Category: Economy and Markets

July 24, 2007 (LBO) – A Chinese trade and investment delegation is visiting Sri Lanka and is especially keen on doing business in the construction sector, Board of Investment officials said Tuesday. The team, from the China Council for the Promotion of Investment (CCPIT) in Shanghai, held talks with Investment Promotion Minister Sarath Amunugama and […]

July 23, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has warned of higher inflation in July as authorities started to apply brakes on rising interest rates by expanding domestic assets of the banking system. Analysts say the reserve outflow, which is believed to be fiscally induced, picked up pace further in early July. Sri Lanka’s […]

July 20, 2007 (AFP) – Japan said Friday it was giving 3.2 million dollars to clear land mines in Sri Lanka even as government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels stepped up attacks against each other. The money will go to five international mine clearing charities and help civilians to go back to their homes in […]

July 20, 2007 (LBO) – Tiny homesteads, tea gardens on hillocks nestled above rain fed paddyfields lining the roads, are typical of the rural village of Omantha, where its poor inhabitants depend on agriculture for a living. . The village, in the Kalutara district, is just 50 kilometers of Sri Lanka’s commercial capital Colombo and […]

July 20 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and India has recognized each other’s professional standards, organizations senior official negotiating a wide-ranging trade and services agreement with India said. “We have almost finalized the text of the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA),” Manel de Silva, Director-General of Commerce of the Commerce Department, told LBO in an interview. […]

July 19, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Thursday promised to wage an economic war to revive eastern areas of the country recently re-taken from the Tamil Tigers. “Economic freedom is as important as freeing territory,” the President said as the government held a televised ceremony to mark the fall of the last […]

July 16, 2007 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan government said Monday it would seek foreign aid to rebuild a key province recently wrested from the Tamil Tiger rebels after months of fighting.The rebels have admitted losing control of Thoppigala, formerly a key stronghold, but said they would revert to guerrilla tactics there. Donors would be […]

July 15, 2007 (LBO) – Thirty years after Sri Lanka started to open its economy, a poll by an influential weekly has shown overwhelming approval for liberalization, with some saying reforms were not deep enough in areas like education. Respondents to the Sunday Times poll said while private sector workers had to work long hours […]

July 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Labour Ministry has sought the help of the International Labour Organization to do a survey to find out if the country’s agriculture sector uses child labour. They are today the most vulnerable of the farming and fishing communities and their rights to a decent and dignified childhood free […]

June 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2007 fell to 6.2 percent, its lowest ever rate, from 6.8 percent in the same 2006 quarter, continuing the steady declining trend seen in recent years, the Central Bank said. The total number unemployed was estimated as 462,000 for the first […]

July 13, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka announced Friday it would mark the fall of the last Tamil rebel bastion in the east of the island with the launch of an ambitious reconstruction plan. Sri Lanka’s 35-year-old conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives, and over 5,200 people have been killed in fighting in the […]