Category:
Sri Lanka holds withdrawal of on-arrival visa
August 28, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Saturday suspended plans to scrap on-arrival visas for most nationals, including visitors from the US, Europe, Australia and Japan. “In some cases, foreigners of Sri Lankan origin may be detained without their embassies being notified,” the state department said in its travel advisory to US citizens. Sri […]
Maid Abuse
August 28, 2010 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan maid recovering from surgery to remove 19 nails from her body told doctors her Saudi employer heated the nails and hammered them into her body, an official said Saturday. Surgeons at Sri Lanka’s southern Kamburupitiya hospital removed 19 out of a total of 24 nails — some […]
Sri Lanka power output up 8.9-pct in first half
Aug 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s power output rose 8. 9 percent in the first half of 2010 from a year earlier, in a more active economy, official data showed, with larger volumes of cheaper hydro energy being generated. State run Ceylon Electricity Board had generated 5,215 GigaWatt hours of energy (millions of units […]
Sri Lankan stocks close up 0.71-pct
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks closed the week at another record high and passed the 5,600 mark Friday, from price gains on fundamentally strong midcap shares, while newly listed PC House shares closed below the offer price, brokers said. The All Share Price Index closed at 5,634. 15, up 0.71 percent (39.85 […]
Northern Links
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will give Sri Lanka a loan of 154. 4 million US dollars to modernise roads in the north which was ravaged by decades of war, a statement said. The loan agreement for the project was signed Friday between the Ministry of Finance and Planning and […]
Infamous
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s finance ministry chief lashed out at the country’s cautious banks which are reluctant to engage in risky lending and also slammed a credit information office, labeling it ‘infamous’. “The associated risks and the mismatch in asset and liabilities of these institutions have imposed a severe burden to their […]
Merchant Merger
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – The state-owned Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL) seeks to merge with two units of its parent Bank of Ceylon group, a stock exchange filing said. It said a proposal is being considered to merge Merchant Credit of Sri Lanka and Ceylease Finance Services with Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka […]
Mindset Change
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – A top Sri Lankan banker has urged a shift to loans based on cash-flows, not assets, and more lending to people in the north-east of money mopped up by new branches in the former war zone. Rajendra Theagarajah, chief executive of the private listed Hatton National Bank, said banks should […]
Sri Lanka to withdraw visa on arrival: public notice
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government has decided to withdraw the on-arrival visa facility to tourists from September 30, 2010, a public notice said. The Department of Immigration & Emigration website said on-arrival visas will be given only to visitors from countries that reciprocate. No reason was given for the change and […]
Sri Lanka hotel group exits loss-making Maldives resort
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings (JKH) group said it had exited from an island further away from the capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Maldives, and extended its lease at a more profitable resort. But the Alidhoo island was making losses, and Dhonveli was more profitable the firm said. […]
Arabian Fright
August 27, 2010 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan housemaid who had 24 nails embedded in her body — allegedly by her Saudi employer — was recovering in hospital Friday after doctors removed 18 of them during a three-hour surgery. L.T. Ariyawathi, 49, said her employer in Saudi Arabia had inflicted the injuries on her as […]
Biomed Skills
Aug 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is laying the foundation to build a biomedical sector by offering courses in the subject based on British standards to train much needed human resources, educators said. “The development of the human capital base of the country is an important factor for that country to attain a sustainable […]