International market conditions are anticipated to generate extremely lucrative opportunities for Sri Lanka’s sustainable oil producers through the first half of 2020 (1H2020).

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US threats to put tariffs on European autos did not come up during talks this week with American trade officials in Washington, EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said Thursday. Hogan’s remarks came hours after Germany’s defense

Asian equities mostly rose yesterday as investors, still buoyed by the China-US trade deal, turned their focus to earnings season and the global outlook, while they were also cheered by data indicating China’s ec

BEIJING (AFP) - China’s economy grew last year at its slowest pace in three decades, hit by weak domestic demand and trade tensions, but while officials warned of further headwinds, separate figures yesterday suggest the downward trend is bottoming

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia will lose billions of dollars in tourism revenue as international visitors cancel trips in droves due to bushfires raging across the country, an industry body forecast yesterday.

Masatsugu Asakawa assumes office as the 10th President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday. “I am honoured to assume the role of ADB President and to begin working in close cooperation with our 68 members. ADB has been a trusted partner o

PARIS (Reuters) - Renault said yesterday it expected a slight decline in the car market in Europe, Russia and China this year after the French carmaker reported a 3.4 percent fall of worldwide sales in 2019 as China and Iran weighed. Sales grew by 1.

BEIJING (AFP) - The European Union will challenge the China-US trade agreement at the World Trade Organization if it creates “distortions” in the market that harm EU companies, the bloc’s envoy to Beijing said yesterday. Ambassador Nicolas Chap

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Four companies sued Facebook Inc in U.S. federal court on Thursday for alleged anticompetitive conduct, saying the social network inappropriately revoked developer access to its platform in order to harm prospective competit

The Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) forecasts a minimum 10 percent growth in tea output with 340 million kgs of tea production and over Rs 250 billion export earnings for 2020, focusing on enhancing Ceylon Tea quality with an integrated quality and produc

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) President Amal Ratnayake (center) yesterday took part in the Bell Ringing Ceremony at the CSE to commemorate the Global CIMA Centenary

Three foreign consortiums from Europe, United States and China are in discussion with Micro Cars to invest US$ 500 million in the latest venture to build EU standard buses, commercial and land vehicles as well as Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) locally.

Milford Ceylon Pvt Ltd, a foreign strategic investor, yesterday bought 19 percent stake of Softlogic Life Insurance PLC for Rs.2.6 billion from Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG), a German development bank. DEG divested 71.

Sri Lanka’s merchandise export earnings have declined for the fifth consecutive month by 3.1 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) to US$ 950 million in November last year, according to provincial export data released by the Export Development Board (EDB).

Sri Lanka’s economic health score slipped in January due to the expected fiscal slippage from the hefty tax concessions rolled out by the new administration since December 2019, but score compilers had given two points to the ‘investor confidence

An Information Technology (IT) and supply chain management professional, Lasantha Wickramasinghe has been appointed the new Chairman of MILCO (Pvt) Ltd. Wickramasinghe has been serving at the Sweden-based multinational enterprise software company, IF

Recent brinkmanship between the United States and Iran is the latest signal of Washington’s distraction from great power competition with China. The crisis in the Middle East and impeachment proceedings in Washington, have distracted the Trump admi

Sound economic policies and strong institutions have transformed Asia and the Pacific over the past five decades into a centre of global dynamism, according to a new book from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Omar Khan, a pioneer of neuro-linguistic programming and a leading innovator in transformational learning in the US and throughout the world, says the most essential attribute of a leader is to demonstrate behaviourally and personally what you ask of

Sri Lanka’s Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) were in for a rude shock this week when the government announced its decision to increase the minimum daily wage of plantation labourers to Rs.1,000, with effect from March 1, this year.

The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been given time till January 31 to apply for the government-proposed loan moratorium under its credit support programme but such requests should come in writing and some should come with credible bus

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is reported to have brought to the notice of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa the importance of attracting one million of China’s total 170 million outbound tourists to Sri Lanka, to develop the sector.

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has decided to discontinue the current industry classification used to categorise its listed companies and adopt the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) along with S&P/CSE co-branded sector indices, with ef

Although the broader interest rates trended downwards during most part of last year, the interest rates applicable on corporate bonds had moved in the opposite direction.

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal to shut down the National Agency for Public-Private Partnerships (NAPPP), which was formerly headed by Thilan Wijesinghe.

Business chiefs head into their first global gathering of 2020 warning that a litany of environmental disasters risk defining the world over the new decade, according to a survey yesterday.

Distress in the international markets has brewed a storm in the global tea cup, negatively impacting the top tea-producing countries and Sri Lanka has not been spared in this wave.

The Port of Colombo is ranked the world’s number one container growth port among the top 30 container ports for the year of 2018, in container handling. It has also recorded a 13.5 percent growth for the year 2018, over the same period of the previ

The high-potential tourism industry is the next game-changer in the Sri Lankan economy, however, Sri Lanka lacks conceptual requirements and is in dire need for creative tourism, innovation with technology and knowledge-based decision making.

The Port of Singapore recorded strong growth in the past decade. In particular, the container throughput in 2019 hit an all-time high of 37.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), amidst challenging global economic conditions.