Tag: Finance

May 31, 2007 (AFP) – One of the world’s biggest solid tyre makers is trying to double its turnover and turn Sri Lanka into a key exporter of rubber products. “People keep asking us if its safe to live here, invest here and I say ‘yes’.We have had no problems. There are always risks associated […]

May 31, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge said Thursday his officials will appoint selectors for national sporting teams after a row over the chief cricket selector.Sri Lanka are due to host Bangladesh for three Test matches and three one-day internationals from mid-June.“What is happening now is that sports bodies on their […]

NEW DELHI, May 31, 2007 (AFP) – The Afro-Asia series in India will go ahead as scheduled next week after the ESPN-Star network stepped in to save the beleaguered event, the Asian Cricket Council said on Thursday.“The series cannot be held if there is no television coverage,” said Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah.The series, […]

May 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has changed the base year of two indexes that track the performance of the rupee against the country’s trading partners to reflect the changing structure of trade in recent years, the Central Bank said. However since January 2007, the central bank has embarked on an aggressive stabilization effort […]

May 30, 2007 (AFP) – The international Red Cross resumed work Wednesday on Sri Lanka’s battle-scarred front lines, offering safe passage for civilians between government and rebel territory, the Geneva-based charity said.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it would initially man two entry and exit points three days a week in the […]

May 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation spiked in May by a massive 3 percentage points, reversing a three month trend of falling prices, but the 12-month un-adjusted inflation continued to move down. Sri Lanka’s interest rates have been moving up from the beginning of the year as the government borrows heavily from domestic […]

GENEVA, May 29, 2007 (AFP) – Some 30,000 Sri Lankans who had fled fighting in the east of the country have returned to their homes over the past two weeks under a government resettlement plan, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which is monitoring the process, said […]

May 28, 2007 (LBO) – A controversy has erupted over a graph published in Lanka Business Online, which shows a co-relation between inflation and central bank credit, or money printed by the Central Bank to finance the budget deficit. . The first shots were fired at an economic policy debate organized by the Chartered Institute […]

May 28, 2007 (LBO) – Delays in making value added tax (VAT) refunds are forcing Sri Lankan exporters to borrow at high cost and threatening export growth, a senior industry official has warned. “The VAT refund is one of the major crises that Sri Lanka’s import-export industry is currently facing,” says Rohan Masakorala, a former […]

May 25, 2007 (LBO) – Prospective Malaysian shareholders of Sri Lanka Telecom are seeking wide-ranging management control to purchase a 25 percent stake currently owned by Japan’s NTT through a shareholders’ agreement being negotiated among the three parties. Watertight Sources familiar with the deal’s provisions claimed it could also undermine telecom regulation in the future […]

May 25, 2007 (LBO) – The World Bank Friday agreed to give Sri Lanka a soft loan of 32 million dollars to help tens of thousands Muslim victims of Tamil Tiger ‘ethnic cleansing’. The money will be used to provide housing, drinking water and sanitation to 20,600 displaced families, most of whom were driven out […]

May 24, 2007 (LBO) – Women with qualifications and experience similar to males get paid an average 18 percent less, according to research, but the government says otherwise. Governments and companies in poor countries like Sri Lanka can’t afford that level of intervention. Women with similar education, location and experience as men were employed in […]