Category: Industry
Limit Less
May 4 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-owned railway is trying to find money to make urgent repairs to dilapidated tracks, which is forcing trains to run slow. “Trains are getting delayed because of the bad rail track conditions,” General Manager of Railways, K A Pemasiri said. “We need to replace sleepers and carry out urgent […]
Checking Numbers
May 3 (LBO) – A Chinese construction firm selected to design and build the Colombo-Katunayake expressway submitted their financial proposal last week after a two-month delay. A government appointed technical evaluation committee is now going through the proposal and hopes to have their report out as early as next week, secretary to the Highways Ministry, […]
Flying Easy
May 3 (LBO) — A new ticketing system for Sri Lanka that cuts the paper trail between airlines and travel agents took off Wednesday, with Emirates issuing the first tickets. Instead of individual ticket formats issued by airlines, travel agents are given a stock of Standard Traffic Documents (STD) to issue tickets for all airlines […]
Cut Down
May 02 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings revised the outlook on Sri Lanka Telecom’s foreign currency debt to negative from stable, but said the rating of BB- remains unchanged. The revision followed a similar change in the outlook of the Sri Lanka’s sovereign rating. Both Fitch and S & P changed the outlook on Sri Lanka’s […]
Mixed Results
May 02 (LBO) – Indo-Lanka trade talks hit a roadblock last week with dialogue on trade in goods shelved for later this month, though talks on services made headway. “We could not complete the talks on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) as scheduled. We were able to hold discussions on financial services and other […]
Trade Glitch
May 02 (LBO) – A tariff cut of up to 70 percent on imports from India under the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement has been pushed back due to legislative delays. The tariff changes are currently in Parliament and there has been a delay in getting it approved but it is purely a procedural delay, Lal […]
Low Value
May 2 (LBO) — A lower than expected valuation of prime commercial property belonging to Sathosa may delay its sale to a state bank, a top official said.The chief government valuer has assessed the 225 perches property at Union Place at a much lower price than originally expected by the trade ministry, an official said. […]
Asia promises cricket World Cup as “big as football”
NEW DELHI, May 1 (AFP) – Asia’s cricket chiefs celebrated the award of the 2011 World Cup by vowing Monday a spectacular event that will be “as big as the one for football”. A joint bid by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh defeated the rival bid by Australia and New Zealand 10-3 at the […]
Asia to host 2011 cricket World Cup
DUBAI, Apr. 30 (AFP) – Asia have beaten a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand for the right to host the 2011 cricket World Cup.The decision to award the event to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was made by the International Cricket Council’s executive committee meeting here on Sunday. The Asian bid won […]
Iranian Shadow
LONDON, Apr. 28 (AFP) – World oil prices eased Friday on receding worries over US motor oil supplies but held above 70 dollars per barrel on rising tensions over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme. UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei was expected to report that Iran had failed to meet Friday’s deadline to stop enriching uranium, opening […]
Keeping Pace
Apr. 28 (LBO) – SriLankan Airlines Friday said it will raise fuel surcharge on ticket prices by up to 30 dollars from May 5, to partially offset soaring energy costs. The Dubai based carrier has a contract with the Sri Lankan government to run the airline and that expires on March 31, 2008. -Mel Gunasekera […]
‘s Afridi withdraws retirement from Test cricket
KARACHI, April 27, 2006 (AFP) – Pakistani allrounder Shahid Afridi has withdrawn his temporary retirement from Test cricket, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Thursday.Afridi, 26, shocked his team when he announced earlier this month that he was giving up the longer form of the game until after the 2007 World Cup to concentrate […]