Tag: economy

Aug 30, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is promoting new joint ventures with Thailand after the end of a 30-year war in the island, organizers of an investment conference in Colombo that is opening Monday said. More than a 100 top Sri Lankan enterprises from private and public sectors will participate in the conference, Wickramanayaka […]

Aug 28, 2009 (LBO) – Sweeping ‘nationalization’ of collapsing banks, state mandated mortgage lending and centrally planned interest rates has made the USA a socialist state, Sri Lankan viewers of a film on the US economic collapse said.Paulson, the multitude of bankers and financial journalists repeatedly said in the film, had made ‘mistakes,’ in being […]

Aug 28, 2009 (LBO) – Rohan Samarajiva, who writes Lanka Business Online’s ‘Choices’ column has been shortlisted for the 2009 Bastiat Prize for online journalism along with two others who write for Britain’s Telegraph and US based Forbes. Samarajiva, who heads LirneAsia, a policy research body, has been writing LBO’s widely read ‘Choices’ column from […]

Aug 27, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s internal conflict and a balance of payments crisis that led to a rating downgrade and a negative outlook have now been wiped off the slate, but weak state revenues and high national debt are hurting Sri Lanka’s rating, a senior Fitch official said. In April 2008, Fitch downgraded […]

Aug 26, 2009 (LBO) – A 40-member Japanese trade and investment mission is due to visit Sri Lanka in November 2009 following the end of the island’s 30-year ethnic war, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said.Members of the mission during their visit will take part in the Japan – Sri Lanka Business Co-operation Committee meeting […]

Aug 26, 2009 (LBO) – Political interference and overlapping functions of government agencies have seriously weakened Sri Lanka’s efforts to help the poor and might even perpetuate poverty, a new Asian Development Bank report says. The public sector is too big, confused and lacks accountability, the report on ‘Poverty and human development in Sri Lanka’ […]

Aug 25, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves have topped 3.2 billion dollars after a large inflow into the country’s government securities market, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said. “You will see enormous opportunities,” Cabraal told a forum on Islamic financial instruments organized by Rating Agency Malaysia in Colombo. “There will be extraordinary positions […]

Aug 25, 2009 (LBO) – Companies should look closely at socially responsible business practices as they are more profitable and opens the door to alternative investments, a senior official from the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) said. “Socially responsible investment advocates argue that screening helps eliminate companies that have risks that are generally not recognized by […]

Aug 25, 2009 (LBO) – Standard & Poor’s has lifted the outlook on Sri Lanka’s speculative ‘B’ sovereign rating to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ on expectations of better policy under an International Monetary Fund program and capital inflows. A sovereign rating measures the creditworthiness of the government. Sri Lanka’s high spending governments, that frequently borrows from […]

August 23, 2009 (AFP) – Conflict-torn Sri Lanka is banking on foreign cash to rebuild shattered infrastructure as the island emerges from decades of ethnic civil war, officials say.Analysts are expecting a large investment peace dividend in the country where bomb attacks and fighting dented investor confidence and kept high-spending tourists away from the tropical […]

Aug 22, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has acquired 875 million US dollars from a large US fund in an offbeat deal effectively by-passing the domestic money system that boosts forex reserves without creating domestic inflationary or exchange rate pressure.But the by-pass also meant that the money is not available for Sri Lanka’s […]

Aug 19, 2009 (LBO) – India’s Puravankara Projects, a Bangalore-based developer is looking to start an upmarket housing project after a civil war ended, an Indian media report said, though the property market in the island is in the doldrums. The report said Puravankara’s Sri Lanka move comes at a time when Bangalore itself is […]