Hirunika to enter politics ( pics courtesy: sundaytimes.lk)

The daughter of the slain political leader Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra has joined the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party in a bid to start her political journey, said a local media report.

Hirunika Premachandra once a model earlier announced that she will enter politics to fill the shoes of her father, who was assassinated.

Premachandra was assassinated few months ago during a clash with a rival political faction.

Miss Premachandra announced her latest move today while sending a congratulatory letter to the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party, which was celebrating its anniversary.

Her father has played a key role in forming and growing the SLMP, which was once led by late Wijaya Kumaranatunga, the actor turned politician.

The party was founded in the mid eighties and since recent past has put its weight behind the SLFP led coalitions.

Chemanex starts a super abosrbents manufacturing plant

(News360.lk) Sri Lanka’s Chemcel Private Limited has made a soft opening of its newly built Carbozy Methyl Strach extrusion plant which will produce super absorbents which are being used as an input when manufacturing baby diapers.

Chairman of the Chemcel, Preethi Jayawardena speaking to news360.lk “We are going to produce super absorbents which will be used to manufacture baby diapers”

The Company, a subsidiary of Chemanex PLC, a listed firm in the Colombo bourse has invested Rs. 350 million to build the new plant, which has come up in the BOI zone in Mirigama.

The construction of the second phase of the plant is expected to commence shortly with an estimated investment of Rs. 750 million.

Company says the second phase will be funded by its overseas partners.

According to Jayawardena, commercial production of the plant will only start by the end of this year, once the second phase of the project is completed.

CBSL imposes a credit ceiling on banks

(News360.lk) Sri Lanka along with its latest rate hike also has imposed a ceiling on the disbursement of credit by Commercial banks during the year 2012 in a bid to keep a tab on the credit growth in the economy.

The directive request the Commercial banks to take steps to ensure that their  overall credit growth in 2012 will not exceed 18% of Bank’s respective loan book outstanding at the end of 2011.

The Central Bank says, a credit growth of up to 23% will be allowed for those banks, which finance the excess of up to 5% of the credit growth from the funds mobilized from overseas.

The move also comes as the Central bank announced today that the credit granted by commercial banks to the private sector has increased by 34.5% year on year during December 2011, substantially exceeding projections.

It says, Import related credit in Sri Lanka has increased by over 34% during 2011, while the credit for exports only has seen a growth of 8% during the year.

This situation also has resulted in Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves declining to US$ 5.9 billion by end December 2011, as the Central Bank had to intervene by supplying foreign exchange, on a net basis, to mitigate the undue pressure on the domestic foreign exchange market.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka says this move will also help ensure that the inflation remains at mid-single digit levels in the second half of 2012.

Accordingly, the Bank’s repurchase rate and the reverse repurchase rate will be 7.50% and 9%, respectively.

Central Bank’s latest move to curtail credit comes as the country’s trade deficit during the first eleven months of the year 2011 has widened by 111.3% to stand at a massive sum of US$ 8.835 billion.

The Bank says credit granted by commercial banks to the private sector has increased by 34.5% year on year during December 2011, substantially exceeding projections.

“Provisional estimates indicate that within the credit extended to the private sector by commercial banks, trade related credit and credit driven by import related items such as motor vehicles and consumer durables increased significantly” added the Bank’s monetary policy statement.

It says, Import related credit in Sri Lanka has increased by over 34% during 2011, while the credit for exports only has seen a growth of 8% during the year.

The Bank observes that pawning also has displayed a significant increase in 2011.

In addition, credit granted to the Government and public corporations by commercial banks too have increased considerably,

Central Bank says, a higher petroleum import bill and the inadequate adjustment to domestic petroleum prices have led to increased borrowings by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation

Sri Lanka’s Monetary authority also points out, while at the same time excess liquidity in the domestic money market declined from Rs. 124 billion as at end 2010 to the current level of around Rs 15 to 20 billion,

It has observed that this decline in liquidity led to market interest rates recording an upward movement in recent months.

“With excess liquidity declining, commercial banks also competitively raised interest rates paid on deposits, with rates on 3-month and 6-month term deposits showing a considerable increase during the past few months” added the Bank.

This is the first time; Sri Lanka went into a rate hike since 2007.

The ship "Arcadia" at the Colombo port

(News360.lk) The British owned Arcadia” cruise ship has arrived in Sri Lanka with 2100 tourists onboard.

The Cruise ship is currently being berthed at the Colombo Port and is expected to leave to Thailand, its next destination.

A statement issued by Sri Lanka Tourism says, the luxury carrier owned by the UK based Carnival PLC has tourists from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.

Following the arrival, these tourists have started visiting areas such as Kandy, Pinnawala and the Colombo City.

The Cruise ship Arcadia has 11 decks inclusive of a state-of-the-art swimming pool, an auditorium, a gym and a restaurant.

“Having set sail from the UK on the 3rd of January this year, the vessel was berthed at Cochin, India, just before resuming its journey to Colombo” added the statement issued by the SLT.

Sri Lanka is expecting more than 20 luxury ships to arrive in the Island during this year.

The Island nation is planning to attract 950,000 tourists in 2012, a record figure, if achieved.

Tourists who arrived on "Arcadia"

Sri Lankan cultural dancers performing near the ship

Tourists who arrived in the ship

A tourist couple posing for a photograph

A Female tourist coming out of the ship

Central Bank says this move will help develop the business of margin providing and also increase market activity by helping investors to have more access to finance.

wear seat belts or face spot fines

Sri Lanka says, it will impose spot fines against drivers and passengers travelling in the front seat of the vehicles without wearing seat belts.

Cabinet of Ministers have given their consent to go ahead with the proposal by amending the motor traffic act.

As of now, the implementation of the fines for this offense is being carried out by the courts.

However under the new rule, a spot fine of not less than Rs.1000 and not exceeding Rs.2000 will be imposed in the first occasion.

A fine not less than Rs.2000 and not exceeding Rs.3000 on the second occasion, and a fine not exceeding Rs.3,500 and cancellation of the driving license on the third occasion.

Under the present regulations, drivers and the passengers in the front seats of certain categories of vehicles that have registration numbers beginning with English letters need to wear seat belts.

]]> http://www.news360.lk/other/health/wear-seat-belts-or-face-%e2%80%9cspot-fines%e2%80%9d/feed 2 http://www.news360.lk/economy/sanctions-on-iran-impact-sri-lankan-tea-exporters?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sanctions-on-iran-impact-sri-lankan-tea-exporters http://www.news360.lk/economy/sanctions-on-iran-impact-sri-lankan-tea-exporters#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:20:12 +0000 author http://www.news360.lk/?p=16548

SL tea exports affected owing to sanctions on Iran

Sri Lanka’s weekly tea auction has seen small leaf teas fetching low prices and the highly priced tippy varieties going unsold, as Iran, the main buyer of those teas is struggling to access foreign exchange.

“This could be attributed to Iran’s lack of access to foreign exchange and other sanction measures”, added John Keells tea brokers in its weekly tea report.

Dilukshan Fernando, a director of George Stuarts (Tea & Marketing) Private Limited says, the interest from the Iranian tea buyers have dropped.

He also says the payments for the teas which they have already exported to Iran are also getting delayed.

“Generally, when you negotiate with the bank you get the money, but it has not been the case since recent past”, added Fernando.

According to Fernando, the orders from Iran also have dropped.

George Stuarts is one of the main local suppliers of tea to Iran and exports around 3 to 4 million kilograms, every year.

Gihan Fernando, a Manager at Asiya Siyaka Commodities speaking to News360.lk said, “Especially during this week, most of the teas sold to Iran went unsold in the Colombo auction”.

According to him, some of the teas sold to the Middle Eastern nation have seen prices coming down by Rs. 20 to 30 per kilogram.

Following the economic sanctions announced by US and the European Union, Iran is facing a shortage of Dollars and other foreign currencies resulting in its importers struggling to send payments for their overseas suppliers.

Pawning a preferred source of financing in the SME sector

(News360.lk) Sri Lanka’s Small and Medium Scale Enterprises are using pawning as a preferred source of raising funds, specially the ones engaged in the areas of agriculture and fisheries sectors, says a new equity research report.

Bartleet Religare Securities, in its latest equity research report says, ease of availability, quick approval and the ability to obtain loans irrespective of the credit history have resulted in pawning advances gaining immense popularity.

BRS observes, In addition to the above factors, recent hike in gold prices propelled by the depreciation of the dollar and reduction of high rates charged by the industry also have helped the growth of the pawning sector.

According to the report, state owned People’s Bank is the market leader in the formal pawning industry and pawning advances represented 36% of the total advances of the Bank as of end 2010.

During the year 2010, the Banks total pawning advances has risen to Rs. 133.2 billion, an increase of 35.9% over the previous year.

The Report says, Sampath Bank and HNB also had a sizeable concentration of pawning advances, respectively 21% and 15% by the end of the financial year 2010.

During the financial year 2010, Sampath Banks pawning advances has gone up by 21% over the previous year to stand at Rs. 27 billion, while HNB also saw a growth of 15% during the same year compared to the previous year to record a figure of Rs. 27 billion.

President during his visit to Milco Industrial Complex in Pollannaruwa.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa says the Island should cut down its annual milk powder import bill by increasing local fresh milk production.

According to Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka spends around US$ 400 million per annum to import milk powder to the country thus losing valuable foreign reserves.

He says, by cutting down on the import bill of milk powder, the country can divert those money to carry out development activities.

President Rajapaksa emphasized these facts when he made a visit to the Milco Industrial Complex in Pollannaruwa this morning.

He says promoting the habit of consumption of fresh milk among the masses will also help the cause.

President also believes the move will help lift the economic status of the local dairy farmers.