The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) last week called for governments and regulators to accelerate efforts to allocate and assign adequate spectrum to support the ever-increasing demand for mobile broadband. In a discussion paper developed by the ICC Task Force on Internet and Telecoms Infrastructure and Services (IT IS), ICC expressed concern about the strain ...

Avril Henry is a widely acclaimed keynote speaker, consultant, business and career coach, mentor, author and co-author of several books on leadership and the different generations at work. She will share her thoughts on ‘Quest for Balance – You: Role, Rhetoric and Reality’ at the National Conference of Chartered Accountants – 2011.   A widely ...

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s worst floods in decades have jolted a global supply chain already straining under the impact of Japan’s tsunami, as deluged factories threaten some of the kingdom’s key export industries. The floods have killed about 300 people, damaged one-tenth of Thailand’s rice paddy and made major roads north of Bangkok impassable. Toyota, Ford, ...

By Devin Jayasundera The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) in celebrating its 125th anniversary announced the launch of the SLMA 2012 International Conference and Exhibitions to professionals in the medical field and the media on 4 October. The theme of this year’s conference will be ‘Global Forum for Sri Lankan Doctors’. The SLMA, which is ...

A reader of My View on popular fallacies of currency appreciation published in the previous few weeks has directed a series of questions to me. What is Central Bank’s mandate? Should it just target to stabilise the domestic prices? Or should it try to maintain stability in the exchange rate? Or should it work for ...

The Maldivian administration’s key economic strategy is to engage the private sector and enable the diversification of the economy for sustainable development, said Mahmood Razee, Minister of Economic Development in the Republic of Maldives who was in the country to attend the fourth Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka-Maldives Bilateral Business Council recently.   ...

Last week I had the privilege of delivering a keynote address at an annual sales and marketing conference of one of the largest multinational companies in the country, which recorded a turnover of around Rs. 65 billion and a contribution of 1.5% of GDP to Sri Lanka. The event gave me amazing insights that motivated ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas For the first time in Sri Lanka, the US Embassy and Sri Lankan Government agencies collaborated to organize an event on biotechnology, based on the theme ‘From green revolution to gene revolution – are we on the right track?’ The two day event which commenced yesterday will feature a line-up of distinguished ...

By Cheranka Mendis Sri Lanka’s general education system needs to up their game before long if the country is to achieve the status of knowledge hub in the economic development plans to be laid out by the Government by 2015. The system, which runs on low investment and infrastructure, questionable quality teaching and varied issues ...

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s stock market narrowly edged up on Monday from a seven-week low, ending four straight falls as investors snapped up battered shares though a liquidity shortage and global worries cooled sentiments, dealers said. The island nation’s main share index closed 0.02

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s stock market fell for a third session to a more-than six-week low on Thursday, following Asian peers on a gloomy global economic outlook, a local liquidity shortage and forced selling to meet margin debt reductions. The island nation’s main share index closed 0.45

Buoyant on a lucrative trend, Sri Lankan rubber manufacturers have requested the Trade Ministry to double the cess on raw rubber exports, creating the stage for a clash with producers. Sri Lanka, the seventh largest natural rubber exporter in the world, has decided to increase taxes to reduce raw rubber exports, the Trade Ministry stated ...

Large parcels of The Finance Co. traded, foreign investors net buyers after 12 sessions The bourse continued its downward trend yesterday where broad levels of selling were displayed on stocks but foreign buying returned to after an absence of a dozen sessions. ASI decreased by 35.69 points (-0.52%YoY) to close at 6,792.88 where as sensitive ...

COLOMBO needs a new mayor. The contest to see who gets the coveted post has gathered the most amount of interest that the other 22 local government bodies together have not received. The stakes are high, especially for the United National Party (UNP) that has the last vestiges of its credibility riding on it. Policies ...

Retail selling push stocks near two-week lows Foreign investors net sellers of Rs. 339.9 m Rupee flat despite heavy importer dollar demand Reuters: Sri Lanka’s stock market fell near a two-week low on Tuesday on high turnover and volume as retail investors sold amid a credit shortage

AUCKLAND, 12 Sept. – The eight matches played so far at Rugby World Cup 2011 may have resulted in only one positional change in the latest IRB World Rankings, but there was no shortage of thrills and spills with Wales, Argentina and Romania all coming agonisingly close to causing upsets

Abacus International, Asia’s leading provider of travel solutions and services, announced last week the launch of Abacus WorkSpace. This new agency workspace – the Next Generation point-of-sale – gives Abacus customer across Asia Pacific strong advantages in productivity, content aggregation and customer management.   Abacus WorkSpace delivers a new, high-performance open-so...

Last week, media were abuzz with two reports on how undesired exchange rate movements could worry governments. One was a currency under pressure for appreciation in the market and the other was a currency moving in the opposite. Swiss Franc: One way Journey to Appreciation The first was the case of the Swiss Franc which ...

By Amantha Perera (IPS): As paddy cultivation revives in Sri Lanka’s former war zones, prospects for the island’s food security have improved dramatically. Experts say the extra capacity will not only make up for shortages of the country’s staple caused by the twin floods that hit the eastern and central regions this year, but actually ...

NEW DELHI, Sept 7 (Reuters): A powerful bomb placed in a briefcase outside the High Court in New Delhi killed at least 10 people and wounded 61 on Wednesday in an attack authorities said was claimed by a South Asian militant group linked to al Qaeda. The bomb dug a crater three to four feet ...

By Devin Jayasundera A top Finance Ministry official last week declared that the country’s import sector has bright opportunities on to the future in tandem with fast growing economy and per capita income of the people. Delivering the keynote address at the Ceylon Chamber Import Section Annual General Meeting the Ministry of Finance and Planning ...

2011/2014 batch of the Graduate Diploma in Purchasing and Supply Chain Management conducted by the Institute of Supply and Materials Management (ISMM) was inaugurated at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce on 28 August 2011 in the presence of Director Training Dr. Kingsley Wickremasuriya, two of the vice Presidents of ISMM I.G.Perera and Anil Ponweera. According ...

The Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) yesterday lifted the ban on the import of Lucky brand of cement following the Pakistan-based manufacturer’s factory getting a certification on quality from a London laboratory. The decision to lift the suspension imposed in June, was made at a meeting of the SLSI Council which includes representatives from the ...

THE report of the three member committee appointed to investigate the import and distribution of substandard petrol was out on Monday. Unlike some of the other reports, this one was made public much to the relief of civil society. The Committee was headed by Power and Energy Ministry Secretary M.M.C. Ferdinando and comprised CPC Chemical ...

Stock Broking firm Capital Alliance suggests that the 2.6 million tourist arrivals target isn’t a pipedream but achievable though it will be only by 2020, which is 4 years later than the Government and industry set timeline of 2016. “The Government projects 2.5m arrivals in 2016, but the industry will lack the rooms and trained ...

IRIN: Bumper paddy production in Sri Lanka’s former conflict areas has averted an expected national rice shortage, experts say. Twin floods in January and February inundated more than 200,000 hectares of paddy land in the eastern and central regions of the island nation, destroying

By Uditha Jayasinghe Around one million 50-kilo bags of cement need to be imported urgently to offset the current shortage say industry experts warning that scarcity and increase in price would hit Sri Lanka’s Rs.250 billion Construction Sector hard. Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB

The official handover of the Vision Centre in Kadawatha by the International Centre for Eye care Education (ICEE) to Lions Golden Jubilee Trust for Healthcare and Skills Development took place recently. The event commemorated ICEE’s successful involvement and collaboration with Lions since 2009. Since the Vision Centre’s establishment, it has successfully promoted eye care services ...

By Amantha Perera VAVUNIYA,(IRIN): As thousands of students begin uninterrupted schooling after a lapse of years, education officials in Sri Lanka’s former northern conflict zone are facing a shortage of teachers. John Edward Solemn, assistant education director of Vavuniya South

United National Party Parliamentarian Kabir Hashim who once served as a mediator between the two fractions now says it is the responsibility of the three leaders to take the party cadre out of the mess they themselves created. Hashim asserts that leaders should be able to resolve the leadership crisis amongst themselves without pushing the ...