As a tenfold growth in Sri Lanka – Qatar bilateral trade being reported, the first ever joint trade talks between Sri Lanka and fast growing Qatar are now in the offing. “We are now interested in convening the First Joint Council meeting between Sri Lanka and Qatar under the 2012 Agreement at an early date” ...

Sri Lanka’s economic sectors, agriculture, industries and services are performing well and we are today able to provide a robust new investment destination as a frontier country to the rest of the world. In that background, many investors realise that Sri Lanka is well poised to offer a safe and sound investment opportunity to its ...

Less than a year after starting up on its own, the company prepares to replicate its Indian success in Sri LankaJubilant FoodWorks, the master franchisee of Dominos Pizza for South Asia, last year set up its own subsidiary company in Sri Lanka, moving away from the franchisee partnership which held the fort for the Group ...

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s tea production fell 22.6 per cent year-on-year in March, the state-run tea board said on Tuesday, with industry experts attributing the drop to adverse weather. Sri Lanka’s March tea output was 27.21 million kg compared to 35.13 million kg in March 2011. Production in the first quarter dropped 6.7 per cent to ...

Sri Lanka should start thinking of real improvements rather than marketing magic, says Simon AnholtQ: Thank you for making time to discuss ‘Brand Sri Lanka’. In your view, on the principles of nation branding, what are the key issues that Sri Lanka must address? A: First of all, I have to stress that ‘nation branding’ ...

At the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Annual Conference in Kuala Lumpur last week, PATA CEO Martin J. Craigs committed the association to a four-year phase of ‘Next Generation’ action to underpin the 61-year old travel body’s relevance in the digital age. The CEO said aligned advocacy, mobile technology, business building events, and crisis management ...

Prospects for the global economy are slowly improving again, but growth is expected to be weak, especially in Europe, and unemployment in many advanced economies will stay high, according to the IMF’s latest forecast. Although action by policymakers in Europe and elsewhere has helped

The Central Bank, in its latest Annual Report, has downgraded its growth forecast for 2012 from eight per cent to 7.2 per cent. This is due to a combination of adverse global developments and the negative effects of domestic policy misalignments. The contractionary measures introduced to address the imbalance in the trade account (i.e. to ...

PORT LOUIS,(Reuters): The number of tourists visiting Mauritius fell 0.2 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, as arrivals declined from France, one of the Indian Ocean island’s most important markets. Statistics Mauritius said on Tuesday arrivals for the first three months of 2012 fell to 261,995 from 262,626 in the period a year ago, ...

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has launched its inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi to Basra, making it the airline’s third destination in Iraq. The new Airbus A320 service, with 16 Pearl Business class seats and 120 seats in Coral Economy class, will operate four times a week

The President of Chamber of Tourism and Industry A.M. Jaufer recently met the Regional Director, Asia Pacific, World Tourism Organization Xu Jing at the Colombo Hilton during the latter’s visit to Sri Lanka. During the discussion Jaufer said that the world has now recognised Sri Lanka as a tourism destination which is a positive sign ...

Last Sunday when the unknown Ajinkya Rahane scored 103 runs off just 60 balls at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, which helped the Rajasthan Royals to score a massive 195 runs at IPL season five, my mind went to just one ethos the IPL is all about – highlighting performance. It is how IPL ...

Hundreds of millions of people, businesses and governments around the world unite each year to support the largest environmental event in history – Earth Hour.  For 42 years Earth Hour has been uniting people to protect the planet but it seems that Mother Earth has never been faced with a crisis as severe as it ...

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has hinted that foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country this year could surpass the targeted figure of $2 billion, up from $1 billion. The target was “a very big task, but I am confident we may surpass it,” Minister Rajapaksa has told Reuters in an interview yesterday. FDI hit ...

A Sri Lanka-Palestine Joint Investment Forum can help spur bilateral trade between both countries according to Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen. Also, Palestine could ‘almost feel’ Sri Lanka’s great potential at the Expo 2012 show. Minister Bathiudeen made the comments while addressing Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Palestine Dr. Khuloud Daibes when ...

Whilst expressing confidence over the outlook for 2012 the Central Bank in its 2011 Annual Report says that the key challenge facing Sri Lanka in 2012 is managing the numerous risks arising from global developments. It said given the uncertain outlook for global commodity prices, especially oil, the challenge ahead would be to maintain inflation ...

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa yesterday said that Mahinda Rajapaksa Government has achieved highest economic growth in Sri Lanka’s post independence history and has brought stability to the economy within a short period of time of after the defeating of terrorism

SINGAPORE (Reuters):Singapore’s central bank is expected to keep monetary policy on hold on Friday and allow the local dollar to rise at a “modest and gradual” pace against other currencies to help combat persistent inflationary pressures. All 16 forecasters polled by Reuters expect the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to stand pat when it issues ...

Central bank Governor says country is targeting per capita income of $4,000 by 2015Ajit Nivard Cabraal is a man intimately associated with the economic development of Sri Lanka. Well before he became the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, in 2006, Cabraal was the chief economic adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was ...

On 30 March, Cunard Line’s latest luxury cruise vessel MV Queen Elizabeth made her inaugural call to Colombo, marking the third inaugural vessel call to Colombo made by the cruise liners operated by the parent company Carnival UK within the first quarter of 2012. The vessel left Southampton on 10 January this year and is ...

2011 Annual Report themed ‘Weaving the Dreams of our Nation’ because ‘In Sri Lanka we Believe’ The company’s theme of the 2010 Annual Report which was released early last year was ‘In Sri Lanka we Believe.’ It  was a theme which was to inspire the company during 2011 because it  expressed not only the company’s  ...

Deals worth $ 12.1 m under negotiation “An invaluable learning curve for Sri Lanka’s international trade scheme,” says Rishad The recently-concluded Expo 2012 was a successful event, coming after a lapse of 15 years. “Expo 2012 garnered confirmed orders to the value of US$ 66,090 and currently orders under negotiation amount to US$ 12,110,315. There ...

Etihad Airways’ inaugural passenger flight to Kenya has touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) in Nairobi.   The new daily, two-class A320 service is the airline’s first passenger service to East Africa and a critically important step in expanding its presence in Africa. The airline will also reach into West Africa with the ...

Parliamentary accountability The Parliament, as the country’s foremost representative institution, has the sole authority over national resources and financial allocations and concurrently has a prominent role to play in fiscal responsibility, the budgetary process, economic development and effective transparent economic and financial management, with a view to assuring sustainable growth an...

The Secretary of Defence and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa was invited as a Guest of the Government of Japan in order to interact with the key political leaders, senior technocrats and cabinet ministers. Secretary Rajapaksa, on the day before he left to Colombo, met Minister of Education, Culture, Sports , Science and Technology Hirofumi Hirano; ...

By Cheranka Mendis While Sri Lanka’s largest mega trade, investment and tourism promotion initiative ‘Expo 2012’ has been welcomed by stakeholders as a timely affair, stallholders shared mixed feelings on the order of the show. Some were elated having received inquires just two days into the event, while others expressed disappointment with regard to the ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas Sri Lanka is ripe for investment and should exploit its strategic location to attract more foreign investment, while not losing focus on its traditional markets were the general views expressed at the Expo 2012 Symposium on Trade, Investment and Tourism. Held yesterday, the symposium featured a line-up of representatives of many sectors, ...

Sri Lanka and Japan have agreed to add Tokyo’s Narita International Airport to the Open Skies Agreement between the two countries, Japan Times reported. According to Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism the addition of Narita airport is to take effect in summer of 2013. The agreement will allow both countries to operate ...

The Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) and the Embassy of Vietnam in Sri Lanka have organised a seminar on:  ‘Exploring the Potential for Sri Lanka-Vietnam Economic Cooperation’ to coincide with Sri Lanka Expo 2012. The event will take place on 30 March at the IPS Auditorium.   The seminar will focus on ...

The Expo 2012 show that commenced yesterday highlights Sri Lanka’s export products across more than 20 sectors. “Expo 2012 is a viable platform for UAE to identify the export product portfolio of Sri Lanka. In fact, we did not know that Sri Lanka has such a huge export portfolio until today,” said Rashid Al Telaji, ...