Category: General Services

July 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s United Motors Lanka Limited has put off plans to diversify into big property developments as the market for high-rise space seems to be slowing, officials said. UML Property Development’s profits were tax free for a period of seven years and now are taxed at a concessionary rate. The […]

July 11, 2007 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan clothing technology school is launching a degree course in fashion and merchandising in a tie-up with Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), and is also planning to offer a Masters program from next year. The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, began in 1887 as the ˜Working […]

July 10, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s exporters have warned that delays in tax refunds and disbursements of export cess were hurting overseas marketing efforts and driving some businesses near bankruptcy. Delays experienced by exporters in getting value added tax (VAT) refunds is a “burning question,” said Mohan Mendis, the outgoing chairman of the Exporters’ […]

July 9, 2007 (LBO) – The United States has given Sri Lanka protective gear, test and decontamination kits to combat an outbreak of bird flu, the US embassy in Colombo said.Sri Lanka government’s Department of Animal Production and Health had received 4,500 suits of personal protection equipment, 1,500 rapid test kits, and 40 decontamination kits […]

July 07, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s television industry aimed at English speakers have sought relief after a penal tax brought by Sinhala teledrama artistes threatened to put them out of business, officials said. The government had collected 160 million rupees and the money has been put in treasury bills Yapa said while a decision […]

July 05, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s construction industry has successfully lobbied the government to defer the liberalisation of construction and related services under a free trade deal with India, an official said. The industry is not wholly against the idea of liberalising services but wants to protect local players until they are ready to […]

July 04, 2007 (LBO) – Aviva, one of the world’s biggest insurance firms, has hired over 300 Sri Lankan accounting and finance professionals into its business process outsourcing unit in Colombo. The professionals were trained on a build and transfer contract between Aviva Global Services (AGS) and Sri Lanka’s WNS, a third-party service provider for […]

July 04 (LBO) – Lengthy delays in automating Sri Lanka’s cargo clearing system were hurting the island’s chances of becoming a trading hub and making trading inefficient, a top freight forwarder said. “The automation of Sri Lanka’s cargo clearing system has not happened yet although it has been talked about for about five years,” said […]

July 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s freight forwarders are seeking new rules to improve standards in the trade after winning a court order that quashed a set of regulations proposed by government. “We did not see much policing in the proposed law,” Kadawatharatchie said. “There’s a need to punish rule breakers.” Niral Kadawatharatchie, chairman […]

July 03, 2007 (LBO) – Aitken Spence, one of Sri Lanka’s conglomerates with interests in several areas of the shipping industry, wants to develop a new business in managing ports abroad. The company already has a deal with South Africa’s Durban Port under which is sent 125 skilled Sri Lankans to provide training and port […]

July 2, 2007 (LBO) – Manique Gunaratne, a visually impaired Sri Lankan professional, has a simple poem that she recites to highlight the hopes of people like her. “It takes the summer, sun and the rain, to make a garden grow It takes the moon and twinkling stars, to make the heavens grow It takes […]

June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan exporters are being squeezed as fewer container ships heading west call into Colombo, with global shipping lines moving more business to India and its booming economy. Both projects have been delayed for over a decade because of poor government policy and analysts fear that further delays could see […]