By Suwatchai Songwanich CEO, Bangkok Bank (China) Courtesy The Nation China’s investments in deep-sea ports in Myanmar and Cambodia will provide critical links in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but there are also concerns that they could give China undue economic leverage in the region. On the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar, Chinese state-owned firms […]

Courtesy Xinhua COLOMBO, July 14 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka has announced that it is moving its centuries-old folk medicine system for protection under the international intellectual property system, local media reported Saturday. Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishard Bathiudeen said the government was working with Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) for the last five […]

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island July 14, 2018, 12:00 pm Last Thursday, the Professionals’ National Front (PNF) which brings together professionals from the medical, engineering, banking, IT, architectural, and many other spheres held a seminar to a packed audience at the Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Mandiraya in Thunmulla on the SL-Singapore Free Trade Agreement ahead of the […]

Chathuri Dissanayake Courtesy The First Post Colombo: Questions are now being raised in Sri Lanka over the seriousness of India’s intent to set up a joint venture for Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota, which has the dubious distinction of not having any scheduled flights. Almost one-and-a-half years after India submitted a proposal for gaining control over the […]

Written by Harish Damodaran | New Delhi |Courtesy The Indian Express Updated: July 15, 2018 3:40:08 am The government’s decision to raise the minimum support price (MSP) of common paddy from Rs 1,550 to Rs 1,750 per quintal this crop season may benefit farmers ahead of elections, but could impact the country’s export of non-basmati rice. The […]

Lasantha Wickramasinghe  SriLanka and Singapore signed FTA in Jan 2018 The Association of Information Technology Professionals of Sri Lanka has flayed the government over Free Trade Agreement with Singapore and planned economic agreement with India. The following is the full text of the statement issued by  Lasantha Wickramasinghe, secretary of the association: Recently, President Maithripala […]

Source:Global Times Published:2018/7/4 18:13:40 Sri Lanka’s debt problem is a hot topic nowadays. Western media outlets like the New York Times are keen to find fault with the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative (BRI). This time the South Asian island nation is their target. They are full of gloat when declaring that Sri Lanka was trapped by […]

China Daily China and Sri Lanka are committed to pushing forward cooperation on the Hambantota port project and realizing the goal of making Sri Lanka the logistics center of the Indian Ocean, said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday. “This is not only conducive to the economic development of Sri Lanka, but also conducive to […]

NEW DELHI, JULY 2 New Delhi has extended tariff concessions on 3,142 items to five countries including China, Bangladesh, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Laos PDR under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) effective from July 1, 2018. As a founding member of APTA, India is committed to strengthening the APTA process through these concessions,” […]

By Su Tan Source:Global Times Published: 2018/7/2 22:38:01 The Sri Lanka handover of its strategic Hambantota Port to China on a 99-year lease in December of last year triggered concerns worldwide. The worry, which lasts till today, was conspicuously portrayed by a New York Times report published last week. The article accuses China of using […]

by Erin Dunne  Courtesy Washington Examiner.  The Chinese government just took over a port in Sri Lanka, the island nation off the shore of India, and you should probably be concerned. Countries looking for development are increasingly looking east to China, rather than west to Europe and the United States. As America imposes tariffs on its allies […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, June 26 (newsin.asia) – The People’s Daily newspaper of China selected Sri Lanka as the top global safety destination for women travelers in 2018, in a recently concluded contest, which combined the results of expert reviews, ratings and popular votes. Sri Lanka topped the list of 20 countries that were selected, including […]

by Chi Dehua Courtesy GB Times China has decided to lower duties for certain imports from India, South Korea, Bangladesh, Laos and Sri Lanka as a trade war with the US looms. According to a detailed list released by China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Tuesday, starting from July 1, the five Asian nations will enjoy various levels of […]

 Courtesy The Daily Mirror  The Supreme Court in a landmark judgment, on Thursday, ordered the Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) to pay Rs.400,000 as costs to a smoker’s widow after the company was found to have prolonged the trial for more than 12 years by filing petitions in the Appeal Court and the SC. Chief Justice […]

Gallege Punyawardana,Head, Swarna Hansa Foundation. K. S. Perera, started smoking when he was a teenager. Later he was diagnosed with cancer caused by smoking in 1996 and died on 13th April 2001. During his life time he filed a case against the Ceylon Tobacco Company –CTC- claiming damages for manufacturing and marketing a defective product, […]

By Eurasia Review While Sri Lanka’s footprint in global boats and shipping sector is small, exports in the sector continue to surge in strong numbers, and as a result Sri Lanka is ambitiously targeting US$ 200 million boats and shipping exports by 2022, Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen says. Global ship and boat building […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, June 16 (EconomyNext) – Sri Lankan hotels will need over 100,000 new workers with the number of star-class rooms expected to more than double in the next three years, given the new projects approved, Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga said. New investments in the hotel sector amounts to USD 2.8 billion in […]

Courtesy Eurasia Review Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena held a special discussion at the Presidential Secretariat on the Shasya Shakthi Project implemented in parallel to the Gramashakthi people’s movement, the national program of poverty alleviation. Under the first stage of the Shasya Shakthi Project, solar powered agricultural water supply systems will be introduced in 3,000 […]

Financial Tribune ( Iran) Iran has called for a meeting of its joint economic commission with Sri Lanka to be held in Tehran in August. As per our own assessment, the May 2018 state visit by the Lankan delegation to Iran was very good and productive,” said Iran’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka Mohammad Zaeri Amirani […]

By Dr.Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Ice manufacturing in colonial Sri Lanka in the second half of the 19 th.century was a landmark in South Asian history.  The Sri Lankan ice making industry was the first and the earliest in the region. The name of the pioneering company has changed several times over the years. Today […]

Courtesy wionews.com  PTI Colombo, Sri Lanka Jun 10, 2018, 11.19 PM (IST) China has withheld the Hambantota Port deal’s final tranche of USD 585 million to Sri Lanka due to Colombo’s objection over its plan to use a man-made island for entertainment purposes, a media report said here today. In December last year, Sri Lanka handed over […]

Courtesy wionews.com The International Monetary Fund announced the release of the latest instalment of Sri Lanka’s $1.5 billion bailout on Saturday, but warned that restructuring the loss-making national airline was essential to sustain economic recovery. The IMF welcomed the island nation’s increase in fuel prices last month — a precondition for it to receive $252 […]

Courtesy aviationnews-online.com The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released the latest installment of Sri Lanka’s $1.5 billion bailout, but warned that restructuring the loss-making national airline was essential to sustain economic recovery. The IMF welcomed the island nation’s increase in fuel prices last month — a precondition for it to receive $252 million of the […]

Courtesy wionews.com Sri Lanka on Wednesday signed an agreement with a subsidiary of US firm Schlumberger for a $50 million seismic study off the country’s east coast to evaluate any prospective oil resources, a senior government official said. Sri Lanka signed the agreement with Eastern Echo DMCC, a subsidiary of Schlumberger, to carry out seismic data […]

Courtesy wionews.com Talks between China and Sri Lanka for a free trade agreement have hit major hurdles, mainly because Beijing will not agree to Colombo’s demand for a review of the deal after 10 years, Sri Lanka’s top negotiator said. China has invested billions of dollars building ports and roads and power stations in the […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, May 30 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka and China, on Wednesday signed a contract to construct new underwater sewage and pipelines in capital Colombo to prevent the threat of floods. Sri Lanka’s Megapolis and Western Development Minister, Champika Ranawaka told reporters that his Ministry had signed a contract with China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering […]

BY MAREX  On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s development and trade minister Malik Samarawickrama confirmed that Chinese investors have been cleared to build a $700 million natural gas-powered electrical station in the Chinese-run port of Hambantota. He first announced plans for Chinese state-owned engineering company Sinomach to build the plant earlier this month. The 400-gigawatt power plant will be fueled […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, May 23 (newsin.asia) – China, on Wednesday said that as of the end of 2017, Chinese companies had completed more than US 15 billion dollars worth of infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka and made great contributions to the economic and social development of the island country. China’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Cheng […]

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror SLFP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara alleged today that former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, who was in Singapore, had played the key role in signing the Free Trade Agreement between Sri Lanka and Singapore. “Mr. Mahendran has been assigned the duties to function as the Sri Lankan representative […]

Courtesy Iran Daily Iran has agreed to build a new oil refinery for Sri Lanka in addition to upgrading its ageing 50,000 barrel per day (bpd) state-owned refinery, said Sri Lankan Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne on Wednesday. Iranian officials pledged the new refinery when Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena made an official visit to Tehran […]