Category: Industry
Sri Lanka tourist arrivals down 10.5 pct in March
Apr 21, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lankan fell 10.5 percent to 34,065 for the month of March 2009, with key Western European and South Asian markets weakening, the tourism promotion office said. The number of tourists from the all-important western European market, the lifeblood of beach resorts, fell by 5.2 percent to […]
Safety Rope
April 21, 2009 (LBO) – Low transaction costs and timely delivery is critical for micro-finance to be effective in lifting poor people out of poverty, a senior Sri Lankan central bank official said.“Experience tells us that micro-finance alone is not enough to eliminate poverty because it only satisfies the funding needs of micro enterprises,” central […]
Sri Lanka external trade shrinks
April 20, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s external trade contracted sharply in February 2009 with the trade gap narrowing 75.5 percent, imports plunging 37.3 percent, exports falling 18.4 percent and remittances also easing 3.8 percent, the Central Bank said. Exports fell to 524.3 million US dollars from 642.6 million US dollars, with tea falling 33.4 […]
Foreign Interest
April 20, 2009 (LBO) – A number of prospective buyers interested in Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank have tied up with foreign partners to bid for a 33 percent stake in the bank, Central Bank governor Nivard Cabraal said. Ceylinco chief Lalith Kotelawala, who is now in remand over the collapse of his Golden Key Credit […]
Seylan Sale
April 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank says six parties have expressed interest in buying a one-third stake of Seylan Bank, which was put under the wing of a state bank following a run on its deposits. Seylan Bank, a unit of Sri Lanka’s Ceylinco group, suffered a run after an unregulated firm […]
Pay Back
April 17, 2009 (LBO) – The pay TV business of Sri Lanka’s Dialog Telekom group will take time to become profitable, with break even estimated at around 250,000 customers, its chief executive Hans Wijayasuriya said. Losses in the pay TV business of the company, a unit of Telekom Malaysia, contributed to an annual group loss […]
Port Proposals
April 16, 2009 (LBO) – Fourteen potential investors have collected bid documents to build and operate a container terminal in a new port coming up next to Colombo harbour, Sri Lankan government officials said. A notable absence is Dubai Ports World, another big global port operator, which is heavily involved in operating container terminals in […]
Hurting Sri Lankans happy to be back in action
April 16, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan cricketers will be wary, changed men when they line-up at the IPL, their first foreign assignment since they were caught up in the bloodbath of Lahore. On March 3, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team bus en route for the third day of the second Test against Pakistan […]
SIA says passenger numbers dived in March
SINGAPORE, April 16, 2009 (AFP) – Singapore Airlines (SIA) said on Thursday that passenger numbers plummeted in March as the global downturn continues to weigh on travel demand. The carrier, majority owned by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, reported a 42.8 percent fall in net profit in the third quarter to December, to 337 […]
Medical Mediator
April 16, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s insurance ombudsman has advocated the creation of a similar office to cover the island’s rapidly growing private hospital sector and settle complaints by patients. Wickrama Weerasooriya said the concept of ombudsman is now proving to bring quick relief while legal delays could be attributed to lawyers and litigation […]
Sri Lanka gets ADB funds for power projects
April 15, 2009 (LBO) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will provide 160 million US dollars in loans to Sri Lanka to expand and improve electricity services, especially to the poor and those living in conflict-affected areas. The funds will be used to support energy efficiency improvements, to develop the use of renewable […]
Bank Bid
April 15, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank said it has submitted an Expression of Interest to the Central Bank to buy a stake in Seylan Bank, part of the troubled Ceylinco group. The Sampath Bank announcement was in a stock exchange filing that gave no other details. The bank was responding to an […]