Chinese private security companies (PSCs) are increasingly going global. Not so long ago they focussed mostly on providing bodyguard services for China’s rich and famous and guarding facilities in China. But now, China’s growing global fo

Sri Lanka’s Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), a retirement fund of the private sector workers managed by the state, is about to re-enter the stock market, ending several years of inactivity, after it came under fire for being a dumping gro

Three days before U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping portrayed Beijing as the champion and defender of globalisation at the Davos World Economic Forum amid rising fears of trade protectionism.  

In response to my article regarding the government and Central Bank abdicating their duty to support the rupee, the Central Bank, by its statement of October 10, 2018, has gone to embarrassing lengths to downplay its current inability to defend the r

The All Share Price Index (ASPI) decreased eight points or 0.14 percent to 5872 on Wednesday, October 10, from 5880 in the previous trading session and on Thursday, down to 5840. 

The Invest Sri Lanka capital market road show organised by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in association with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) concluded on a

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) is making the following statement in relation to the article titled “Rupee depreciation shows abdication of vital statutory duty by CB, Govt”, authored by former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabr

The government gets set to unravel its fiscal policy plan for 2019 at a crucial juncture in time, as on the one hand it prepares for the much-anticipated elections at the end of next year and on the other, the Sri Lankan economy is under immense scru

Global finance and reserve bank chiefs will gather this week in Bali, Indonesia, for the annual gathering of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, amid the rising concern over trade war and risks of global economic crisis. Finance and

As per the Monetary Law Act (MLA), it is a statutory duty of the Central Bank is to maintain “economic and price stability”. In so doing, the MLA requires the Monetary Board “to maintain the international stability of the Sri Lanka

It  was reported in the local  news media  on October 7,  2018 that Sri Lanka will host a regional conference on the future of the Indian Ocean on October 11, 2018, which is expected to bring together countries that surround the t

Be it chief executives, managing directors or heads of organisations or departments, instead of managing, one should always focus on leading their organisations with a sense of openness and retaining humility, N-able Managing Director and Chief Exe

In global economic growth, divergence across economies is widening. The US keeps posting robust expansion, with a whopping 4.2 percent of annualized quarter-on-quarter growth in 2Q 2018, the fastest since 3Q 2014. While Japan’s expansion picked

The rising demand and an accelerating population shift to major urban centres are driving activity in Sri Lanka’s retail sector, with a series of large-scale developments to launch in the coming months; however, the recent pressures on domestic

The Sri Lankan Rupee in the last eight weeks has taken a beating like many other Asian currencies as a result of the dollar rally.  The government rightly pointed out that many of the other currencies had taken a bigger beating. This week the ru

In a move that heralds greater bilateral cooperation, Chinese Defence Minister Lieutenant General Wei Fenghe paid his first visit to India in  August 2018. 

The Sri Lankan currency (LKR) has weakened against the US dollar in 2018 (9.4 percent as at September 26, 2018) with close to 4 percent of the depreciation being recorded in the last two weeks. Currencies like the Indian rupee, Indonesian rupiah and

The stock market is a place where investors with different knowledge and experience levels gather and take their investment decisions for their best interests. 

Sri Lanka has a long history of coping with weather impacts.    About two thousand years ago, the country built one of the world’s first irrigation systems to control its water supply.

The rupee depreciated by Rs.29 from 2005 to 2014 and the average year-on-year (YoY) depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee was 2.8 percent per year. The official foreign reserves increased from US $ 2.7 billion to US $ 8.2 billion over the same period.

Sri Lanka has seen a historical increase in both the number and intensity of droughts, floods and geographic changes to vector borne diseases, coastal erosion, tropical storms, lightening, crop failures, and landslides.

Sri Lanka ranked in the fourth place among countries most affected by extreme weather events in 2016, according to the Global Climate Risk Index (CRI).  The average CRI for Sri Lanka for the last 20 years (1997-2017) was recorded as 48. 

Sri Lanka, as a country and the business organisations in it should embed sustainability when drafting innovative strategies in order to become part of the solution to global warming, France’s INSEAD Business School Executive in Residence Dr. R

Although foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to Sri Lanka have ‘recovered’ in 2017, hitting the much-touted US $ 1 billion landmark, the underlying bottlenecks of poor ease of doing business, attracting the wrong ‘types’ o

The United National Party (UNP), the oldest political party in the country, recently celebrated its 72nd anniversary.   

I have read with much interest the recent article where Dr. Romesh Bandaranaike has shared his “unique insights” of Sri Lanka’s plantations. At the outset, I totally disagree with

Improving the welfare of Asian farmers depends on strategically investing in collecting “good data”. Most of Asia’s poor live in rural areas and rely on agriculture as their main source of income.

Following is a brief interview with Bhavik Rathod - Head of Uber Eats India & South Asia on the launch of Uber Eats in Sri Lanka recently.  What is Uber Eats and why are you launching it in Colombo?

With May’s major flooding in Ratnapura, a city in Sri Lanka, and its disastrous consequences still fresh in our minds, it reminds me of a similar occurrence, this time in the city of Buenos Aires.  

Following is the keynote speech delivered by MAS Holdings Chief Growth Officer and Director Nathan Sivagananathan at the 19th annual general meeting of the Tea Exporters’ Association, held on August 31, 2018.