Category: Economy
Sri Lanka to develop labour, attract workers overseas: PM
Aug 12, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that it is time for a new human resource policy to go hand in hand with the economic development plan which will be outlined soon. “Skilled human capital is essential to harness the key advantages of Sri Lanka like the strategic geographic location, […]
Sri Lanka gets USD128mn ADB loan for water and waste water management
Aug 11, 2016 (LBO) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will give a 128 million US dollar loan for a greater Colombo water and wastewater management improvement investment program to assist achieve providing safe water and full sanitation coverage. “The investment program will improve Colombo city dwellers’ quality of life and will cater to the […]
Sri Lanka expects USD671mn BOP surplus for 2016: Finance Minister
Aug 11, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake told Parliament Thursday that the government expects 671 million US dollars worth surplus in the overall balance of payment account for 2016. Karunanayake said the government forecasts around 11,374 million US dollars of foreign exchange earnings and 10,703 million US dollars foreign exchange payments […]
Sri Lanka adopts Swiss procedure to handle unsolicited proposals
Aug 11, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s cabinet on Tuesday decided to include the “Swiss challenge” procedure in the government procurement guidelines to be followed on unsolicited proposals. A Swiss challenge is a form of public procurement which requires an authority which has received an unsolicited bid to publish the bid and invite third parties […]
Sri Lanka cabinet approves Special Deposit Account Act for foreign nationals
Aug 10, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s cabinet has decided to approve the Special Deposits Account Act to grant residency visas for foreign individuals who bring a large amount of foreign exchange into the country, a statement on cabinet decisions said. “Under the proposed act individual who remits 300,000 US dollars will be granted 10 […]
Sri Lanka Supreme Court blocks bill raising VAT
Aug 09, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered parliament to stop considering a bill to raise value-added tax (VAT) because the drafting of the proposed legislation had not followed due process, the assembly speaker said on Tuesday. The failure to raise the tax could put in jeopardy the government’s ambitious fiscal consolidation […]
Sri Lanka exports fell 12-pct in May; trade gap widens 16-pct
Aug 09, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s exports fell 12 percent to 776.3 million US dollars in May 2016, while imports rose 0.3 percent to 1,589.8 million US dollars from a year earlier, official data showed. The trade gap has widened 15.7 percent to 813.5 million US dollars from a year earlier. The subdued performance […]
COPE presents interim report; bond report in two weeks
Aug 09, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises has presented its summarized interim report for the first 3 months of this year in Parliament on Tuesday. Chairman of COPE, Parliamentarian Sunil Handunnetti said the report contains progress of 19 Public Enterprises and covers the period of January 26 to April 08 […]
Sri Lanka foreign reserves at USD6.5bn by end July: Central Bank
Aug 05, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s official reserves were 6.48 billion US dollars at the end of July, up from 5.27 billion US dollars end of June, official Central Bank data showed. Foreign currency reserves were 5.45 billion dollars, and reserves in Gold were 0.96 billion dollars. Reserves were boosted by a dual-tranche sovereign bond […]
ETCA first round of negotiations starts soon: Indian High Commissioner
Aug 04, 2016 (LBO) – India’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Y. K. Sinha says that the first round of negotiations on the Indo-Sri Lanka Economic and Technology Cooperation Framework Agreement (ETCA) will start shortly. Speaking at the eighth AGM of the Indo Lanka Chamber of Commerce, the High Commissioner reassured that India was aware […]
Sri Lanka forging ahead with reforms for intra-Asia trade : PM
Aug 03, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says the Unity Government action plan is to introduce a large database of products and large-scale economic reforms for infrastructure with the hope of becoming the economic hub of the Indian Ocean. He said the government is now going ahead with plans to ensure […]
‘s private sector being too risk averse: Finance Minister
Aug 03, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s private sector is being too risk averse and now is the time to come forward with proposals, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said. He was speaking at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2016 organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. “We have to take greater risk than what we […]