Category: Trade

Oct 03, 2013 (LBO) – Brandix, a Sri Lanka based apparel group will get a trade finance facility from International Finance Corporation, a world bank arm, which the lender says is the first in South Asia. Brandix will get funding against credit given to selected international buyers which can be used for working capital. IFC […]

Sept 28, 2013 (LBO) – Chinese firms are planning to buy activated carbon and rubber from Sri Lanka following the visit of a trade delegation and others are in talks over minerals and logistics services, the island’s trade ministry said.“We are looking for mineral sourcing from Sri Lanka as well as partnering in logistics and […]

COLOMBO, September 25, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lankan customs Wednesday seized two kilograms of gold from two men who had hidden the precious metal inside their bodies in an attempt to smuggle it out of the country, an official said.The two Sri Lankans were caught just before they boarded a flight to the Indian city […]

Sept 24, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s exports rose 8.0 percent to 794.4 million US dollars and imports rose 20.8 percent to 1,601.1 million US dollar in July indicating a recovery in external trade, official data showed. In the seven months to July exports were still down 2.7 percent to 5,518.0 million US dollars, imports […]

COLOMBO, September 17, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka and China will finalise a free-trade agreement ahead of a Commonwealth summit in Colombo in November, a government minister said on Tuesday.Sri Lanka entered into a controversial free-trade agreement with neighbouring India in December 1998 during Sri Lanka’s bloody separatist conflict, but both sides have been bickering […]

Sept 04, 2013 (LBO) – Trade between Sri Lanka and Vietnam has risen 20 percent in the first half of 2013, Hanoi’s envoy to Colombo Ton Sinh Thanh said.Sri Lanka’s minister of justice Rauf Hakeem and Petroleum Industries minister Anura Yapa had also visited Vietnam. “Trade volume between the two countries in the first six […]

Aug 30, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has probably overreacted in its response to stories of contaminated milk imported from abroad, information minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said.A trade union went to courts and got an order halting the sales of Fonterra products, and nationalists protested in front of its factory in Sri Lanka, leading to the […]

Aug 23, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Industrial Technology Institute said stocks of New Zealand milk held at port are free of a chemical contamination according to its tests, and will continue to test other batches of imports.. ITI chief Sirimal Premakumara said dicyandiamide (DCD) contamination was found in two stocks of Anchor branded and […]

Aug 22, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s exports rose 6.8 percent to 807.4 million US dollars in June 2013 from a year earlier with apparel exports up 14.9 percent to 356.8 million US dollars, official data showed.In the six months to June exports dropped 4.5 percent to 4.66 billion US dollars, imports dropped 5.8 percent […]

July 31, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has declared two seaports as ‘free ports’ and an airport and two export processing zones as bonded areas, for entrepot trade and off-shore business.Colombo and Hambantota ports have been declared as free ports. Export processing zones in Katunayake by the main international airport and Koggala and the second […]

SAN FRANCISCO, July 22, 2013 (AFP) – A study released on Monday showed that Internet-powered shopping across national borders has created “modern spice routes” holding wealth for local merchants who tap into the booming trend. Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, Germany, China, Britain and the United States will see a combined total of $105 billion in […]