By Bilal Hussain  Courtesy The Express Tribune KARACHI: The Pakistan Business Council (PBC) has drafted a report focused on the free trade agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka and has found motorcycle and cement manufacturing as potential industries that Pakistan can increasingly rely on. According to the PBC – a business policy advocacy platform, the purpose of the study is […]

Courtesy BI INDIA BUREAU IRCTC to launch special train to attract international tourists from Buddhist countries like Japan, China, Thailand and Sri Lanka. The first rake of the train will roll out by the end of October although the train will be functional from December. The train’s route will include important Buddhist destinations like Bodh Gaya, […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror China’s Vice Finance Minister Zou Jiayi has acknowledged debt issues with some of its ‘Belt and Road’ projects, saying the government will strengthen macro-supervision on the debt sustainability aspect of its overseas investments, the Reuters reported on Saturday. The debt sustainability issue of Belt and Road (projects) is a complicated issue, but […]

Tom Wilson Courtesy reuters.com LONDON (Reuters) – Sri Lanka plans to put two state-owned hotel companies up for sale within the next six months in a sale that could raise $500 million for the island nation as it seeks to bolster its finances, the finance minister said on Tuesday. Sri Lanka faces repayments on expensive infrastructure […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, Oct 5 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s national air carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, was named the ‘World’s Most Punctual Airline’ in September by global flight data analysis company ‘Flightstats’, a statement from the airline said here Friday. Sri Lankan airlines was selected under the key categories of ‘Global Airlines’ and ‘Major Airlines’. According […]

Sandun A Jayasekera Courtesy The Daily Mirror President Maithripala Sirisena had to intervene when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe became annoyed with a leading businessman at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting held on Tuesday at the Presidential Secretariat and reconvened it after the suspension of the meeting for a few minutes, SLFP dissident group front liner […]

Source: Xinhua COLOMBO, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka and China inaugurated a new building for the China-Sri Lanka Joint Centre for Education and Research (CSL-CER) at the University of Ruhuna (UOR), in southern Sri Lanka with the aim of strengthening marine science and research in the island country, the UOR said in a statement […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, Sept 27 (newsin.asia) – China will continue to push forward its pragmatic cooperation with Sri Lanka under the Belt and Road Initiative in order to bring more tangible benefits between the two countries and its two peoples, China’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Cheng Xueyuan said here at the 69th anniversary celebrations of […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island Sri Lanka is yet to receive a two-billion-yuan (nearly USD 300 mn) grant from China as project proposals have not been finalised. President Maithripala Sirisena revealed that the Chinese offer in late July, 2018, at a ceremony to launch construction of a Chinese-funded kidney hospital in Polonnaruwa. Turning towards the […]

Courtesy breakingtravelnews.com The legendary Galle Face Hotel, which opened in 1864 and is the oldest hotel east of Suez, has appointed a new general manager and area vice president as it seeks to re-establish its position as Asia’s most illustrious and historic hotel. Robert Hauck, a highly skilled and respected hospitality professional with more than […]

Courtesy www.reuters.com COLOMBO, Sept 20 (Reuters) – The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said it had enacted a new measure to deter vehicle imports and take pressure off the rupee, which is hovering at a record low, and to restore macro-economic stability. The new measure will require vehicle importers to deposit the full value of […]

APORNRATH PHOONPHONGPHIPHAT, Nikkei staff writer Courtesy Nikkei Asian Review  Two nations to kick off bilateral FTA talks in Bangkok on Thursday BANGKOK — Thailand sees a planned trade deal with Sri Lanka as an opportunity to tap into China’s signature Belt and Road Initiative while hedging against fallout from the escalating global trade war. Representatives of the […]

SriLankan Airlines stated (19-Sep-2018) it plans to make progressive changes” to its winter 2018/2019 schedule. As part of the changes, the carrier plans to deploy A330-300 aircraft on daily Colombo-Melbourne service from 28-Oct-2018 with plans to increase Colombo-Singapore capacity from 29-Oct-2018 with the deployment of A330 aircraft on the route. Frequency will also be increased from 17 […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka has decided against giving control of Palaly Airport to India just days after the state-run Airport Authority of India made a move to develop it. Sri Lankan civil aviation minister Nirmal Sripala De Silva told the parliament that the government had no intention of handing over the airport to Indian authorities. […]

By Haley Zaremba Courtesy Oilprice.com Earlier this year we reported on a startling anomaly in the global energy market that even the experts couldn’t have predicted. Just one nation, alone against the greening tides, was turning back to coal–Japan. Now, half a year later, a newly released report shows that Japanese financial institutions have funneled US$92 billion into coal […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Batticalao, September 15 (newsin.asia): The High Commissioner of India Taranjit Singh Sandhu  visited the first ever cooperative society of war affected women in the Eastern Province at Kallady set up by an India-based NGO the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), with a grant of LKR 197 million (US$ 1.2 million) from the Government of India. The objective […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 17 (newsin.asia): Sri Lanka, which is  being wooed by both India and China, has adopted a balanced policy in granting road development  contracts in the war-devastated Northern and Eastern provinces. While India is to be given road development projects in the North  in place of the already chosen Chinese company for […]

By Udaya P Gammanpila Courtesy Ceylon Today The Government constantly increases prices of petrol and diesel every month. When the price of a barrel of crude oil is US$ 68, the Government increased the price of petrol to Rs 149 per litre. It claims that increases are based on the so-called fuel price formula.  Mysteriously, nobody […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, Sept 9 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Port of Colombo ranked the world’s leading container growth port among the top 30 container ports for the first half of 2018, according to international rating agency, Alphaliner, the Ports and Shipping Ministry said in a statement Sunday. According to the rating, the Port of Colombo has recorded […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 8 (DDNews): An agreement to supply160 railway passenger coaches custom-made in India, was signed between RITES Limited of India and Sri Lankan government in Colombo on September 7. The US 82.64 million contract is part of a line of credit agreement for procurement of railway rolling stock and upgrading of rail […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 8 (newsin.asia): Is Chinese beginning to replace Tamil in promoting products or serving customers in the Sri Lankan market? Looking at the Anchor butter packet being sold in the Sri Lankan market one might begin to think so. Packets of Anchor butter, imported from Fonterra Brands in New Zealand, now carry  […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 7 (newsin.asia): The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with the USAID Development Credit Authority (DCA), Hatton National Bank PLC and Sampath Bank PLC have announced a new partnership for a program of up to US $9 million for local financing available to private, micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) throughout […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 7 (newsin.asia): The member States of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) met in Colombo on  September 4 and 5 and finalized the Terms of Reference (ToR) to set up a  Working Group on Maritime Safety and Security. At the 17th Council of Ministers held in Durban, South Africa in 2017, it […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 6 (newsin.asia): Funding agencies affiliated to the Western nations and their allies, Japan and South Korea, are now making a beeline for Sri Lanka to counter growing Chinese developmental assistance to it. Representatives of leading international donor agencies, including Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), […]

By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy The Island SriLankan Airlines has paid Rs. 18.8 billion as part of a penalty for the cancellation of the four Airbus A350-900 leases in the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 financial years, Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka was told yesterday. Yasantha Dissanayake, the Head […]

By Eurasia Review Petroleum exploration activities in the eastern seas, covering Trincomalee and Batticaloa, began Sunday with the arrival of a vessel of the BGP Marine seismic fleet (02). Accordingly, the research vessel BGP-Pioneer sailing under the flag of Panama to commence will acquire two-dimensional seismic data in the selected offshore areas of the island. The […]

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today Last week United National Party Matale district Parliamentarian Rohini Kaviratne, in an interview to this newspaper, makes couple of notable comments.  Her thinking is not unique and the views she holds are common to many who support party politics. This refusal to discuss the real issues with insightful analysis or […]

By Charunya Rajakaruna Courtesy Adaderana Although they say that there is a pricing formula for fuel price revision, there is no such price formula, stated Prof. Premalal de Silva addressing a media conference held today (02). There have been several fuel price revisions by mentioning a price formula, however, when considering the revisions made, it can be […]

MATTHEW Courtesy live and lets fly I have three problem airlines” at Award Expert, airlines that clients are very hesitant to fly. The first is Turkish Airlines. I have made the case for why Turkish is safe and a slam-dunk choice, but the resistance continues. The second is EgyptAir. I went out of my way to fly EgyptAir recently, ready to either […]

by Lakshman I. Keerthisinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today Not only must we fight to end disastrous unfettered free trade agreements with China, Mexico, and other low wage countries, we must fight to fundamentally rewrite our trade agreements so that American products, not jobs, are our number one export. -Bernie Sandersp (American Politician) There has been much criticism […]