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 ...

and alumnus of Oxford University and London School of Economics attached ...

The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) recently donated books in marketing to the Jaffna University, with the objective of supporting marketing education at the university.  The books donated covered topics such as marketing an introduction, consumer behaviour, economics, economic

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 ...

Human rights Human rights are on the top of agenda today. Nations accuse each other of violations of human rights of themselves and others. Rights are generally violated during conflicts and wars as the strength of the weapon supersedes peace over and stability and rule of law. There is no shortage of conflicts in most ...

Foreigners most bullish with net buying up 20% or Rs. 5 b; Market’s value up by Rs. 48 b between 20 July and 24 Aug. Despite original reservations by some that President Mahinda Rajapaksa shouldn’t have met with capital market stakeholders, the  Colombo stock market has proved otherwise, with the most bullish being foreign investors. ...

Fitch examines financing alternatives to the current predominant international borrowingsBy Cassandra Mascarenhas Discussing new investment opportunities and financing structures for Sri Lankan private sector entities to enter the current government dominated infrastructure financing in the country, Fitch Ratings Lanka hosted a seminar titled ‘Fitch Perspectives’ last week, featuring F...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas The technical sessions of the Association of Professional Bankers’ 24th anniversary convention were held yesterday, bringing the APB’s flagship event to a close. Aptly themed ‘Sustainability in volatility: The bankers’ challenge,’ each technical session explored an area that could throw obstacles in the path of bankers and the line-up of speak...

By Nisthar Cassim The world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company, Nestlé said last week Sri Lanka is a high growth market with strong upside in tandem with improving socioeconomic development aided by the end-of-war benefit. “We are experiencing double digit growth in Sri Lanka and see very positive prospects going forward. Our commitment to ...

A student of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) has brought honour to her motherland after winning the best presentation award in the SAFA category at the International Conference for CA Students in India recently. Cooray, who delivered a thought-provoking presentation titled ‘Walk the Talk: Presentation and Communication Skills – ...

by Sarath De Alwis The crisis is not in our system of higher education. The crisis is in not knowing what higher education is. Arrogance of presumed superior knowledge of the policy makers and dogmatism of the teachers has precipitated a debate that reflects a pedantry of crisis proportions. We do not seem to have ...

‘Apata Galapena Arthika Kramaveda’, a Sinhala economic article collection book by Dr. Rohan Samarajiva, expert on infrastructure policies and C.J. Amaratunga, veteran journalist, will be launched at 4p.m. on 6 August, at the auditorium of the Bandaranayaka Institute of International studies. The book is analysing how the theories relevant to infrastructure sectors such as roads, ...

By a Special Correspondent A year or back from today, Sri Lankan economy had been sailing strongly amidst global economic typhoons. Most of the macro variables were reflecting peace dividends and rejuvenated hope. However, by mid 2011, the country’s trade deficit, fuelled by credit expansion was signalling early signs of an economic turmoil. Perhaps being ...

Marketing process for sales persons Under the marketing concept, the firm must find a way to discover unfulfilled customer needs and bring to market products that satisfy those needs. The process of doing so can be modelled in a sequence of steps: the situation is analysed to identify opportunities, the strategy is formulated for a ...

An important feature of the recent Sri Lanka Economic Summit, which both the Guest Speaker Gurcharan Das, Author, Columnist and Management Consultant and Keynote Speaker Dr. Kalpana Kochar, Chief Economist – South Asia of the World Bank, referred to were the opportunities presented to Sri Lanka by the ongoing process of globalisation and particularly the ...

Another round of elections has been fixed and the country is turned into election mode. Elections are said to be a benchmark of democracy, and then why are we bothered when more and more elections are held? More and more elections, have we correspondingly increased democracy in Sri Lanka? What does an election mean and ...

By Shamil Samsul Mueen 1. Introduction The global financial crisis has raised imperative issues concerning the stability and reliability of existing financial systems. This has driven an extensive global re-examination on the competence of the existing financial architecture and the search for a more enduring solution. As a result an increasing interest in Islamic finance ...

The Sri Lanka Economic Association or SLEA, the long-standing professional body of economists of Sri Lanka, has published some selected papers presented at its Annual Sessions in October 2011 in a volume titled ‘Achieving Economic Goals in the Midst of Global Challenges,’ the theme of the sessions. The volume, edited by two veteran economists – ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas Setting its sights on placing Sri Lanka in the global economy and expanding its reach in overseas markets, the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2012, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce’s annual flagship event, aptly themed ‘Positioning Sri Lanka in the Global Economy,’ commenced last evening at the Cinnamon Grand. In the context of ...

After 11 years of making US higher education popular across the tiny island nation in Indian Ocean Scholarships for USA (Pvt) Ltd (www.scholarshipsforusa.com) has commenced promoting Sri Lanka as one of the most viable Study Abroad destinations for its numerous partners in US. SUSA believes the traffic needs to be both ways and there’s much ...

The Oxford Dictionary tells us that being ‘happy’ is being cheerful with feelings of pleasure or satisfaction. ‘Satisfaction’ is, in turn, when you are pleased because you have achieved something or because something has happened as you wanted it to. A synonym is being ‘content’ – being happy and satisfied with what you have. Rulers ...

Sri Lanka’s new development tagline Sri Lanka’s current development tagline has been to make it the ‘Emerging Wonder of Asia’ as originally enunciated in the ‘Mahinda Chinthana: Vision for the Future’ and reaffirmed in both the Development Policy Framework of the Government issued in 2010 and the Annual Report of the Ministry of Finance and ...

By Marianne David MP and consultant economist Dr. Harsha De Silva yesterday alleged that THE UNP’s criticism over the mismanagement of the economy and the Central Bank as well as the EPF’s investments in banking stocks have been emphatically validated by global rating agency Standard and Poor’s.“Standard and Poor’s reiterated what we have been saying ...