Category: Industry
Shock Absorber
Sept 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will increase minimum capital requirements of banks to increase their resilience to shocks and also require unlisted private banks to list on the Colombo bourse, the Central Bank said. This was to meet “the need for enhancing the ability of banks to raise additional capital in a more […]
Easier Access
Sept 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Customs department has doubled the number of gates at Colombo port to four to ease congestion and speed up the flow of cargo, a Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) official said. Truckers have had to wait for lengthy periods to move in and out of the port because […]
Sri Lanka resort operators in Maldives seen facing more competition
Sept 06, 2010 (LBO) – Tourists arrivals to the Maldives, where two Sri Lankan conglomerates own or operate resorts, are recovering from recession but construction of more hotels is seen hitting room rates. China is the second highest tourism market to the archipelago so far this year with a 14.2 percent market share preceded only […]
Cargo Flows
Sept 06, 2010 (LBO) – Container volumes at South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), an associate of Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells Holdings, fell in August, the first monthly fall against a year ago since October 2009. SAGT’s cargo volumes were down 2. 3 percent to 159,334 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units or containers) in August 2010 […]
Sri Lanka power expert comments on solar economics
Sept 06, 2010 (LBO) – Tilak Siyambalapitiya, an expert of power has responded to a recent Lanka Business Online story on a solar power project by a financial sector firm, explaining the economics of solar power. The response is reproduced below. I write with reference to your recent news item on Solar Supplement. I am […]
Fast Track
Sept 06, 2010 (LBO) – India’s Mphasis said its start up outsourcing unit in Sri Lanka may grow faster than planned as it signs up multinational firms to outsource services starting next month. The firm opened a 250-seat facility in Colombo Monday and said it would start shifting work of a ‘multinational’ firm within four […]
Asia leads world tourism recovery in 2010: UN
MADRID, September 3, 2010 (AFP) – World tourism rebounded strongly this year from the global financial crisis, led by Asia and the Middle East, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) said Friday. But the Madrid-based body also urged caution, noting that some major developed nations have not yet fully emerged from the economic doldrums. […]
Capacity Crunch
Sept 04, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Colombo port is nearing its maximum capacity ahead of forecasts owing to a rapid growth in cargo volumes, the head of the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority said. Container volumes through Colombo are growing at almost 24 percent now compared with 2009, Wickrama said. The number of containers […]
Sri Lanka gem show lures Chinese, Russians
Sept 03, 2010 (LBO) – An international gem and jewellery exhibition in Sri Lanka has drawn large groups of buyers from China and Russia which are emerging as important markets, officials said. “The stones have become more attractive and better cut.” Chanaka Ellawala, head of the 20th Facets gem and jewellery show organising committee, said […]
Sri Lanka India coal plant, no firm date yet: minister
Sept 03, 2010 (LBO) – A starting date for a joint venture India Sri Lanka coal power station has still not been set, but it will be last coal plant that the government will approve, Sri Lanka’s energy minister Patali Ranawaka said. “It is in the feasibility study stage,” he said. Minister Ranawaka said there […]
Sri Lanka LOLC in dendro, hydro power plants
Sept 03, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s LOLC group has bought into a wood fired or dendro power plant which is expected to be commissioned and connected to the national power grid in late 2011 and was also investing in 14 mini-hydro plants. LOLC said it had acquired a 75 percent state in United Dendro […]
SriLankan Airlines to resume floatplane service, expand fleet
Sept 03, 2010 (LBO) – SriLankan Airlines, Sri Lanka’s state-run national said it will acquire two floatplanes to re-start domestic air services later this year and also buy five short haul Airbus A320 aircraft next year as it looked to fly new routes. SriLankan said it will acquire two De Havilland Canada Twin Otter floatplanes […]