The Rajpal Abeynayake Column Deplorables? Ghouls? Now, that comes close. Ingrates? Absolutely fits the bill, but is not a complete description. Vermin? Very close. These are the words that describe the current, dispensation, Prime Minister, President and all. Why should we say all this? Because words are important and they have to be used at […]

By Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka * Dubious adjustment made to 2015 Nominal GDP in order to push up 2016 Growth Rate from 2.2% to 4.4% * Dubious adjustment made to 2015 Nominal GDP in order to push up 2016 Growth Rate from 2.2% to 4.4% * GDP of 231 […]

by Sanath Nanayakkare Courtesy The Island May 9, 2017, 8:10 pm Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy said yesterday that proceeds from the potential long lease of Hambantota Port and proceeds from the sale or divestment of other non-strategic state assets would be pooled into a separate fund for liability management as foreign debt servicing commitments […]

By Professor Milton Rajaratne (Faculty of Management, University of Peradeniya) Courtesy The Island May 9, 2017, 8:28 pm In contrast to the Rajapaksa government, the Yahapalana government highlighted accelerated growth, one million new jobs, small government, social market policy, debt free economy, big push to industry, and infrastructure projects, and revitalization of the capital market etc. […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island May 9, 2017, 10:41 pm The national economy was deteriorating at an alarming rate as revealed by the latest Central Bank annual report, but the ruling coalition had presented three supplementary budgets amounting to staggering Rs 1.2 bn to acquire more super luxury vehicles for politicians and officials this year […]

By Umesh Moramudali and Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy Ceylon Today The proposed Economic and Technology Corporation Agreement (ETCA) with India has caused many a controversy, and in this interview with Ceylon Today Secretary of the Society of Information Technology Professionals, Lasantha Wickramasinghe, explains how ETCA will affect the country’s economy, and the reasons for opposing it. Following are […]

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today The Stock Market boomed into life, with the successful conclusion of the war, in May 2009. After stagnating for years, the rising activities were the barometric readings of the fast reviving economy. Yet, despite the massive development projects and investments taking place, the market was slowing by 2011. Investor confidence […]

Courtesy The Island April 29, 2017, 7:20 pm Sri Lanka will raise $2.5 billion through sovereign bonds and syndicated loans amid delays in securing the latest instalment of an International Monetary Fund bail out, the finance minister said Thursday. The island was hoping to issue about $1.5 billion in bonds by June, while nearly $1 […]

This quarter we have added 10 additional countries to the BSRI, taking advantage of the increasing depth and quality of available data on emerging market economies. The new members are the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Panama, Romania, Serbia, Sri Lanka and Uruguay. The BSRI now spans 89% of the JP Morgan EMBI Global […]

Professionals’ National Front පසුගියදා ජනමාධ්‍ය වාර්ථා කර තිබුන ආකාරයට අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ඉන්දියාව බලා පිටත්ව යනුයේ ඉන්දීය අගමැති මෝදි මහතා හමුවී අපේ රටට තීරනාත්මකව බලපාන්නා වූ කාරනා කිහිපයකටම සිය අවසාන එකගතාවය පලකිරීමටය. ඒ අතර අපේ රටට  තීරනාත්මකව බල පාන්නාවූ එට්කා ගිවිසුම ද වේ. රට තුල මහත් ආන්දෝලනයකට තුඩුදුන් එට්කා ගිවිසුම පිළිබදව රටේ පිළිගත් වෘත්තිකයන්ගේ […]

Professional’s National Front   According to the recent press reports, PM Ranil Wickremasinge visited India in order to meet his Indian counterpart, Modi, and to give the final consent on several issues of critical importance to Sri Lanka.  Among such issues, one is the ETCA agreement. Throughout the recent past, Professionals National Front (PNF), a collection […]

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Foreign Exchange Bill which presented in Parliament by the government is similar to what former Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim envisaged, the joint opposition said today. It said the Bill would enable the Tamil Diaspora which was a repository of LTTE funds to invest in Sri Lanka without any […]

S. Talpahewa, Former Chairman/Managing Director, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. Courtesy The Island April 24, 2017, 10:03 pm Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka in his article, “Ranil’s worst betrayal: Giving Trincomalee to India”, implies that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has betrayed the country at least twice before, i. e. one a bad betrayal and two a worse betrayal. Whatever […]

Samantha Kumarasinghe (The writer is an entrepreneur and an industrialist.) It is now an openly-discussed incident that the former Central Bank Governor had misused his authority to allow a company that his son-in-law is a director/major shareholder of to make billions of rupees in undue profits at the expense of Government and other public funds. The subject […]

By Abdul Samad Courtesy Ceylon Today This article is with reference to Mr. Dayan Jayatilleka’s write-up published on colombotelegraph.com dated 7 April 2017. It was titled, The Avurudu sale of Sri Lanka-Who will stop it? The writer makes a very valid point arguing the case for Sri Lanka to be with China as opposed to India. […]

by Jeremy Luedi , April 17, 2017  Courtesy Global Risk Insights Increased international interest in the Indian Ocean comes at a convenient time for Sri Lanka, as the country continues to recoup after the end of its decades-long civil war which ended in 2009. The island nation is being courted (and courting in turn) by […]

Meera Srinivasan Courtesy  The Hindu Project developer hopes investments to the tune of $13 billion to start coming in from 2018; targets major investors from South Asia, particularly India It is hard to miss the blue-lettered boards lining the northern end of Galle Face, Colombo’s iconic seafront. A new Central Park in Colombo”, A new world […]

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong Leaders from China and Sri Lanka have voiced support for a proposed bilateral free trade agreement at a recent meeting. Yu Zhengsheng, Chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference (PPC), was holding talks with Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe. The state news agency, Xinhua, said Yu had called […]

SPEECH AT RORATY CLUB OF COLOMBO WEST – 15th March 2017 This speech was made by Dr Nalaka Godahewa-Former MD-Sri Lanka Insurance/Former Chirman-Sri Lanka Tourism Board/Director-Lanka Hospital-AP Very good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for inviting me to share some thoughts at this distinguished gathering. I my self was a Rotarian for […]

 Courtesy portstrategy.com Sri Lanka’s government is seeking to reduce China Merchant Port Holdings’ stake in a strategic port project by up to a quarter as part of a renegotiation aimed at addressing public and political opposition to the deal, Reuters has reported. China Merchants Port Holdings had been expected to pay $1.12bn for a 99-year […]

Over USD 3,700 mn worth foreign investment on hold while costly diesel plants in operation April 2, 2017, 10:41 pm By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island Accusing the Power and Renewable Energy Ministry of favoring costly diesel power generation, the Anti Corruption Front (ACF) has urged the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government to immediately review a series of investment […]

by Suresh Perera Courtesy The Island April 1, 2017, 7:41 pm The proposed new Inland Revenue Act has run into stiff opposition from key industry players, who described the controversial move to replace the existing law, as a “retrograde step that’s bound to create confusion and impinge on the overall revenue collection mechanism”. Asserting that the […]

ඔස්‌මන් චන්ද්‍රවංශ හිටපු විනිමය පාලක සහ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ අර්ථශාස්‌ත්‍රඥ යහපාලන රජය විසින් සිදු කර ඇති වංචා, පාඩු සහ වන්දි ගෙවීම් මෑතක සිට, අගමැතිවරයා සහ මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා ඇතුළු මැති ඇමැතිවරු කීප දෙනකුම පසුගිය රජයේ – හෙජින් ගනුදෙනුව ඔස්‌සේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට සිදුවූ පාඩුව රුපියල් බිලියන 500 ක්‌ පමණ වී යයි පවසා ඇත. ඒ නිසා ජනතාවට වර්තමානයේදී අලෙවි කරන […]

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today rejected allegations that the decision to sell the Hambantota Port was first made during his government in 2014 and asserted that while he was in power they only took back what was already sold. We never decided to sell anything during our time. I took back […]

Janaka Goonetilleke Ayn Rand called her philosophy “Objectivism”, describing its essence as “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. When Vasgo De Gama Invaded the spice market of Calicut and […]

WINSTON DE VALLIERE Courtesy Ceylon Today In quite a paradoxical change in policy that at first imbued confidence in India, the US and other countries concerned with what is broadly termed Chinese expansionism, has now done away with the sense of relief in the context of their perceived national security and other fears. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s […]

Courtesy Adaderana MP Bandula Guawardana stated that the current government had wasted over $4.3 billion to prevent the Lankan rupee from depreciating, during a press conference held earlier today (28).  He further added that although the current finance minister promised to bring the buying price of the dollar down to Rs.130 within a week, it […]

By C. A. Chandraprema March 26, 2017, 6:50 pm The Indian press carried anxious commentaries about the recent visit of Chinese Defence Minister General Chang Wanquan to Sri Lanka. India Today observed that this visit took place amidst warnings issued by the Chinese media to the effect that Beijing will fight back if New Delhi […]

By Shyam Nuwan Ganewatta Courtesy The Island March 26, 2017, 12:00 pm A special investigation, commissioned by the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, has revealed that bond scams under the current government have caused a staggering loss of about Rs. 10 billion to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). A report prepared by […]

Courtesy  Daily Mirror The government today sought Parliament’s approval for spending a total sum of Rs.288.2 million in order to purchase vehicles for several ministers, deputy ministers and state ministers. Accordingly, the approval was sought for the spending of Rs.42 million to purchase a vehicle for deputy chairman of committees, Rs.82 million on a new […]