Category: Industry
Seamless Solutions
September 26, 2006 (LBO) – Cisco Systems, the world’s leading supplier of network equipment and solutions, hopes to double its sales in Sri Lanka as local banks and telcos keep pace with IT trends. Having earlier serviced Sri Lanka as an extension of its Indian operation, Cisco now has a fully fledged office here, after […]
Oil Slump
SINGAPORE, Sept 25, 2006 (AFP) – Oil prices fell back below 60 dollars in Asian trade Monday to their lowest level in six months, before regaining some ground, partly on easing concerns over Iran’s nuclear program, dealers said. At 2:40 pm (0640 GMT) New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, was down […]
Sri Lankan sprinter denies dope charge
COLOMBO, Sept 25, 2006 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan woman sprinter denied Monday taking performance enhancing drugs during the South Asian Games in Colombo last month, investigators said. If proved guilty, Silva would lose both her 4×100 metres relay gold medal and the 100metres silver. Sri Lankan officials had earlier said that athletes from Pakistan, […]
Trade Discounts
Sept 25 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has slashed tariffs by up to 70 percent on top imports like cement imported duty free from India, under a trade deal with the neighbouring country. Sri Lanka™s bilateral trade deal with India allows for a phasing out of tariffs over an eight year period, for goods that are […]
Creative Fusion
Sept 25 (LBO) – Sri Lankan song writers and other artistes are hoping a new licensing and royalty scheme being drawn up will help protect their creative work and prop up earnings. Local artistes have banded together to form ˜collective societies™, on the lines of similar groups in the United Kingdom, to represent the rights […]
Safe Funds
LONDON, Sept 24, 2006 (AFP) – Islamic finance is soaring around the world owing to an influx of petro-dollars from the Middle East and growing demand by investors, both Muslim and non-Muslim, according to analysts. The Islamic finance sector, compatible with Sharia law based on the Koran, is now worth between 300 and 500 billion […]
In-Shoring
Sept 22 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan telecom firm shifted its call centre out of the capital to a lower-cost central region of the island, in a trendsetting move that other firms could follow to their advantage. Suntel, unit of Sweden’s Telia which runs a wireless fixed network in the island, shifted its customer service […]
Lucky Strike
Sept 22 (LBO) –Savers in Sri Lanka, who are losing money because of negative real interest rates in the country, stand to recoup their losses if they get lucky in a lottery that has now become a standard feature of bank deposits. The country’s largest private bank, Hatton National Bank is offering a Mercedes Benz […]
Self Service
Sept 22 (LBO) – Some Sri Lankan banks that are shifting traffic off its counters and to self service channels like teller machines and home banking, are doing better than other South Asian countries. Sri Lanka became the eleventh country in the world to accept bulk cash deposits in large denominations, which are instantly credited […]
Four South Asian nations, including Sri Lanka, accused of doping offences
COLOMBO, Sept 21, 2006 (AFP) – Athletes from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal tested positive for banned substances at last month’s South Asian Games here, an official said on Thursday. “We have sent the preliminary investigation reports to the four countries and are awaiting their response”, Sri Lanka’s National Olympic Committee president Hemasiri Fernando […]
Trade Fiasco
Sept 21 (LBO) – Another round of Indo-Lanka trade talks ended this week, with no firm agreement on resuming controversial duty free exports of vanaspati oil from Sri Lanka to India. The Vanaspati Association of Sri Lanka says however that they have been kept in the dark about talks. Vanaspati is a hydrogenated vegetable oil […]
Talk Cheap
Sept 20 (LBO) – Payphone operator Tritel Services Limited said Wednesday it would slash outgoing call charges by 33 percent, expanding reach into rural markets. œOur priority focus is on rural communities as well as the less affluent urban community who find fixed telephony and mobile services too expensive and out of their reach, Ananth […]