Category: Industry
Safety Net
November 17, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka said Thursday they were exploring the possibility of setting up a 40 million dollar government guaranteed fund with World Bank assistance, to encourage private investment in the war torn north and east, officials said. Mooted under the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency or MIGA arm of the World Bank, […]
Last Stage
Nov 16, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) is to sell a 226 perch land which National Savings Bank has already paid in 500 million rupees in advance, to settle loans worth 5.1 billion rupees to the banks. Last year, commerce minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle said the ministry was hoping to sell 226 […]
Grid Failure
Nov 15 (LBO) – Sri Lanka was blacked out for nearly two hours Wednesday as the national grid shut down during the even peak demand hour.Power failed in most parts of the island except areas like Jaffna which is isolated from the national grid and Trincomalee in the east, residents said.Power failed shortly after 7.30 […]
Disk Doctor
Nov 15, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Government and the ICT Agency will launch an emergency response unit next month to counter threats and vulnerabilities affecting computer systems and networks, officials said Wednesday. The response unit CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) will be a source of expertise to assist member organizations in responding to and […]
History Lessons
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 13, 2006 (AFP) – Google added historic map overlays to its free interactive online globe of the world on Monday to provide views of how places have changed with time.Google Earth engineers digitized one of the largest US map collections and integrated the information into its program, which lets users virtually navigate […]
Steady Pace
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – Hatton National Bank Ltd, Sri Lanka’s second biggest privately owned lender by assets, Tuesday said group net profits rose to 580.60 million rupees for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 35 percent reported in the same period 2005. Hatton National Bank, which is active in leasing, corporate finance, […]
Banking Online
Nov 14, 2006 (LBO) – Bank of Ceylon (BoC), Sri Lanka’s biggest lender in terms of assets, plans to finish linking up all its branches within the next few days, allowing customers to carry out their banking needs by using the Internet, officials said Tuesday. “We have 302 local branches and 248 of those branches […]
Sliding
November 14, 2006 (LBO) – High taxes have hit profits of DFCC on the September quarter but six months profits are still higher than the previous year.After tax profits of DFCC group after minority interest fell to 395 million rupees for the latest quarter down from 451 million for the same period last year. At […]
On Tap
Nov 13, 2006 (LBO) – Increasingly wealthy countries tend to have better access to water and sanitation, but some countries like Sri Lanka do far better despite lower incomes, a new report on human development, shows. This is well below Australia ranked number one with 113.2 percent but close to Niger ranked last at 172 […]
The Drift
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 9, 2006 (AFP) – A Helio mobile telephone service launched in the United States on Thursday lets users track friends and plot routes using satellite-mapping technology. Helio’s Drift model telephone, custom-built by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, has a “Buddy Beacon” feature that maps the whereabouts of as many as 25 selected people […]
Dialling Up
November 10, 2006 (LBO) – Telecom operator Suntel, a unit of Sweden’s Overseas Telecom AB, plans to spend 3.5 billion rupees next year to expand its network, officials said Friday. Suntel’s other key shareholders includes: Metrocorp (Pvt) Ltd., Townsend Limited of Hong Kong, the NDB Bank, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – a member […]
Sri Lanka reports 12% drop in tourist in Oct; lowest monthly decline since Dec. ˜05
November 10, 2006 (LBO) – Holidaymakers to Sri Lanka fell 12.0 percent for the 12 months to October, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board said Friday, amidst soaring violence in the North and East. Sri Lanka greeted 38,815 visitors in October, the largest monthly decline since December 2005, as government troops and Tamil Tigers stepped up […]