One of Sri Lanka’s top thought leaders and respected corporate personalities Rohantha Athukorala addressing the Lions Club of Colombo Orient commented that whilst accepting the fact that the economy was into some rough times he went on to say that the first wave of post war success was the time period 2009-2011 where Sri Lanka ...

Reuters: Iran, facing sanctions that could cripple its oil exports, has told world powers it wants to resume long-stalled talks with “new initiatives”, and France said it might be open to addressing suspicions about its nuclear programme. Tehran made the offer in a letter to the EU’s foreign policy chief obtained by Reuters on Thursday, ...

  In its 30th consecutive year the Annual Sessions of the SLIA includes a line of events that takes place during the four day period. The Annual sessions this year is aptly themed as ‘Regenerating Sri Lanka, the Architect and the Built Environment’ the Annual Sessions of the SLIA will commence with the Inauguration Ceremony ...

(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 ...

Emirates is driving forward its operations in Europe by announcing a third daily flight to Milan from 1st June, taking to 49 the number of weekly flights offered to Italy. EK 101 will leave Dubai at 0340hrs and arrive in Milan Malpensa at 0825hrs, ready for business in the city considered the engine room of ...

Ambassador updates foreign reporters on post-conflict development and reconciliation in Sri Lanka “Sri Lankans support a home grown solution for reconciliation” Ambassador invites international correspondents to visit Sri Lanka WASHINGTON: Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya hosted a group of foreign correspondents here in a January 25 reception held at his residence, prompting a discussi...

New York Times: It has been nearly three years since Sri Lankan government troops crushed the separatist Tamil Tigers in a gory, scorched-earth campaign that brought an end to three decades of civil war. The final battles — with some 300,000 civilians caught in the crossfire — were fought on the northern beaches and in ...

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 ...

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), in collaboration with the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA), will be holding an international conference on ‘Legal Process Outsourcing’ in partnership with the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA).   “The conference on the theme ‘Outsourcing versus Restructuring’ is scheduled to take place on Thursday 9 and ...

Dry weather, frost lowered output High prices, weak shilling lift earnings Output seen down 17 pct in Q1 NAIROBI (Reuters): Kenya produced less tea in 2011 from the previous period due to adverse weather but earnings from the crop soared to 109 billion shillings ($1.27 billion), thanks to high prices and a weaker local currency ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

Reuters: Iran threatened on Tuesday to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if foreign sanctions were imposed on its crude exports over its nuclear ambitions, a move that could trigger military conflict with economies dependent on Gulf oil. Western tensions with Iran have increased since a November 8 report by the ...

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 ...

Sri Lanka’s Number One English Radio Station, is gearing up to present yet another extravagant event. After a sellout show last year, Gold FM once again brings you the much anticipated annual gala musical event ‘The 70s Show 2011,’ to be held on 23 December, featuring the very best of our local artists. Gold FM ...

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s top mobile operator Dialog Axiata said its 2012 profit would be neutral or rise slightly due to cost restructuring in wireless fixed-line operator Suntel, which it agreed to buy last week in a deal worth up to $ 34.9 million. Dialog’s Group Chief Executive Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya told Reuters in an interview ...

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 ...

International Consultants Chairman Ranjiv Goonawardena had kindly invited the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau to participate by showcasing the great opportunity that Sri Lanka has to offer, at the Islamic Real Estate Finance (IREF) Summit and Gala Dinner Awards Ceremony of which it was a sponsor. International Consultants sponsored for the second year the ninth ...

ABC Radio Networks collected five awards at the e-Swabhimani Awards Gala 2011, becoming the first radio station to ever win an award in the history of the ceremony. The e-Swabhimani Awards Gala hosted by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) recognises the creativity and innovation in digital content and applications by ...

Last week my phone beeped and the text message read ‘The Chairperson of the Security and Exchange Commission Indrani Sugathadasa had resigned citing reasons of values and principles for her resignation’. My mind went back to the time when this lady when she was the Board Director at EDB. Whenever tough decisions had be taken ...

IN 2010, the boost for Sri Lanka tourism was being named the top travel destination by the New York Times. As the dawn of 2012 emerges the plus point is being among the top six of National Geographic’s best global destinations. Upbeat on tourism, the Government is considering a target of 950,000 arrivals for 2012 ...

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. ...

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...

After the recent Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, critics found three new words for the acronym ‘CWG’ – Corruption, Waste and lack of Governance. The Chairman of the Indian National Olympic Committee, who was Chairman of the Organising Committee, is presently in Tihar Jail, in Delhi with many of his acolytes, on charges regarding ...

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 ...

DUInvest an arm of DirectFN, a Dubai-based ICT company which specialises in capital market based software and, a leading financial portal in the Middle Eastern, East European and African regions commenced its services to Sri Lankan Investor Community recently with the launch of http://lk.duinvest.com. The portal deployed by DirectFN for the Colombo Stock Exchange acts ...

The Free Dictionary defines impunity as ‘exemption from punishment or loss or escape from fines’. In the context of the international law of human rights, it refers to the failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a denial of the victims’ right to justice and to bring ...