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New wage deal for estate workers to hike production costs by 23%: analysts
December 21, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s newly minted wage deal for estate workers is expected to hike cost of sales by up to 23 percent for plantation companies with high exposure to tea, analysts said Thursday. Plantation companies and estate worker trade unions agreed on a daily wage of 260 rupees on Tuesday, followings weeks […]
Tough Action
December 21 (LBO) – Trade unions of telco giant Sri Lanka Telecom have threatened to go on strike together with other public sector unions, if a wage dispute is not settled by December 28. Unions representing about 6000 non-executive workers at the state telecom giant have demanded a 17.5 percent wage hike for non-executive grades, […]
Digital Certification
December 21, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has started to digitize the issue of birth, marriage and death certificates, which has cut processing time to as little as ten minutes, officials said. Mooted by the Information Communication Technology Agency or ICTA last year, the project has already digitized around 2.2 million birth certificates belonging to […]
‘s global footprint deepens in 2006
BEIJING, Dec 21, 2006 (AFP) – From the oil fields of Africa to the living rooms of American homes and Asia’s shopping malls, virtually every part of the world felt the impact in 2006 of China’s ongoing, spectacular transformation. China’s successful courting of Africa during the year, which resulted in a strengthened alliance of some […]
Rising sea levels engulfing Indian world heritage islands
KOLKATA, Dec 21, 2006 (AFP) – Rising sea levels have submerged two islands in the Sunderbans, where tigers roam through mangrove forests in the Ganges River delta, and a dozen more islands are under threat, scientists say. A six-year study of the impact of future climate change on the world natural heritage site that India […]
Sri Lankan children abducted as rebels admit conscription mistake
COLOMBO, Dec 21, 2006 (AFP) – Armed men have kidnapped 16 boys and three girls in eastern Sri Lanka, a pro-rebel website reported Thursday, as Tiger guerrillas admitted a “mistake” in conscripting 21 others. The Tamilnet.com website said members of the breakaway Tiger faction known as the “Karuna group”, which is allegedly backed by the […]
Sri Lanka arrests Tigers escaping with fleeing civilians
Dec 21, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops have arrested 15 Tamil Tiger rebels who pretended to be civilians fleeing the embattled eastern region ahead of a major military offensive, officials said Thursday. The men were detained while the security forces screened some 22,000 civilians who fled the Vakarai area in the eastern district of […]
’s rich western province leads economic growth again in 2005
December 21 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s rich western province has led the list again of top contributors to the island’s economic growth last year, the Central Bank said, though service sector expansion boosted fortunes of poorer areas. “Product diversification could reduce concentration in a few crops that dampen the marketability of such produce profitably due […]
‘s Central Bank moves to sooth currency markets
December 20, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank Wednesday sought to pour oil on troubled waters saying currency depreciation to date is consistent with past trends. “It is seen that the current depreciation of 5.2 percent [against the U.S. dollar] is somewhat consistent with the usual trend in the past and movements in economic […]
Treasury yields shoot up
December 20, 2006 (LBO)– Sri Lanka’s treasury bill rates rose sharply at Wednesday’s auction following after the central bank hiked its key policy rate by 37.5 basis points last Friday. One-year treasury yields climbed 18 basis points to 12.95 percent, while six-month paper rose 15 basis points to 12.78 percent and three-month treasuries jumped 20 […]
‘s tourist arrivals drop sharply by 22% in November
December 20, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s visitor arrivals in November slumped to 22.4 percent, the Tourist Board said Wednesday, prompting fears that the dwindling numbers will spillover to 2007. Sri Lanka welcomed 549,308 visitors in 2005 and the board is hoping to equal the score this year. The island greeted 37,591 holidaymakers in November […]
Internet TV
Dec 20, 2006 (LBO) – Capital Maharaja, a unit of the privately held media house the Maharaja Group, has tied up with Tokyo based media group, to digitally deliver television content via broadband to Sri Lankan diaspora in Korea and Japan. Capital Maharaja group’s e-commerce and internet arm RaiderTech penned the deal on Wednesday to […]