NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Asia-Pacific region has made great strides in reducing poverty and is moving fast towards other development goals, but levels of hunger and child and maternal mortality are still high, according to a United Nations and Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released here yesterday. The Asia-Pacific region has already reached the Millennium ...

(Bloomberg): Sri Lanka doesn’t need to further tighten monetary policy for now even though an increase in fuel and transportation costs and a weakening currency may stoke inflation, the head of the central bank said. The central bank’s rate increase earlier this month will have a “demand-driven impact” and help moderate inflation, its Governor Ajith ...

Sri Lanka’s benchmark stock index, the world’s worst performer this year, may extend its slump as the central bank raises interest rates to curb inflation, according to HSBC Holdings Plc’s private banking unit. HSBC Private Bank, which oversees about $499 billion, will wait for stock valuations to fall to “single digit” multiples before it considers ...

Reuters: Greek political leaders said they had clinched a deal on economic reforms and spending cuts needed to secure a second bailout, but euro zone finance ministers demanded more measures and a parliamentary seal of approval before providing the aid. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have been exasperated by a string of ...

Hon. D.E.W. Gunasekera Chairman, Committee on Public          Enterprises (COPE) Parliament of Sri Lanka Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. Dear Chairman, Action on COPE and other reports? Reference the aforementioned, I attach the following: 1.Daily Mirror front page News Report of Saturday, 21.1.2012 headlined ‘Bribery, CID Officers to be summoned by COPE. D...

Are the Indian Army’s golf courses illegal?                 Sri Lanka’s fourth golf course opened by Air Force   India’s national auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), has reported to Parliament that the country’s Army has turned large tracts of State military property into illegal privately-run ...

Regulatory pressure mounted further over the course of 2011 – bad news for financial services firms, but good news for the consultancies to which they turned for help. Ernst and Young topped the Operational Risk and Regulation consultancy rankings again in 2011 (http://www.risk.net/operational-risk-and-regulation/feature/2135016/orr-consultancy-rankings-2011), and the New York-based head of ...

Brazil president wants 4 pct GDP growth, above forecasts Officials say they will pursue goal responsibly Concerns over inflation, budget targets BRASILIA (Reuters): Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has made 4 percent economic growth her government’s main mission this year and is willing to cut taxes, take stimulus measures and possibly sacrifice other targets if needed, ...

BUDAPEST (Reuters): More than 100,000 people rallied on Saturday in a show of support for the embattled Hungarian government, as it prepares to compromise in a bitter row with the European Union to secure a vital loan. Labelled a “March of Peace” the demonstration was by far the largest rally since the government took power ...

Perhaps exposing brokers and investors who campaigned heavily for relaxed credit rules for their lack of judgment, the Colombo stock market yesterday failed to close on the up, despite enjoying a big burst in early morning trading. Opening with boosted confidence following the SEC’s relaxed credit rule announcement, the bourse gained sharply by 1.8% or ...

THE proposed amendments to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) have created a much-needed discussion forum on pension funds and their benefits, while also bringing several crucial points into the limelight. Experts have pointed out that if the Government is genuinely keen on maximising returns of workers, then they need to exempt EPF earnings from tax ...

Respected blue chip Aitken Spence pulls out of biggest FDI project – the $ 500 m Colombo South Container Terminal due to issues with funding and cost escalations Construction cost up 30% to $ 350 m; overall project cost now estimated at $ 595 m up from $ 475 m at bid proposal stage Lender ...

Political corruption: The definition Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the ...

Sri Lanka’s pioneer Islamic bank, Amana Bank was voted the ‘Best Islamic Bank in Sri Lanka’ at the global Islamic Finance News poll for 2011 conducted by the Malaysia-based RedMoney Group. The results of this prestigious award poll held for the 7th consecutive year were officially released on 4 January 2012, which includes the results ...

AS expected, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry made a booming start to the New Year with the news that South Africa’s Sun City is planning to invest a hefty US$ 800 million in a massive project in Katana. This brings the total investment from large-scale foreign hotel projects to nearly US$ 2 billion, with Sheraton, Shangri-la, ...

It is the season for giving, which we all know is a reason to look beyond ourselves and find some worthy cause to take up for Christmas. Everyone is familiar with the warmth connected with giving and the quiet pleasure in ensuring that someone else has a happy time as well. It can be something ...

All credit to Daily FT on your headline news item in of 15 Dec ‘Extra life for old directors in banks’. Your analysis was spot on and the action obviously moved to ensure continuity of Commercial Bank Chairman Amarasuriya even though many other retiring directors would now try to stay on. This would of course ...

Plastic crates: Universally used in agri markets In 2002, the writer had a chance of visiting a few farms in Czech Republic, some 200 kilometres away from its capital, Prague. They were all medium sized farms owned by private individuals producing such products as vegetables, fruits and honey. At the time of the writer’s visit, ...

The Colombo stock market saw a dull day’s trading with turnover recording Rs. 664 million and the All Share Price Index falling 0.52% to close below the psychological support level of 6,000 at 5,965 while the Milanka Price Index lost 0.05% to register 5,228. The top turnover contributor list was dominated by fundamentally sound counters ...

Seylan Bank recently re-defined the concept of savings, in an initiative hitherto not seen in Sri Lanka’s banking and financial services industry, by literally ‘dropping’ Rs. 1 million from the skies and parallely supported by a door-to-door campaign. On Saturday 22 October helicopters hovered over different parts of Sri Lanka and dropped thousands of coupons ...

Reuters: Asia’s economic growth looks set to stumble over the next few months, prompting a flurry of interest rate cuts and a spike in stimulus spending that may ultimately pave the way for a strong recovery in the second half of 2012. “The catch-phrase for 2012 is the Asia yo-yo,” said Rob Subbaraman, chief Asia ...

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Asia’s economic growth looks set to stumble over the next few months, prompting a flurry of interest rate cuts and a spike in stimulus spending that may ultimately pave the way for a strong recovery in the second half of 2012. “The catch-phrase for 2012 is the Asia yo-yo,” said Rob Subbaraman, chief ...

PARIS/NEW YORK (Reuters): Standard & Poor’s has warned it may carry out an unprecedented mass downgrade of euro zone countries, including Germany and France, if EU leaders fail to deliver a convincing agreement on how to solve the region’s debt crisis in a summit on Friday. The ratings warning sent markets reeling and drew a ...

By Ian The President in his speech at the opening of the Southern Expressway said that this could be the beginning of building a modern society. He also mentioned that had there been such an expressway linking the north with the south the extremists would not have succeeded in capitalising on the mistrust among communities. ...

By Cheranka Mendis With mobile penetration directly linked to increasing economic growth in a country, Sri Lanka with its bullish growth prospective stands to benefit heavily from the ever-expanding ICT and telecommunication sector. Alcatel-Lucent Asia Pacific President Rajeev Singh-Molares who was in Sri Lanka for a brief visit yesterday told the media that a World ...

Having launched Sri Lanka’s first-ever equity investments and financial information portal, Sri Lanka Equity Analytics (www.srilankaequity.com) recently celebrated its successive second year of operations by reaching the milestone of 5,000 registered online memberships and over five million hits. Sri Lanka Equity Analytics is a financial portal designed to address varying needs of the invest...

No unanimity on exchange rate movement A front page headline news item in this paper on last Saturday had reported on an apparent division of opinion between the two top policy makers of the country, namely the Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera and the Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, on the depreciation of the ...

Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of Pakistan and Maldives Monetary Authority to participateThe first ever Governor’s Challenge Trophy- global commerce quiz will be held on 13 December in Colombo. The quiz has taken an international dimension with three major regional central banks participating along with the Sri Lankan corporate, banking and other sectors for ...

Public interest activist Nihal Sri Ameresekere last week fired separate letters to Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal and Information Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella, raising questions over their individual remarks on the contentious Expropriation Bill. The letter to Cabraal was on the Central Bank’s statement on the bill, also known as the Revival Bill. ...

The Colombo stock market plunged further yesterday prolonging the misery as panic selling picked up heightening investor fears. The market saw Rs. 25 billion in value wiped off bringing the total to over Rs. 150 billion since 3rd November. Reinforcing market’s pulse, Reuters said mainly due to negative sentiment created by an expropriation bill amid ...