Under pressure and blamed for overregulation, Director General quits job exactly one year on to take up Senior Advisor Post in Finance Ministry Investors toast news as market’s value jumps by Rs. 61 billion, biggest single day gain in history Others term it sad day for effective regulation of capital market Ending weeks of speculation, ...

Confidence, the most critical element of the business climate Need of the hour Investment needs to increase from 28% (2010) to 34% of GDP to attain the Government’s growth target of 8%, as Sri Lanka’s incremental capital output ratio is 4.2. Public investment has been capped at 6%-7% of GDP. This means that private investment, ...

Following is the address delivered by Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation Dr. Sarath Amunugama at the fourth South Asia Economic Summit (SAES IV) Plenary Session: In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, there has been a noticeable shift in economic clout, moving from the USA and the debt-plagued countries of the Eurozone, to ...

Reuters: Asian shares fell and commodities slipped as the dollar spiked to a three-month high against the yen following Japan’s intervention, prompting investors to book profits after last week’s rally. The dollar rose more than 4 percent against the yen to above 79 yen, hours after briefly falling to a record low of 75.31 yen ...

DNH Financial Ltd. last week said that corporate earnings released so far look impressive but the bourse has not performed compared to strong earnings generation. The broking firm also suggests time is right for investors to go bottom fishing. Here are excerpts from DNH’s Weekly Report: The Colombo bourse ended the week on a relatively ...

PERTH, Australia (Reuters): Commonwealth leaders on Sunday defended their moves to toughen support for human rights, rejecting criticism the group was becoming irrelevant and had failed at their three-day summit to hold member Sri Lanka accountable for alleged abuses. But several leaders of the 54 mostly former British colonies, meeting in the remote Australian city ...

Reuters: The head of Europe’s bailout fund said on Friday he does not expect to reach a conclusive deal with Chinese leaders during a visit to Beijing but expects the surplus-rich country to continue buying bonds issued by the fund. Klaus Regling, chief executive of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), said the bailout deal ...

Five energetic young professionals, representing Rotary International District 3220 Sri Lanka will fly to Osaka, Japan for a Group Study Exchange (GSE) programme in November. Led by a Rotarian Past President Pubudu de Zoysa, a member of Rotary Club of Colombo, the team includes Rukshi Liyanage, Shamali Perera, Srikanth Selladurai and Mel Gunasekera. The month-long ...

Qatar’s economic growth is expected to drop sharply to 5.1 percent in 2012, down from a projected 15 percent for this year due to receding hydrocarbon expansion, the Gulf state’s development planning authority GSDP said on Tuesday. “The GSDP foresees a sea change in the economy’s dynamics in 2012,” the General Secretariat for Development Planning ...

Sri Lanka Economic Association Conference – Key takes at the inauguration By Dinali Goonewardene The Government in addition to domestic constraints faces a series of external and global constraints and the Sri Lanka Economic Association at its annual sessions from 13-14 October 2011 discussed this under the theme ‘Achieving National Economic Goals Amidst Global Challenges’. ...

In the midst of the turmoil in international financial markets and national economies, Sovereign Wealth Funds are coming into closer focus. For the first time since the breakout of the financial crisis, the financial mandarins of China intervened to shore up confidence in the country’s four largest banks by increasing its holdings in them through ...

BANGKOK (Reuters): More districts of Thailand’s capital were on high alert on Monday with floods bearing down from northern Bangkok as authorities raced to pump water toward the sea and defend the business district. Hundreds of people were evacuated over the weekend as water in residential areas of the northern Lak Si and Don Muang ...

BEIJING (Reuters): China urged the European Union on Monday to deal with its debt crisis as soon as possible and prevent contagion from spreading, as the country’s number four-ranked leader arrived for a visit of the continent, including Greece. “We hope that the EU countries concerned will reach a comprehensive settlement plan as soon as ...

Emirates is bringing forward its first daily A380 service to Germany by serving Munich from 25 November, nearly five weeks earlier than expected. The double decker was originally set to replace EK 49, one of two daily services to Munich, from 1 January 2012. Under a revised schedule, passengers will be able to enjoy the ...

Professionals are shy to raise critical issues in public!It is believed that the single focus advocacy proposal of the Joint Chambers of Commerce and Industry for the Budget 2012 to address is the continuing high priority of enhancing the ‘ease of doing business in Sri Lanka’. A president of a chamber holds a publicly articulated ...

Reuters: Arab foreign ministers stopped short of suspending Syria from their regional organisation on Sunday over its military crackdown on dissent, instead urging the government and opposition to negotiate an end to the violence. “We will call all of the parties of the opposition and government to hold a dialogue within 15 days,” the League’s ...

Reuters: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways is in talks with Britain’s Virgin Atlantic to join the UK carrier in its bid for bmi, the loss-making unit of Lufthansa, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. The fast-growing Middle East carrier is also discussing a possible stake in Virgin Atlantic, said one source. The Financial ...

ROME (AFP): Protesters torched cars and smashed up banks in Rome on Saturday while clashes erupted in New York’s Times Square on a day of worldwide demonstrations against corporate greed and government cutbacks. Tens of thousands took to the streets of the Italian capital for a march that turned violent and equal numbers rallied in ...

DNH Financial shares some key insights to the upcoming earnings season and how to manage investments in the Colombo stock marketFIn the absence of any significant news, the Sri Lanka bourse continued to trade on a lacklustre note with the ASPI and MPI falling by 2.2% and 1.7%WoW to close the week at 6,550 and ...

Reuters: More than 100 million rural Chinese people will settle in towns and cities in the next decade, testing provision of welfare and services as a new generation of migrants turn their backs on farming, according to a new government report. The National Population and Family Planning Commission report forecast that by 2020, China’s urban ...

The world’s economies are competing for investment, in order that they create jobs for their citizens and trade effectively in goods and services in this globalised world economy. Barriers and restrictions are tumbling down as nation states compete against each other, to become attractive to investors.Competitiveness is a comparative concept of the ability of a ...

LONDON (AFP): Former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt agreed to score no runs in an over during a Test against England last year as part of a betting scam, a court in London heard on Thursday. Prosecutors said Butt confirmed in a telephone call with his agent — a conversation recorded by an undercover journalist ...

The misery continues at the Colombo stock market as its year to date return yesterday dipped below the 1% threshold once again, a level last witnessed in mid July. A 0.4% dip in All Share Index saw the year to date dip from Wednesday’s 1.06% to 0.63% yesterday. On 19 July  the Bourse was recording ...

The genie of separationThe agitation for a new state called Telangana for the Telagu-speaking people of India is in the news again. At the time of writing, there is an agitation going on, sometimes turning violent. An announcement in 2009 by Home Minister Chidambaram that the Government of India had decided to carve out a ...

BEIJING (Reuters): China should refrain from boosting credit and fiscal spending again as stimulus measures to avoid fueling inflation and pushing up government debt, Wu Xiaoling, a former deputy central bank governor said in remarks published on Monday. “Currently, China’s economy faces inflationary pressures as well as pressures on government debt, which means we ...

 (Reuters) – Argentina’s government plans to use foreign currency reserves again next year to pay off a portion of its debt, Pagina 12 newspaper reported on Friday, citing Deputy Economy Minister Roberto Feletti. The government submitted its 2012 budget bill to Congress late on Thursday but journalists had no access to the text. The bill was expected ...

Reuters: It’s not just dictators. Governments around the world, many of them popularly elected, have tried for years to control the internet and social media, dismayed by their potential to incite violence, spread mischief and distribute pornography and dissent. But in Asia, home to everything from free-wheeling democracies to totalitarian regimes and others in between, ...

Women in South AsiaFollowing is the address delivered by the High Commissioner of Pakistan Seema Ilahi Baloch at the South Asia Women in Media Forum: The women of South Asia must be proud, because our land can boast of some of the greatest women leaders of our times. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Husina ...

I do not think any recent issue related to nature and environment has generated such an avalanche of news, views, controversies, and information, as did the now concluded wild elephant census of the Department of Wild Life Conservation (DWLC) of Sri Lanka. The DWLC study covered 65,000 sq km (the total area of Sri Lanka) ...

Millennium Information Technologies (MillenniumIT), a leading technology solutions provider yesterday announced the appointment of Amit Alok as its new President and General Manager. Two years ago MillenniumIT became part of  London Stock Exchange Group Plc, the international exchange business, and since then has gone from strength to strength, providing the Group with the world’s faste...