Category: Industry
Terminal Target
Feb 17, 2010 (LBO) – Construction of a new deep-water container terminal to be built and run by the private sector in Colombo port is to start in the second quarter of this year, a Sri Lanka port official said. Colombo port’s cargo flows are also recovering as trade recovers from recession, Wickrama said. “Our […]
Sri Lanka export recovery gathers steam
Feb 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s exports grew 6.4 percent to 723.4 million dollars in December 2009 exceeding those of the year before for the first time as a recovery which began in April gathered steam, the Central Bank said. But there was strong growth in mineral exports, mainly gems. Lower exports of petroleum […]
Sri Lanka to start e-commerce trials
Feb 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to start test runs on extending to several government agencies a long-delayed automated documentation system for trade that allows cargo to be cleared electronically, officials said. We appeal to all other government departments to follow the Tea Board, said Athukorala. Tea exporters are saving 2.50 dollars per […]
Sri Lanka apparel costs seen rising with loss of EU access
Feb 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan exporters of apparel, the island’s main industrial export, said the withdrawal of European Union trade benefits would increase costs and erode their competitiveness. European Union nations decided Monday to withdraw the ˜GSP Plus’ preferential trade benefits from Sri Lanka because of what the EU Commission called “significant shortcomings” […]
Fund Use
Feb 16, 2010 (LBO) – The World Bank said money given for Sri Lanka’s telecom regulator cannot be used for net censorship activities following reports that Chinese expertise would be hired to clamp down on web news portals. World Bank said it has giving a grant from its Institutional Development Fund for the Telecommunications Regulatory […]
Bank Profits
Feb 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s DFCC Bank group December quarter profits dipped 11.1 percent to 566.6 million rupees from a year earlier due to higher taxes, while interest rate spreads have grown. In the December quarter interest income fell 10.8 percent to 2.77 billion rupees, while interest expenses dipped 21.6 percent to 1.6 […]
Tele Trend
Feb 15, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Dialog Telecom lost 2.2 billion rupees in the December 2009 quarter down from a 3.9 billion rupees loss a year earlier, while full year losses hit 12.2 billion rupees as the firm took large write offs during the period. Revenues had grown 12 percent from a quarter earlier […]
Sri Lanka cuts online tea export documentation charge
Feb 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka intends to cut automated tea export document processing charges, reducing costs for shippers of the island’s main export commodity and making them more competitive, officials said. Sri Lanka’s electronic export documentation project is, however, years behind schedule and exporters say the island is far behind other trading nations […]
Cell Meet
BARCELONA, February 15, 2010 (AFP) – The mobile phone industry’s biggest event opens Monday as it begins to emerge from the global economic crisis with the promise of new devices that will revolutionise the way people communicate. Global shipments of handsets had been falling every quarter since the third quarter of 2008, when the global […]
Net Monitoring
Feb 14, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s telecom regulatory authority has not received orders to devise a law to control internet news websites, though monitoring cannot be ruled out in the future, a top official said. “There is nothing in the cards,” Anusha Pelpita, director general the Telecom Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC) said. […]
New Zealand push to play Sri Lanka in USA
WELLINGTON, February 13, 2010 (AFP) – New Zealand is poised to lead the way into the potentially lucrative United States cricket market with confirmation Saturday that talks are underway to play Sri Lanka in Florida this year. A “strategic partnership” has been formed with USA Cricket which will be of commercial benefit to both parties, […]
‘s legendary doorman turns 90
Feb 13, 2010 (AFP) – In 70 years of greeting guests to Sri Lanka’s venerable Galle Face Hotel, doorman K. Chattu Kuttan has hobnobbed with everyone from royal heads of state to Bond girls and Soviet cosmonauts. In recent years, Kuttan has embraced his role as a living Galle Face institution. His distinctive neat white […]