By D. C. Ranatunga Each time we visit the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens, we always look for flowers.  I remember whenever we went we used to make a bee-line to the Orchid House where the blooms were a treat. And they still are. We hardly took an interest in studying or admiring trees.  True, we saw ...

Three companies in the Industrial Fibre sector of the Hayleys Group were honoured for their contributions to Sri Lanka’s exports in 2011 at the 20th NCE Export Awards presented by the National Chamber of Exporters. Toyo Cushion Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd. won the Gold Trophy, medal and certificate in the ‘Agriculture value added – Medium Sector’ ...

The location of Sri Lanka has a strategic significance and this has been proven by the historical trading activities between Sri Lanka and ancient China, Egypt, and the Roman Empire. There is ample evidence to show that Sri Lanka was a main trading hub in Asia. The reasons for occupation of Sri Lanka by the ...

Xinhua: Sri Lanka’s topmost Tamil minority minister in the northern town of Jaffna on is  confident that the government will be able to finalise a political solution for the Tamils. The minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, Douglas Devananda, told Xinhua in an interview that the solution should be based on 13 Amendment ...

A number of articles which appeared in print media in the recent past signify the volatility in the economy. High volatility leads to vulnerability. Volatility and vulnerability are reflections of the haphazard nature of the economic policies and poor economic governance in a country. What is volatility? Volatility is the severity and the frequency with ...

The Sri Lankan Government is making serious efforts in rehabilitation of former Tamil Tiger combatants, their reintegration into society and reconciliation with the minority, a high ranking Russian Government official said. Konstantin Dolgov, Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, and Ambassador-at-Large, said the situation in terms of human ...

The first CFW Resortwear show will feature a total of 12 important designers showcasing their Resortwear 2013 collections. The focus for the first show is the South and South East Asian region hence the designers are from Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The show which is themed as a Resortwear weekend on the ...

The first Prime Minister of independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote 75 years ago: “It would be absurd to say that the profit motive does not appeal to the average Indian, but it is nevertheless true that there is no such admiration for it in India as there is in the west. The possessor of ...

2012 unlikely to match up to 2011 tea revenue; stakeholders’ voice uncertaintya By Cheranka Mendis The tea industry which brought in revenue of approximately US$ 675 million within the first six months of this year – US$ 50 million below the revenue collected in the same period in 2011 – is likely to fall short ...

By Shanuka Tissera SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd (India) announced their launch in Sri Lanka through a partnership with Arinma Holdings Pvt Ltd. SREI has helped over 30,000 entrepreneurs over its 23 years in operation offering a range of services in the infrastructure sector: Infrastructure project finance, advisory and development infrastructure equipment finance, venture capital and ...

As opposed to a 10-place jump in the previous year, Sri Lanka has suffered a 16-place relegation in the latest Global Competitiveness Rankings list released by the influential World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday. Sri Lanka’s rank of 68th place out of 144 countries surveyed from 52nd place in the previous year was despite the overall ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas Sri Lanka’s biggest ICT events of 2012, the ASOCIO international conference and the country’s national IT expo INFOTEL, will be held consecutively portraying the country’s persistent ICT development and the significance of the rapidly expanding industry.   Hosted by the Federation of Information Technology Industry (FITIS), the Asian-Oceanian Computi...

. Accordingly, the Sri Lankan Embassies in Russia, ...

Protecting the small depositor   One reason for poor communities the world over responding to the service facility provided by Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) to take in the small amounts of savings the poor generate on a daily or weekly basis is the security offered by the cash being securely looked after at a remote ...

Last week I had the opportunity of meeting Hermawan Kartajaya, one of the top 50 gurus who has shaped the world of marketing. His perspective to the changing landscape of marketing and what business must do sure opened my mind set to a new way of thinking business and Sri Lanka’s policy decision making. Hermawan ...

Disruption to food production, due to adverse weather conditions in USA, China, Russia and India could contribute to a spike in world food prices. Due to its direct exposure to global supply disruptions, Sri Lanka could be adversely affected, warns Sri Lankaandrsquo;s economic think tank andndash

The worst drought in the US in at least five decades has resulted in the loss of one-sixth of the expected corn crop. The UD Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that corn farmers have been compelled to abandon fields greater in area than Belgium and Luxembourg combined, following the hottest July ever recorded in ...

Tea is our pride, for which we can be proud of for the reason that it is the best tea on the globe. It is the duty of every Sri Lankan, especially the diplomatic missions worldwide, to defend and promote our silver inherited as much as the beauty of Sri Lanka which is matchless. Sri ...

Playing off India against China and vice versa‘The Great Game’ was the name given to a diplomatic and military tussle between the British and Russian empires during the time of the British Raj in India for influence over what constitutes today’s central Asian states. Commonly known as the ‘Stan states,’ they were located along the ...

A farewell dinner was organised by the Sri Lanka-Russia Business Council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for Vladimir Mikhaylov and Madam Mikhaylov in recognition of the yeomen services rendered by Mikhaylov during his tenure as the Patron of the Council. The event was held on 6 July 2012

Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, addressing the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on Tuesday, 31 July 2012, has expressed Sri Lanka’s “profound disappointment that the conference has not been enabled to undertake substantive work on its agenda”. He said: “It is time to avoid the temptation of subjecting the ...

Reuters: The International Monetary Fund on Thursday called for a “policy game changer” in the euro zone to arrest the spread of the debt crisis it now says is clearly engulfing the entire currency bloc and its smaller neighbors. An IMF spillover report that looks at how the economic policies of the so-called systemic five ...

Sri Lanka’s dependence on imported milk is a phenomenon that evolved during the time frame of my lifetime. I well remember as a child, a man used to bring a cow and its small calf to our house – we lived in a Government quarters bungalow in Colombo – and milk the cow, in the ...

Five teenage schoolchildren from Sri Lanka who had lost a family member to an act of terrorism attended this year’s ‘Project Common Bond’, a weeklong peace building and conflict resolution program held in the US. The program was organised by Tuesday’s Children, a New York based non-profit organisation serving the needs of those affected by ...