Bose, at a press […]

Bad Luck

The Mahapola Trust Fund and GTECH filed a counter case in courts Tuesday to fight a fundamental rights petition against the launch of its online lottery. The case is due to be taken up on March 25.The Development Lotteries Board (DLB) got an interim injunction on Monday from the Supreme Court preventing Mahapola from launching […]

Checkmate

Moves by DFCC Bank to invest in National Wealth Corp. were put on hold following defamatory reports by the state media on Tuesday.NatWealth, which is a fully owned subsidiary of the Mahapola Trust Fund, has denied allegations of misappropriation of funds.rn rnState news reports alleged that Rs. 3.16 bn in Mahapola Funds were illegally transferred […]

Socially Accountable

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) – the countrys auditing standard setting body – is trying to lift the countrys accounting standards a notch higher by embedding Social Responsibility Reporting (SRR) into annual financial reporting.As it is Sri Lanka has one of the strongest legal infrastructure in place when it comes to […]

Maximum Credit

Standard Chartered will leverage Commercial Banks nationwide branch network to sustain growth in its credit card business. rnrnThe deal will allow Standard Chartered credit card holders to pay into over 117 Commercial Bank branches along with nine of its own branches. rn rnCredit Card holders with Commercial Bank accounts can also use the Comserv internet […]

Travel Allowance

Travel exchange specialist Travelex will scale up operation in Sri Lanka to tap into the potential of the peace fueled growth in tourism.Sri Lanka is part of the firms strategy along with entering the Indian market in Nov.2003, to tap into the US$ 1.5bn travel market in South Asia.rn rnTravelex, a company that caters to […]

Overseas Banking

Sri Lanka Export Credit Insurance Corporation (SLECIC) is in talks with a Russian bank, to promote financing of Russian importers of local goods. The company has identified importers of goods from Sri Lanka as an opportunity segment and has started off in that direction with a Russian bank to finance importers of Sri Lankan products […]

Changing Heads

Hatton National Bank has appointed Rienzie Wijetilleke as new Chairman of the Bank. Wijetilleke will continue as Managing Director.The post fell vacant after former Chairman Chrisantha Cooray passed away recently.rnrn

Calling Colombo

The HSBC Group on Friday finalized plans to pump in US$ 25 mn to set up its seventh group service centre in Sri Lanka, generating over 2000 jobs. The call centre will be the largest such project in the country taking Sri Lanka into the big leagues of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).rn rnThe project is […]

Sugar Free

The UNF threatened to reduce import duties on commodities, starting with sugar, if local traders start hoarding goods to increase prices. rnThe import duty on sugar was reduced with immediate effect on Friday to control a surge in sugar prices in the local market.rn rnThe price of a kilogram of sugar went up from Rs […]

Redialing

The telecom watchdog is taking a second look at the controversial Caller Party Pays (CPP) tariffs, this time taking account of its implications to phone subscribers and bulk users.The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) has opted for this route, as public responses flood in since a March 1 implementation date was pushed back.rn rnThe review will […]

Seeing Red

The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is marrying its past with the present, to give the party its first significant political victory next month.ldblquote We did not take part in active politics for 34 years. We watched and we saw what was happening.Things were getting so bad, we decided to return to support the JVP […]

Page 3215 of 3380