Category:
Sri Lanka JKH hotel unit to raise Rs3.6bn to expand
Jan 21, 2010 (LBO) – The leisure unit of Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings group is making a 3. 6 billion rupee cash call to spruce up its hotels and build new ones as the country expects a surge of tourists after the end of a 30-year war. The company said it was issuing 364 […]
Sri Lanka to sign coal plant deal with India after elections
Jan 21, 2010 (LBO) – The wrapping up of a joint venture deal to build a coal power plant on Sri Lanka’s eastern coast by India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has been put off till presidential polls are over, an official said. The government said a joint venture agreement and a power purchase agreement […]
Sri Lanka to study nuclear power feasibility
Jan 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is seeking Korean help to study the feasibility of starting a nuclear power plant in the island, power and energy ministry secretary M M C Ferdinando said. “We are discussion with the government of Korea (South) to implement nuclear power in Sri Lanka,” secretary Ferdinando told reporters Wednesday. […]
UN chief worried by growing violence ahead of Sri Lanka polls
UNITED NATIONS, January 20, 2010 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon is alarmed by the growing violence in Sri Lanka, including the reported slaying of political activists, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, his spokesman said Wednesday. “The Secretary General is concerned about the growing violence in the lead-up to the presidential election in Sri […]
Coup Claim
January 21, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition said Thursday it feared President Mahinda Rajapakse would use the military to remain in power if he was defeated in next week’s elections. Opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka accused the government of pushing senior army commanders to appear on state-run television to express their public support for […]
Sri Lanka graduates above IMF low income status: Central Bank
Jan 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has moved out of the countries eligible for financing from the International Monetary Fund’s poverty reduction and growth facility with greater access to capital markets and higher incomes, the Central Bank said. “Accordingly, Sri Lanka will now be recognised as a country with a middle income emerging market […]
Sri Lanka foreign reserves US5.2bn in November
Jan 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves reached 5,228 million US dollars by end November 2009, which was equal to 6.4 months of imports, the Central Bank said. In 2009 the trade deficit was 2,468.5 million US dollars and remittances were 567 million US dollars higher. With the balances of the Asian Clearing […]
Sri Lankan stocks recover losses
Jan 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shares closed 1.4 percent higher Wednesday recouping some of the losses made over the past two days as investors kept a close eye on presidential polls due early next week, dealers said. With occupancy rates going up their is renewed interest in the leisure sector, brokers said. Aitken […]
Sri Lanka dairy farmers get US lift
Jan 20, 2010 (LBO) – Dairy farmers in eastern Sri Lanka will get technical help to improve milk production and also be linked to agri-business firms, in a program supported by the United States. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed a deal with Manmunai West Livestock Breeders Cooperative Society to increase the […]
Pacific Refuge
WELLINGTON, January 19, 2010 (AFP) – New Zealand has agreed to take 13 Sri Lankan refugees who spent weeks refusing to leave an Australian customs boat in Indonesia last year, the government said Tuesday. New Zealand originally did not want to take any of the Tamil refugees who refused to leave the Oceanic Viking, but […]
Giant, leaping Asian carp threaten US Great Lakes
CHICAGO, January 20, 2010 (AFP) – Huge Asian carp, which act like “aquatic vacuum cleaners” and leap into the air when spooked by motorboats, may have invaded the US Great Lakes despite a massive effort to block them, officials said Tuesday. Researchers analyzing water samples have discovered fragments of Asian carp DNA in Lake Michigan, […]
Sri Lanka to get solar power plant from Korea
Jan 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is getting a 500 kiloWatt solar power plant from Korea which will be built in Hambantota in the south of the island and used to gain more knowledge on operating the technology , officials said. The plant will be run by the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, which […]