Tag: Sri Lanka

SAN JUAN, February 17, 2011 (AFP) – Promising advances have been made in the testing of possible vaccines to prevent the mosquito-borne dengue virus, which kills 25,000 people every year, researchers said Thursday. “There’s been tremendous progress,” he said. “There are a number of vaccines that are now in clinical trials and there’s now very […]

Feb 18, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government is likely to be able to meet the 2010 target for its budget deficit of eight percent of gross domestic product, a visiting International Monetary Fund official said. Brian Aitken, chief of the IMF review mission, said the island’s economic growth remained strong and there were no […]

Feb 18, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan authorities want to keep the budget deficit target of 6. 75 percent of gross domestic product for 2011 despite the additional flood related expenditure, IMF mission chief Brian Aiken said. “Addressing the impact of the floods may require some re-allocation of budget resources, but the authorities felt that […]

Feb 16, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s former war zones in the north of the island will get a two million dollar grant from Japan and the Asian Development Bank to provide safe water and sanitation for rural people. A 30-year war ended in the area in May 2009. ADB said the new grant will […]

Feb 15, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s flood victims, some of whom were recovering from a recent war will get 105 million rupees (700,000 euros) of food aid from the European Union through the World Food Program. “The needs of the flood-affected communities are great and WFP still faces considerable shortfalls in our funding” WFP’s […]

TOKYO, February 14, 2011 (AFP) – Japan ceded its spot as the world’s second-biggest economy to China in 2010, as gross domestic product contracted in the fourth quarter on sliding consumer consumption and demand, data showed. Real gross domestic product slipped by an annualised 1.1 percent in the October-December quarter as the expiration of auto […]

February 13, 2011 (AFP) – The damage from monsoon flooding in Sri Lanka over the last six weeks is estimated at 0 million, a government minister said Sunday amid a slow response to an international appeal for help. The United Nations issued an appeal for $51 million to address immediate needs after the first round […]

Feb 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is expecting more than a billion US dollars in foreign direct investments in 2011 led by a booming leisure sector, after the end of a three decade war made the country more attractive, an official said. “Our expectations (for 2011) are well over a billion (US dollars),” Board […]

Feb 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Ports Authority plans to reclaim and sell to private investors 340 acres of land off the capital Colombo where a new port is being built next to the existing one, an official said. “It will be for residential purposes, and offices and shopping along with eco-parks,” Keppetipola said. […]

Feb 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to start talks again on a proposed trade agreement with India that had been opposed by protectionist interests in the island, according a government decision announced after the weekly cabinet meeting. But it has been opposed by some Sri Lankan industrial and professional groups. The government is […]

WASHINGTON, February 10, 2011 (AFP) – Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke fended off criticism that he is ignoring the risk of rising prices Wednesday, as he faced a hostile Republican-controlled panel in Congress. “We remain unwaveringly committed to price stability,” Bernanke told the House of Representatives budget committee, rejecting claims that rising prices for food […]

Feb 09, 2011 (LBO) – Rebuilding Sri Lanka’s irrigation infrastructure after recent record floods will cost 5. 0 billion rupees (45 million US dollars) to the tax payer, with most of the damage taken by canals, officials said. The head of Sri Lanka’s irrigation department GGA Godaliyadda said systems coming under his agency which oversees […]