Category: Industry
Fresh Face
Dec 05, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Postal Department is expanding its high value stamp range with a 200 rupee issue later this year and is also seeking public views to issue personalised stamps for private entities. Stamp values currently vary from 50 cents and to 1,000 rupees. “For persons or companies who want commemorative […]
New Business
January 05, 2007 (LBO) – The long-awaited restarting of Pramuka Bank as the Sri Lanka Savings Bank will get underway soon, with the new entity due to begin banking operations in January. The new bank will be the second fully government owned savings bank after National Savings Bank, which was established in 1972. At the […]
Cheap Deals
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5, 2007 (AFP) – AirAsia X, a new long-haul, low-cost carrier, will take off in July with flights to Britain for as little as 9.99 ringgit (2.84 dollars), Malaysian aviation tycoon Tony Fernandes said Friday. AirAsia X will service other destinations in Europe as well as China and India, said Fernandes, the […]
Little Choice
January 05, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s clothing exporters are protesting against shipping lines’ decision to increase fees for handling goods out of the island by as much as 35 percent. Starting January 1, the Terminal Handling Charge or THC for a 20 foot container goes up from 115 dollars to 155 dollars, while 40 […]
Costly Ride
January 4, 2007 (LBO) – Gasoline prices in Sri Lanka will go up by 5-percent, to keep pace with rising world oil prices that are currently hugging the 60 dollars a barrel mark, the government said Thursday. A net oil importer, Sri Lanka’s fuel bill climbed up to around to 2.2 billion dollars last year, […]
Automated Shares
Jan 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Millennium Information Technologies says they have designed an implemented an automatic stock trading system for the Tanzanian Stock Exchange within a record two months. The new Automated Trading System and the Central Depository System (CDS) moved the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange’s (DSEs) trading from an open outcry […]
Thin Frames
SYDNEY, Jan 4, 2007 (AFP) – Asian airlines will likely reap reduced profits in 2007 as increased competition offsets gains in passenger and freight traffic, a global aviation body said Thursday. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicted that the sector would see total profits for Asia plummet from around 1.7 billion US dollars in […]
Tech Unsavvy
Jan 03, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s ministry of education says more than 60 percent of the teachers in Sri Lanka lack computer and English literacy skills that are needed in a modern teaching environment. The Ministry of Education says a new government survey shows that only a third of the teachers or (32.5 percent) […]
Early Warning
January 2, 2007 (LBO) – Gasoline prices are likely to go up by 5-percent in Sri Lanka, the state-run fuel retailer warned Tuesday, as global oil prices hit 60 dollars a barrel. Petrol at the pump now costs 92.00 rupees a litre, and Ceylon Petroleum Corp. Chairman Asantha de Mel said they are looking at […]
Wide Berth
January 2, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has lifted the minimum capital requirements of money changers by fivefold to 600,000 dollars with immediate effect, the bank’s governor said Tuesday. In July 2005, the bank raised the minimum capital limit by 900 percent to 120,000 dollars and allowed around 60 registered money changers to […]
Long Arm
January 01, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Janashakthi Group is set to take control of privately held financial service group First Capital, officials said Monday. “We have an agreement First Capital’s major shareholder Singer, to take control of First Capital. The actual price and percentage of shares will be announced in due course,” Janashakthi Group […]
Fresh Slate
December 30 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka government has agreed to offload half the 60 billion-rupee long-term debt of the Ceylon Electricity Board from January and re-schedule the balance to be paid after five years. The CEB sells about seven billion units of electricity each year, with households using up 2550 million units with an […]