business Sri Lanka

 Eswaran Brothers Exports was ranked alongside the likes of global giants IKEA and Toshiba for its commitment to the environment winning the Gold Award for Environmental Best Practices at London’s Green Apple Environment Award ceremony.

Competing against more than 500 other nominations the company was presented with their trophy and certificate at a presentation ceremony in the Houses of Parliament, London held on November 11.

They have been invited to have their winning paper published in The Green Book, the leading international work of reference on environmental best practice. Eswaran Brothers Exports have now been invited to represent Sri Lanka at the European Business Awards for the Environment.

Eswaran Brothers Chairman D. Eassuwaren said: “It’s an honour to be recognised for the work that we are doing with the environment.

 Six years ago, we set out to be the most sustainable tea company in the world and we want to ensure that we keep striving towards this goal.”

The Green Apple Awards is hosted by the Green organisation, a non profit committed to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practices around the world, and are supported by the Environment Agency, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Chartered Institution for Wastes Management and other independent bodies.

The YoY inflation as measured by Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) was 3.4% in November 2016 and inflation calculated for October 2016 was 4.2%.

Accordingly YoY inflation has decreased in November 2016 compared to that of October 2016. YoY inflation of Food Group has decreased from 6.0% in October. According to the Census and Statistics (DCS) Department, the CCPI for all items for November 2016 was 190.9 and it records an increaseof 1.2 index points or a percentage of 0.63 compared to October 2016 for which the index was 189.7 This increase represents an expenditure value of Rs.336.35 in the “Market Basket”.

Contributions to the increase in CCPI from October 2016 to November 2016 saw an increase in the index point by 0.63% which was due to the increase of food items by 0.02% and increase of non-food items by 0.61% respectively.

DFCC Bank (DFCC) and AIA Insurance Lanka (AIA) who have been working in partnership in Sri Lanka for the past few years, have entered into a 20 year exclusive Bancassurance Agreement in respect of life insurance business.

In terms of the Agreement, DFCC will receive a series of payments commensurate with the value of business generated during thisperiod. This mutually beneficial exclusive partnership between DFCC and AIA will provide customers a value addition by way of easy access to unique life insurance products and services offered by MA, a member of AIA Group, one of the leading insurers in the world. 

Laugfs Leisure will become the first Sri Lankan company to extend its leisure foot print to Bangladesh.

The company will build a city hotel with over 100 keys in the capital Dhaka.

Laugfs Leisure Chief Executive Roshan Perera said they are already in Bangladesh in the energy sector and saw a vacuum for city hotel rooms and decided to open a hotel. Laugfs Gas acquired controlling interests of Petredec Elpiji Ltd (PEL), at an investment of US$ 18.75 million and became the first Sri Lankan energy brand to become a multinational. He said they are hoping to start construction next year and the property would be ready in 24 months.

Commenting on this second property in Sri Lanka he said they will build this in Waskaduwa. This will be a 350 roomed hotel and invest Rs 6 billion for it. The Waskaduwa property will be built on a 16 acre plot and will be named Anantaya Resort and Spa, Waskaduwa.

In addition they will reinvest around Rs 1.2 billion to increase capacity in their properties in Chilaw and Passikudah branded under Anantaya. 

National Savings Bank (NSB) has recorded a Profit Before Tax (PBT) of Rs.10.2 billion for the nine months ended September 30,2016, a 12% increase as compared with the same period last year.

Growth in traditional lines of business, enhanced Fee based income coupled with lower impairment provisioning due to a significant improvement in asset quality been the contributory factors leading to this growth.

The Bank reported an Operating Profit of Rs. 12.3 billion for the nine months period recording a growth of 13% when compared to Rs. 10.9 billion Operating Profit reported for the correspondence period last year. The Profit after Tax (PAT) was reported at Rs. 7.4 billion for the nine months ended 30th September which is a notable growth of 32% compared to Rs. 5.6 billion PAT recorded during the same period last year. These profits were recorded despite lower Net Interest margins due to a rising market interest rate scenario.

Interest income of the Bank grew by 8% to reach Rs. 62.9 billion while interest expenses recorded an increase of 15% mainly due to upward repricing of its term deposit portfolio on account of interest rate pressures. The Bank’s Loans and Advances portfolio grew satisfactorily helped by a growth in Retail Loans of 17% as compared to the previous year. Another key highlight been the significant decline of gross Non Performing Loans (NPL) ratio to 1.8% as at 30th September, 2016 from 3.5% at the start of year 2016.

The Bank has already contributed Rs.14.4 billion to the Government in the form of Taxes and Levies for 2016. A significantly higher amount as compared with last year. The total assets of the Bank stood at Rs.886 billion by end September 30 indicating a growth of 5%. During the period under review, total deposit base of the Bank grew by 7% to reach Rs.638 billion.

The Bank’s Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio stood at 11.6% while total capital adequacy was 10.6% as at 30th September, 2016. Those ratios were 17.9% and 16.4% as at December 31, 2015. 

Commercial Bank won the inaugural capital market quiz organized by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) recently. Dunamis Capital and Aitken Spence emerged as the First and Second Runners-Up of the competition, which was held at the CSE Trading Floor.

The competition, for which entrance was exclusive and free for listed companies, offered a cash prize of Rs. 100,000 for the winning team with additional cash prizes of Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 50, 000 awarded to second and third placed participants. Organized with the objective of enhancing knowledge of the capital market among employees of listed companies, CSE Masterminds 2016 attracted the participation of listed companies across industry and sector groups represented in the Colombo Stock Exchange.

 Participants were tested on their knowledge of the CSE, local and global capital markets, local and international business and other areas with relation to the management of financial securities.

Commenting on the initiative, the Chief Executive Officer of the CSE Rajeeva Bandaranaike said the competition is a part of the CSE’s bid to explore unique ways of increasing engagement between employees of listed companies and the CSE. He said the competition offers such employees an educational and up-close perspective of the capital market.

CSE Market Development Head Niroshan Wijesundere said quiz participants lauded what they termed as a unique opportunity to test and enhance their knowledge on the capital market. I would like to thank the listed companies that participated and look forward to a bigger and better CSE Masterminds competition in 2017”. 

 Sri Lanka’s exports to the US amounted to US$ 3 billion in 2015 which was 27 percent of total Sri Lanka exports, a 7 percent increase YoY, US Ambassador Atul Keshap said.

Addressing the Sri Lanka - USA Business Council which was launched in Colombo on Tuesday, he said the relations between US and Sri Lanka were all time high and the newly formed Sri Lanka - USA Business Council will help in further promoting trade and investment between the two countries. The US also accounts for almost half of Sri Lanka’s apparel exports, Keshap said.

US Ambassador Atul Keshap launching the Sri Lanka-USA Business Council website.  Pictures by Vipula Amarasinghe

Since 1956 the United States has provided more than US$ 2 billion in development and humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka.

The US government’s development assistance package in 2015 to Sri Lanka was nearly US$ 60 million, he said.

Sri Lanka is ideally positioned right on the most important sealines of communication in the Indian Ocean and the Colombo port and Sri Lanka in general is safe for doing business, the ambassador said. The Sri Lanka Investment and Business Conclave 2017 will be held from May 30 to June 1, revealed Ceylon Chamber of Commerce CEO, Dhara Wijayatilake said.

The US government’s mutual goal is not just to strengthen the economic relationship between the two countries but also to help improve Sri Lanka’s trade, investment and labour rules to encourage foreign direct investments and provide economic benefits and jobs to the Sri Lankan people.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Harsha De Silva said the setting up of this body was a welcome move and wil help to further promote trade. He said since the election of the government in 2015, it has made important progress on democracy, reconciliations, rule of law and freedom of expression.

These changes have created new trade and investment opportunities between Sri Lanka and the rest of the world laying the foundation for new markets, new industries and new jobs. 

Following its success with ‘77 on Fourth Residencies’ in Nawala, JAT Holdings, the leader in the furnishing and finishing industry takes on a new venture to redefine vertical living with 96 Residencies in Pagoda under the JAT Living subsidiary with the aim of building homes and residences with exclusivity.

JAT Living is poised to usher in a world of exciting projects, delivering on its core principles and commitment to facilitate construction and development solutions in a reliable and trusted manner with a plethora of pristine residencies.

“The vision is to deliver perfection and provide absolute value to the potential customer.

The brand JAT Living has etched a unique brand equity by inculcating its core values and vision to serve as an impetus for the development of state-of-the-art residencies which offer both comfort and tranquility at the same time”, JAT Engineering Director Richard Gunawardene said .

The high-rise complex at No 96, Pagoda Road in Kotte comprises of suxty Luxury Apartments ranging from 905 Sq. Ft.- 1475 Sq. Ft with two and three bedrooms specifications.

Some of the key features of these apartments are fully Air- Conditioned units, fibre optic connections ensuring high speed internet and HD TV, fully fitted German kitchens by Wellman, Marazzi Italian tiles, and high quality imported light and bathroom fittings.

This Project comprises of a 15 storey tower with 04 floors of ample parking, and 10 floors of luxury living.

The Roof top area nestling 02 infinity Swimming Pools (Adults/ Kids), Entertainment Lounge, and a Fully Equipped Gymnasium all add up to an undoubted reason as to why one should invest with ‘96 Residencies’. The starting price is slated at Rs. 18.5 million upwards.

This facility is not less than one km from the Nugegoda Junction in close proximity to popular local and international schools, restaurants, hospitals, shopping arcades, and recreational facilities. 

The Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) met the Director General of Customs Chulananda Perera recently when they invited him for a discussion at the Hilton Colombo.

The meeting centered around the impediments to free flow of goods to and from Sri Lanka and explored the ways to enhance customs cooperation with the aim to boost the import and export businesses of the country.

The welcome address made by the Chairman of COYLE Kasun Rajapaksa, while thanking the Director General for his presence, invited him to share the new developments that are being crafted within the department with a view to ease customs regulations and making implementation of these regulations transparent.

In the Director General’s address, he expressed his confidence that the preparation of the formulation of a new Custom’s vision for the forthcoming year would ease the transactional aspect for both import and export sectors. He added that customs cooperation in keeping with opening up of liberal trade agreements, particularly with respect to electronic data transfer would reduce the cost of doing business and benefit the business sectors of the country. In his speech, he delivered a comprehensive and insightful commitment for more integration with the business sectors through standardization, harmonization and modernization. He stressed on the need for enhancement of Customs operations, especially in the areas of Technological empowerment, Information and Intelligence through GPS tracking systems, process improvement through CCTV surveillance, Skills Development, and effective implementation of the Single Window concept. He gave a comprehensive account of the steps taken for modernization of Sri Lankan Customs and assured COYLE of his cooperation and the services of his office in ironing out any difficulties the members face in carrying out their business transactions in the future.

The members of COYLE aired their concerns to the Director General, emphasizing the need for Customs cooperation, especially in the field of simplification/harmonization of customs procedures, digitization of documentation and trade facilitative measures for boosting intra-regional trade.

Some of the members shared their experiences in container clearing delays etc. and requested for a more flexible system of releasing cargo and prevent undue losses to importers. In reply, he stated that in future he would facilitate the release of containers on a reasonable guarantee. 

Oracle recently organized an Oracle Cloud Day in Sri Lanka to help its customers get insight from the industry experts as to how Oracle Cloud will enable them transform their businesses by building a complete cloud strategy and harnessing applications on the cloud to capitalize on digital opportunities.

Regional speakers at the event talked about how the recent advancements in technology are attracting more and more organizations towards the cloud to derive value from their IT investments, leaving them to focus on business growth.

Also discussed was the trusting they have in Oracle to help move their workloads onto the cloud. Also highlighted was Oracle's vast portfolio of cloud solutions and the recent addition of a range of new Oracle Cloud services to help companies transition to the cloud. The new services enhance the breadth and depth of Oracle's extensive cloud portfolio across all layers of the stack -Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Major innovations across the Oracle Cloud Platform are designed to give organizations the confidence they need to run their most critical applications in the Cloud. 

The Exclusive strategic alliance between multi-speciality hospital chain and membership of NCE marks a vital step in extending superior healthcare services to a wider reach of people, thus the inaugural bid focuses mainly to encourage well-being among their employees and to ensure a better management of healthier workforce which is crucial for the industrial and export sectors of our country. The strategic partnership will allow the members to benefit from a wide array of health care services ranging from in patient to outpatient care services and special tailor-made wellness solutions. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Secretary General / CO, NCE, Shiham Marikar and Managing Director, Hemas Hospital (Pvt) Ltd, Dr. Laktih Peiris. Managing Director of Hemas Hospitals, Dr Lakith Peiris speaking on the partnership said “The strategic partnership between our multi-chain and the membership of the NCE is a vital step in extending best in healthcare services to a wider reach of people, in a bid to ensure a healthy and fit work force, which is crucial for the industrial and export sectors of our Country”.

Dr. Peiris said that the geographical dispersion of our hospital chain and 34 lab network dotted all along the island could provide convenient accessibility to quality healthcare at an affordable price. Moreover the wellness intervention programs will purely uplift the employee value proposition delivered by the export companies to their employees.

Chief Executive and Secretary General of NCE, Shiham Marikar, said “NCE is the only private sector Chamber which serves Sri Lankan Exporters. With exports being a vital focus area towards the greater development of our national economy, it becomes an imperative to ensure that the workforce is able to deliver seamlessly and health is an important element of their lifestyle. The partnership with Hemas Hospitals will offer easy accessibility to our membership and their employees to avail themselves of immediate medical care together with constant checks on lifestyle illnesses”.

Presently, NCE has around 500 member companies of which 90% are exporters across all products and most services sectors and the rest as service providers to the export industry. These include freight forwarders, couriers, banks, insurers, suppliers etc. 

With a strong pledge to provide innovative banking solutions, Nations Trust Bank recently announced the tie up with Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology(SLIIT). As part of the banks business integration strategy Nations Trust opened a Digital Self Service Center at the premises of SLIIT to cater to the 7,000 strong student population as well as the staff of SLIIT. This kiosk incorporates both cash withdrawal facilities as well as online cash deposit facilities through a Cash Deposit Machine (CDM).

The customized CDM enables students to pay their course fees and deposit late payments, thus providing SLIIT with a secure and efficient fee collection system. In addition, students with Nations Trust Bank accounts can now pay their course fees and and other payments by direct transfer to SLIIT via online banking, thereby eliminating the need to handle cash.

This will enable SLIIT to administer student fee collections in a much more efficient and convenient manner. Speaking at the opening of the digital kiosk CEO Renuka Fernando commented that the bank is focused on bringing “technology solutions that will help businesses to manage and administer their day to day collections and payment functions”. Nations Trust will bring further value to businesses by providing transactional data and information based on electronic transactions which businesses can use to make financial or business decisions .

The CEO further commented that they recognize that students at higher education institutes like SLIIT are the country's future especially taking into consideration the major initiatives undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka to make the country digital and technology enabled.

Nations Trust considers these students as their next generation of upwardly mobile customers. The bank offers a full range of financial solutions to this customer segment through the banks digitally enabled channels. The banks philosophy of putting the customer at the heart of its dealings will continuously innovate solutions to meet their needs as they go through their lifecycles.

Fernando said “Nations Trust Bank firmly believes that technology will be a key component that will drive the future of the banking industry.

The bank continues to evolve by incorporating the latest digital trends in its operations, offering our customers cutting edge banking solutions and and unparalleled customer experience” 

The apex body for the ICT Industry, the Federation of IT Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS) Software Chapter (Formerly known as SLASI) and BCS the Chartered Institute for IT Sri Lanka Section is leading a 70-member delegation to the prestigious Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2016 scheduled to be held in Taiwan during December 2-5, 2016.

This will be the biggest-ever delegation from Sri Lanka to be taken to APICTA during the premier organization's history. The team representing Sri Lanka to this international event will be headed by Abbas Kamrudeen, Chairman of the Software Chapter of FITIS. He also serves as member of the APICTA panel of judges.

Expressing his views on this global awards program, Abbas Kamrudeen said: “In 2015, we conducted the APICTA Awards very successfully in Sri Lanka. In that event, our team was able to win a Gold award plus a string of other accolades. This time, the APICTA Awards will be held in Taiwan. We are optimistic that the Sri Lankan team participating in this global event will be able to bring honor to Sri Lanka by performing exceedingly well. The winners will be locally and internationally recognized for their feats.'’

In addition to Abbas Kamrudeen, Dr. Dileepa De Silva, Chairman of Asia Pacific ICT Alliance and Prof. Gihan Wickramanayake, University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), will also serve as judges of the APICTA panel.

The Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA Awards), an international awards program organized by APICTA, aims to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide.

By providing networking and product benchmarking opportunities to ICT innovators and entrepreneurs in the region, the program is designed to stimulate ICT innovation and creativity, promote economic and trade relations, facilitate technology transfer and offer business matching opportunities via exposure to venture capitalists and investors.

As the sole bodies to nominate products for APICTA every year, FITIS and BCS Sri Lanka Section conduct local competitions modeled on the APICTA concept to nominate winners to represent Sri Lanka, namely Young Computer Scientist Competition (to select winners for the school category) and National Best Quality ICT Awards (to select winners for commercial and tertiary categories) and they are the sole bodies to nominate products for the APICTA every year.

FITIS and BCS Sri Lanka Section jointly hosted APICTA 2015 in Sri Lanka in November last year and handed over the event to Taiwan for 2016. Many opportunities opened up for the country, especially for the Software Industry by hosting this historic event in Sri Lanka in 2015.

The 17 Member Economies of APICTA are Australia, Brunei, China Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. 

Orient Constructions commenced construction of its luxury residential complex ‘Orient Residencies’ in Nugegoda with a ground breaking event on November 25.

Commenting on the company's latest venture, Orient Residencies Managing Director C. B. Ekanayake said:" the exceptional quality of our products and our timely delivery spring from a number of core competencies that we capture in our approach to this business, such as our expertise, professionalism and our strict adherence to the code of conduct stipulated by the authorities and professional organizations in the construction industry. Our strength lies in the fact that we utilize our own insightful know-how, machinery and equipment to complete that projects that we undertake in Sri Lanka and overseas.”

Orient Constructions’ Quality Management System has been ISO certified and the Company has also been recognised and rewarded with the National Award for Construction Excellence at the Annual Construction Excellence Awards organised by the Construction Industry Development Authority (CIDA).

“The concept we adopted comprise two main aspects, namely spaciousness in terms of floor-area, the value of aesthetics and stringent quality assessment. We hope to create enduring living spaces that encapsulate enhanced beauty and luxurious living conditions,”Ekanayake said.

He said the complex will feature six floors and two penthouses, and is designed to contain 60 units consisting of two bedroom and three bedroom apartments which include floor areas ranging from 1,500 sq.ft to 1,700 sq.ft. With a significant floor area of 1,900 sqft, the penthouse will bring about a sense of abundance and luxurious comfort. Orient Residencies will feature a recreational area with a number of unique luxurious aspects such as a swimming pool, a barbeque area, a gymnasium, an area for socializing and even a capacious jogging path all set in the roof-top. Orient Constructions is a reputed construction company which commenced its operations in 1998 and has emerged as the flagship of the Orient Group of Companies during the last two decades.

Throughout this period the company, had been contracted for a multitude of building categories from schools to hospitals and to housing projects & hotels - around the island for state sector as well as private clients. Orient Group of companies has grown into a conglomerate with most of its associated companies engaging in primarily in construction and related activities. Orient-Thai Construction Co Ltd (Bangkok, Thailand) which focuses on property development and investment in Thailand with a view for future development and construction in other East Asian and South East Asian countries made inroads to the construction market in Thailand saw the completion of their first project, a Luxury Housing Complex in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2012.

“The trust that Orient Residencies has managed to inspire is such that we witnessed interest in this particular project from a large group which in turn has inspired us to seek to conceptualise and implement similar projects in the near future,” Ekanayake said. 

A high-powered business delegation representing nearly 15 top companies in Belgium will be in Sri Lanka from November 29 to December 2, 2016. The trade mission hopes to create business opportunities and build partnerships between the participating companies and the local business community.

The mission is led by Flanders Region of Belgium (Flanders Investment and Trade) in close cooperation with the Brussels (Brussels Invest and Export) and the Walloon Region (Awex) of Belgium;the Embassy of Belgium in New Delhi and the Honorary Consulate of Belgium in Colombo.Flanders is one of the three regions of Belgium dominated by Flemish-speaking people while Wallonia is dominated by French-speaking people and Brussels has a multilingual population.

Companies in the delegation represent a wide range of sectors including Engineering, Geo Technology, Construction, Electronics, Food and Agriculture, Power and Energy, Information Technology and so much more.

The trade mission will culminate with a special seminar to be held on December 2 at the Colombo Hilton with the participation of several business and industry stakeholders as well as government officials. The seminar is organized by the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ECCSL) in collaboration with Flanders Investment and Trade (FIT).

Over the past few years, the ECCSL and FIT have organized several such trade delegations from Belgium to Sri Lanka and vice versa with great success. ECCSL is also the local antenna of FIT in Sri Lanka since several years.

Flanders Region Investment and Trade Trade and Investment Commissioner Alexis Bossuyt said the Port of Colombo is developing itself as an important strategic hub between Asia and Europe, massive infrastructure and construction developments are going on in Sri Lanka and the recent visit of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to Belgium and Europe highlights the potential for European companies to do business in Sri Lanka.

Having such a big delegation of Belgian companies seeking business opportunities in Sri Lanka is a clear sign of willingness of our business community to strengthen commercial ties between Belgium and Sri Lanka. I sincerely hope that concrete results will also be achieved in the short term.”

Established in 1996, the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka has been striving to stimulate, strengthen and promote economic and business relations between Sri Lanka and the member countries of the European Union. ECCSL seeks to provide efficient and professional information, and advisory, consultative, promotional and representative linkages between Sri Lankan and European business entities.