Category:
Sri Lanka insurer says Northern volumes up
May 02, 2010 (LBO) – HNB Assurance, a fast growing insurer says volume expansion in Sri Lanka’s north is ‘exceptional’ as the region recovers from a 30-year war and links are restored with the rest of the island. The company now has 540 staff up from 25 in 2001. HNB Assurance says it was able […]
Sri Lanka top economists, poll, back IMF fiscal restraint: report
May 02, 2010 (LBO) – Top Sri Lankan economists and a poll by an influential newspaper has backed the revival of a stalled International Monetary Fund deal to discipline government spending and preserve economic stability. A poll by Sri Lanka’s by the Business Times, a part of Sri Lanka’s The Sunday Times an influential English, […]
Finance Houses
May 01, 2010, JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s finance companies are expanding with confidence returning to the sector following a panic 2009, though regulators are working on a handful of troubled firms, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said. Sri Lanka’s Bartleets Financial Services and Central Investments and Finance Limited (CIFL) opened branches in […]
India, Japan set to conclude trade pact in 2010: minister
NEW DELHI, April 30, 2010 (AFP) – India and Japan should be able to conclude a free trade pact to liberalise commerce this year, a minister said Friday. Once the free trade agreement comes into effect as many 9,000 products — ranging from steel and clothing to drugs and machinery — are expected to be […]
Sri Lanka holds first post-war May Day
May 1, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s political parties were holding May Day rallies on Saturday for the first time since the ending of nearly four decades of ethnic bloodshed. Nearly a dozen meetings were scheduled in the capital and suburbs, but labour day celebrations by opposition parties were low-key following their drubbing in two […]
First for Central Asia as ADB meets in Uzbekistan
TASHKENT, May 1, 2010 (AFP) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Saturday opened its annual meeting in Uzbekistan, a first for Central Asia and a coup in the ex-Soviet state’s drive to be recognised as a regional economic power. Some 3,000 participants — including heads of state, central bank governors and finance ministers — […]
‘s Union Bank gets Malaysian, US capital, plans IPO
May 01, 2010 (LBO) – Union Bank (UB), has inked a deal to raise 1.5 billion rupees in capital from Genting Group, a Malaysian conglomerate and Shorecap, a US based banking fund and is hoping to go public within an year, an official said. “Genting is giving 1.0 billion (rupees), Shorecap 500 million rupees,” Union […]
Sri Lanka inflation slows to 5.8-pct in April
Apr 30, 2010 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 5. 8 percent in April 2010 from a year earlier, down from 6.3 percent in March, the second straight monthly fall, the government’s statistics office said. In the month of April the Colombo consumer price index fell 1.0 percent in absolute terms […]
Sri Lankan stocks close 0.82-pct up
Apr 30, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks closed higher Friday as a few high value banking stocks pushed the market up, while some retail investors took profits on selected hotel and plantation shares on a shortened trading day, brokers said. Hotel Sigiriya closed at 60.75 rupees, down 2.25, Kandy Hotels Company 150.00 rupees, down […]
Port Proceeds
Apr 30, 2010 (LBO) – Revenues of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), which runs the island’s ports, fell last year with fewer ship calls and lower cargo volumes, while the number of employees also declined, latest data shows. SLPA operating expenditure in 2009 fell four percent to 21,301 million rupees from 22,201 million rupees in […]
” of cooperation
THIMPHU, April 29, 2010 (AFP) – South Asian leaders wound up a summit in Bhutan Thursday with an accord to tackle climate change and promises to pursue a new era of development for their under-performing region. The two-day summit of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was notable for the frank appraisal […]
Immigration debate shakes US to the core
NEW YORK, April 30, 2010 (AFP) – From the deck of New York Harbor’s tour boat the Statue of Liberty looks as welcoming today as when greeting new immigrants a century ago. But the soaring figure and even loftier inscription — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — […]