Tag: economy

Nov 20, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s budget for 2012 to be presented to parliament on Monday will seek to further narrow a deficit, maintain public investment and create an environment to improve productivity, officials have said. According to earlier statements, the 2012 plans to cut the deficit to 6.2 percent of gross domestic product […]

Nov 19, 2011 (LBO) – Vietnam’s remarkable success of drawing foreign direct investment, even from former foes involved in a bitter civil war, came from a combination of foreign and economic policy, Vietnam President Truong Tan Sang said. France, a former colonial power with which the first Indochina war was fought, has invested 2.9 billion […]

Nov 18, 2011 (LBO) – The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said it hopes the Sri Lankan government’s forthcoming budget for 2012 would maintain consistency in investor and tax policies. The Chamber last week had called on the government to defer a controversial expropriation law passed by parliament that rating agencies have warned would deter investors […]

Nov 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s citizens need freedom for economic progress, a lawmaker said during a debate on an expropriation law which violated property rights that pre-dated the island’s Western-style constitution. “I know that (economic development) minister Basil Rajapaksa and everyone here actually believe in the market economy,” lawmaker and economist Harsha de […]

Nov 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said there may be room for former owners of seized assets to negotiate with competent authorities appointed by the state, after rating agencies raised fears of deteriorating property rights in the island. The government expropriated land in 36 enterprises and ordinary shares of listed Hotel Developers, […]

Nov 17, 2010 (LBO) – Former owners of expropriated assets may be given a chance to manage the companies again if a competent authority appointed by the state finds them acceptable, a minister said. Cabinet spokesman and information minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said the government will shortly appoint competent authorities to the seized firms and they […]

Nov 16, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s new law to expropriate 37 businesses would discourage investment and hurt growth, despite the state promising that it would be a one-off measure, Fitch Ratings has said. “While the Sri Lankan government has said that this is a one-off measure, and the list implies that the Act is […]

Nov 15, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will explain to Moody’s, a rating agency that expressed alarm over policy uncertainty and deteriorating property rights, that there will be no more expropriations, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said. The State is seizing land in some 37 enterprises and expropriating one listed firm it is entirety for […]

November 13, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s new law to nationalise “under utilised” private firms could shatter investor confidence and push the country into authoritarian rule, the opposition and press said Sunday. The bill was signed into law on Friday by parliamentary Speaker Chamal Rajapakse, the eldest brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse. The president, who […]

Nov 13, 2011 (LBO) – An overwhelming 98.4 percent of respondents in a newspaper poll found fault with a law to selectively expropriate some three dozen firms which lawyers said was deeply flawed and trespassed on a constitutional separation of powers. The newspapers a respondent labelled chamber chiefs a set of “spineless leaders, lolling in […]

Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is struggling to revive 23 troubled state enterprises, with salaries being paid with people’s tax money and hundreds of million rupees more to be paid as voluntary retirement compensation, a media report said. Other troubled state firms awaiting revival included Lanka Mineral Sands; Lanka Phosphate Ltd; Paranthan Chemical […]

Nov 13, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tax authorities should cooperate more with South Asian counterparts to be more vigilant of tax evasion by cross-border enterprises, international experts said in Colombo. “African national tax administrators have been cooperating on technical professional issues over quite a few years,” Allen Kagina, commissioner general of the Uganda Revenue […]