ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkey’s tourism minister said yesterday he was unconcerned by the collapse of British tour operator Thomas Cook as he unveiled ambitious plans to make the country one of the world’s top holiday destinations. “Nobody should be

(Colombo) REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares ended down yesterday, snapping two straight gaining sessions to record their second weekly fall, while the rupee was little changed as inward remittances offset dollar demand from banks. The index rose for the pa

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Key oil freight rates from the Middle East to Asia rocketed as much as 28 percent yesterday in a global oil shipping market spooked by United States sanctions on units of Chinese giant COSCO for alleged involvement in ferrying c

The need to build more Sri Lankan brands and taking them to international market successfully was asserted this week, as challenges continue to mount with the country looking to shift its attention towards being

(Gaydon, UK) REUTERS: Britain’s biggest carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover, will close its British factories for a week in November to cope with Brexit, its boss said yesterday, a plan automakers are adopting to help prepare for any disruption resulting f

South Asian academics and think tanks yesterday expressed hope for a shift in political structure and thinking to move forward with regional integration, which has come to a grinding halt due to region

(Washington) AFP: The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday formally selected Kristalina Georgieva of Bulgaria to be only the second woman ever to lead the 189-member institution. The selection had been all but guaranteed after the global crisis l

(Colombo) REUTERS : Sri Lanka’s ruling party yesterday nominated its Deputy Leader, Sajith Premadasa, to run in a presidential election on Nov. 16, a move that appeared intended to win over Buddhist-majority voters.

(Colombo) REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares rose for a second session yesterday as banks and diversified stocks continued their rally after the Central Bank asked lenders to cut interest rates, while the rupee closed weaker.

Bank of Ceylon’s (BOC) Thurunudiriya loan scheme has assisted to-date 1, 000 young entrepreneurs across the island disbursing more than Rs.410 million by end of September. This was reporte

Home Lands Skyline, the residential development arm of Home Lands Group has invested Rs.364 million in an up-market property of 6.5 acres in Malabe in Chandrika Kumarathunga Mawatha.

Sri Lanka’s spice exporters yesterday lashed out at the multiple non-tariff barriers imposed by Indian authorities on pepper, areca nuts and clove stems despite the existence of Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. The Management

The European Union delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives along with the United National Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) recently held a workshop as project consultation and validation for new initiative to support to the implementation

Sri Lanka’s spices industry received the much-awaited and required boost yesterday with the Export Development Board (EDB) launching the country-of-origin trade mark, ‘Ceylon Spices’. The trademark is followed

Sri Lanka has missed the fiscal target it had agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during its fifth review of the four-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme, said a staff team from the fund, who were in Colombo from September 10 to

The Treasury fears revenue loss in excess of Rs.300 billion by the end of this year as the economy struggles to recover from the adverse impacts of the Easter Sunday attacks. “So far, we have seen a Rs.215 billion loss in state revenue. If the rev

The economic activity in most of Sri Lanka’s provinces had remained stagnant in 2018 as their contribution to the country’s GDP remained more or less unchanged, according to the data of the Statistics Department of the Central Bank.

Sri Lanka’s trade deficit, which has been contracting since November, last year, expanded in the month of July as exports fell more than the decline in imports, after a steady growth for several months, th

The Central Bank yesterday said it has decided to withdraw the directive issued to impose maximum interest rates on rupee deposits in April, following the lending rate caps ordered on banks from next month. The bank said the Monetary Board has decide

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces that Transcom Electronics Pvt. Limited will deploy IFS Applications™ 10 as its ERP backbone for managing core business processes and improving scalability in their retail business.

CNN: A groom who shares the same name as the travel operator Thomas Cook has had his wedding plans ruined by the company’s collapse. Cook and his partner, Amelia B

Business tycoon and Vallibel One PLC Chairman Dhammika Perera yesterday laid out a brand-new tax structure with tax cuts and incentives to guide Sri Lanka to the developed nation territory by 2030, as the current tax regime has failed to attract the

A senior politician in the country recently bemoaned the practice of subsidising loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs) through state banks which has indirectly resulted in crippling Sri Lanka’s banking sector.

The Finance Ministry yesterday announced a relief scheme to release the vehicles stuck at the Hambantota port, imported during January 2015 to November 2017, due to sudden hike in taxes.

The Export Development Board will launch Sri Lanka’s country-of-origin trademark for the spices sector today at JAIC Hilton, Colombo. The mark supports growers, processors and manufacturers by helping them clearly identify their products as Sri Lan

The Central Bank yesterday said it ordered all licensed commercial banks (LCBs) to cut lending rates at least by 200 basis points by next month as other policy measures employed by the monetary authority to stim

Hemas won the Grand Award for Asia’s Most Socially Responsible Company of the year at the Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability (ACES) Awards Ceremony held in Bangkok, Thailand.

The present regime’s absence of effective communication skills to engage all relevant stakeholders was pointed out as the main impediment for state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms in Sri Lanka, by an opposition lawmaker, at a recent forum, although

National carrier SriLankan Airlines should be managed by the private sector as the interference by the government had led to its downfall, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.

Sri Lanka’s vehicle registrations were steady in August from July as the equal number of working days in the month helped the registrations to remain virtually at same levels.