Category: Industry
Row over Sri Lanka stadium ahead of England tour
Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s tsunami-hit cricket stadium at Galle is embroiled in a heritage row as it races to host the final Test of the England tour in December, officials said Thursday.Jayananda Warnaweera, the curator overseeing its reconstruction, said conservationists had objected to a new building at the stadium that could obstruct […]
Custom Trained
Sept 27, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and Australia are tying up to start professional courses for customs men in the island and the South Asian region, officials said. Sri Lanka’s Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) and the University of Jayawardenepura is linking with the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies (CCES) at the Canberra […]
Going Well
Sept 27, 2007 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka which confirmed the AAA (lka) national rating of Citibank’s Sri Lanka branch said its interest margins were boosted by dollar financing of the island’s government. In the first half of the year net interest margins and forex gains had allowed pretax profits to improve to 2.7 percent […]
Split Order
WELLINGTON, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) – The New Zealand government on Wednesday ordered the country’s dominant phone company Telecom to split into three units in a bid to level the playing field in the telecommunications industry.But investors took the latest news in their stride, with shares rising six cents at 4.36 New Zealand dollars by […]
Niche Demand
Sept 26, 2007 (LBO) – A new Sri Lankan apartment developer says there is unmet demand in niche markets, though high interest rates from an expanding budget deficit have started to affect the overall property market. “There is a demand for quality apartments. One should stick to niche markets,” Gishanka De Silva, director DGS Holdings […]
New Course
Sept 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is planning to revamp the Central Freight Bureau, a state agency that at the time controlled the shipping business, into a research body, officials said. The new organization hopes to provide research material of commercial value to the shipping community. Ranjith de Silva, additional secretary to the Ministry […]
Pirate Attack
Sept 26, 2007 (LBO) – Several fishing vessels chased and tried to board a yacht off southern Sri Lanka in a rare attempted incident of piracy, according to a report from a piracy watchdog. The yatch, whose identity was not revealed, was enroute from the Maldives to Malaysia. The yacht managed to evade the attempted […]
Chat Tax
Sept 25, 2007 (LBO) – Mobile users in Sri Lanka would pay a new 10 percent tax on call charges from today, a senior treasury official said Tuesday. The tax bill authorizing the increase was signed into law by the Speaker of Sri Lanka’s parliament, yesterday, he said. The official said the government hopes to […]
Last Week
Sept 25, 2007 (LBO) – The deadline for the repatriation of Sri Lankans working illegally in Oman without being fined ends on September 30, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said Tuesday. It said in a statement that relatives of workers in Oman without valid visas have been asked to inform their family members without delay of […]
Apples and Oranges
Sept 25, 2007 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund which has warned of further fallouts from the sub-prime crisis has called on credit evaluators to use a new rating scale to describe default risks of asset-backed securities. Now asset-backed debt products or securitized instruments use the same rating scale that is used from straightforward bonds […]
India win Twenty20 title after rousing finale
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) – Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s young Indian team snatched the inaugural Twenty20 world title after defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by five runs in a thrilling final on Monday.Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi was declared the player of the tournament despite falling for zero in the final. The Indians, restricted to 157-5 after electing […]
Cell Finance
Sept 24, 2007 (LBO) – International Finance Corporation, the private sector financing arm of the World Bank inked a 100 million financing deal Monday with Sri Lanka’s biggest mobile phone operator, Dialog Telekom.Washington-based IFC will lend 70 million dollars in debt, while the balance will be used to buy shares from Dialog’s parent company, Telekom […]