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‘s Galadari Hotel returns to losses
Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Galadari Hotels, a firm which owns and operates a five star hotel in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo lost 45 million rupees in the September 2011 quarter, from a profit of 78 million a year earlier, interim accounts showed. The firm reported losses of 25 cents a share for the quarter. […]
Freedom Debate
Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court came under fire in parliament on a debate on an expropriation bill, after the highest court reportedly said it was consistent with the constitution. The bill went to the Supreme Court after the cabinet of ministers gave their assent. “How can the Supreme Court, like this […]
Gas Strike
Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Cairn Lanka, a unit of India’s Cairn Energy, has made a second gas strike off the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka. On October 04, Cairn Lanka had begun work on CLPL-Barracuda-1G/1, a second well. The presidents office said in a statement that the state petroleum exploration office has been informed […]
Sri Lanka spice theft seen as organized crime
Nov 12, 2011 (LBO) – Theft on spice plantations in Sri Lanka has become a major problem and amounts to ‘organised robbery’, Sarada de Silva, head of a Sri Lankan grouping representing the spice industry said. One plantation company which had nurtured a large extent of cinnamon, the island’s main spice, found their first crop […]
India warns against protectionism in debt fallout
MUMBAI, November 13, 2011 (AFP) – India warned on Sunday against protectionism as the world grapples with the sovereign debt crisis, portraying itself as a relative haven of stability in troubled economic times. Commerce minister Anand Sharma said India was an influential emerging economy and that the country “will be part of the stabilisation process […]
‘s Atapattu praises Pakistan, Misbah
DUBAI, November 13, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lankan batting coach Marvan Atapattu on Sunday praised the Pakistan team as one of the best in the recent past and likened their captain Misbah-ul Haq to his country’s former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. Atapattu’s praise came after Sri Lanka were thrashed by eight wickets in the first one-day […]
Sri Lanka struggling to revive 23 busted state firms: report
Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is struggling to revive 23 troubled state enterprises, with salaries being paid with people’s tax money and hundreds of million rupees more to be paid as voluntary retirement compensation, a media report said. Other troubled state firms awaiting revival included Lanka Mineral Sands; Lanka Phosphate Ltd; Paranthan Chemical […]
Sri Lanka expropriation law slammed in newspaper poll
Nov 13, 2011 (LBO) – An overwhelming 98.4 percent of respondents in a newspaper poll found fault with a law to selectively expropriate some three dozen firms which lawyers said was deeply flawed and trespassed on a constitutional separation of powers. The newspapers a respondent labelled chamber chiefs a set of “spineless leaders, lolling in […]
Sri Lankan nationalisation law criticised
November 13, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s new law to nationalise “under utilised” private firms could shatter investor confidence and push the country into authoritarian rule, the opposition and press said Sunday. The bill was signed into law on Friday by parliamentary Speaker Chamal Rajapakse, the eldest brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse. The president, who […]
South Asia vows to boost trade as tensions ease
ADDU, November 11, 2011 (AFP) – South Asian leaders ended a summit in the Maldives Friday with pledges to increase regional trade as arch rivals India and Pakistan demonstrated signs of easing tensions between them. The US, which is an observer of SAARC, welcomed the easing of Indo-Pakistan tensions and said increasing trade and economic […]
‘s Gold Coast named 2018 host
SYDNEY, November 12, 2011 (AFP) – Australia was celebrating Saturday as the Commonwealth Games Federation picked Queensland’s Gold Coast to host the 2018 Games over Sri Lanka’s Hambantota. “See you in Gold Coast in 2018!!!” the federation said on Twitter, following a vote of its general assembly in the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and […]
Sri Lanka could cooperate more with South Asia on tax: experts
Nov 13, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tax authorities should cooperate more with South Asian counterparts to be more vigilant of tax evasion by cross-border enterprises, international experts said in Colombo. “African national tax administrators have been cooperating on technical professional issues over quite a few years,” Allen Kagina, commissioner general of the Uganda Revenue […]