Economic

Sri Lanka’s only state-owned manpower recruiting entity, the Foreign Employment Agency (Pvt) Ltd is losing its market share owing to management weakness and lack of dynamism in the face of high competition from mushrooming job agencies.

Sri Lanka’s ambitious ‘Land Bank’ project aimed at improving access to private and state land while ensuring effective land management is now facing with tough challenges in computerisation of the information, Land Ministry officials claimed.

Computerisation of the information on the lands presently available in written documents and inclusion the same in the land information system is not up to the expectation at present, a senior official of the ministry who wished to remain anonymous told the Business Time.

US Millennium Challenge Corporation recently signed a compact with Sri Lanka to provide US $ 67.3 million in addition to state funding for improvement of access to private and state land/

This US funding will also be used to provide more uniform valuation of land, and assist the Government in improving the land policy and governance framework under which land is managed and administered.

It had been expected to identify the title of the state lands as well as the use of unplanned lands and the uneconomical use of land under the project.

Parliament has made provisions of Rs.195 million and Rs.395 million in the year 2016 and 2017 respectively for the land bank project.

Out of the provisions made in the year 2017, a sum of Rs.116 million or 29 per cent had been utilized.

According to the Action Plan relating to this project, it had been planned to implement programmes for the scanning of extracts of 22 Land Registries (E-Land Registry), development of data base for the Land Acquisition Division, introduction of the State Land Information Management System (E-Slim) and establishment of Land Information Centre (E-Land Hub).

Due to disagreements among top officials and politicians and tough choices in identifying land parcels and tender procedure to select qualified bidders for IT procurements had made it impossible possible to achieve the objectives expected from project, latest Auditor General’s report revealed.

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares rose for the fourth straight session on Wednesday to hit a more than five-week closing high on local buying, offsetting continued foreign selling in equities, while the rupee ended slightly weaker on dollar demand from importers.

The Petroleum Corporation owes Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank Rs. 56.2 billion, according to the 2018 Finance Ministry report.

Public Administration Ministry Secretary J. J. Ratnasiri yesterday said arrangements are being made to amend the circular issued by his ministry to make the saree and the osari compulsory for female public servants.

HSBC is implementing the bank’s International Student Proposition (ISP) designed to meet the international banking needs of children who are ready to further their higher education overseas.

The Asian Development Bank inked an agreement with the finance ministry to provide a loan facility amounting to US$ 50 million to Regional Development Bank (RDB) for the strengthening of its operational capacity to assist Sri Lankan entrepreneurs.

The micro, small and medium industry sector is the worst hit due to the unfortunate incidents of April this year, said President of the Sri Lanka Chamber of Small and Medium Industries (SLCSMI) Rohan de Silva.

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares ended firmer for the third straight session on Tuesday to hit a near one-month closing high on local buying, even as foreign investors continued to pull out funds from equities, while the rupee ended slightly stronger.

Sri Lanka for small and medium scale entrepreneurs exceeding one million will be getting more financial and credit facilities as well as non-financial support from the treasury to contribute their share towards economic prosperity of the island nation affected by Easter terror.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka was awarded with the Presidential Award for Digital Excellence at the launch of the National Digital Roadmap by President Maithripala Sirisena, held in Nelum Pokuna Theatre on June 11, 2019. This was presented to the Central Bank in Recognition of great service rendered paving the way to the digital economy in the country. The event was organized by Sri Lanka Telecom PLC.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been awarded the prestigious title of ‘Best Trade Finance Bank in Sri Lanka’ at the 2019 Asian Banker Transaction Awards that recognise achievements in the competition for market share, product and operational excellence in the financial services industry.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed an Agreement with Putus Brother’s Sustainable Developments (Private) Limited to build, construct and operate a 15 cabana hotel project in Palatupana, Yala.

The Government-directed moratorium on repayment of capital and interest of tourism sector business borrowing from banks has drawn applications worth over Rs. 60 billion by end May, with the final numbers expected to be far higher.

During the year up to June 7, 2019 the Sri Lanka rupee appreciated against the US dollar by 3.6percent. Given the cross currency exchange rate movements, the Sri Lanka rupee appreciated against the pound sterling (3.5percent), Japanese yen (1.7percent), the euro (5.1percent) and the Indian rupee (2.4percent) during this period.

Reuters: Shares snapped a five-day rally to end a tad weaker on Friday, slipping from a near six-week high hit in the last session, as foreign fund outflows from equities continued, while the rupee fell on persistent dollar demand from importers.

Lanka Sathosa Limited (LSL) state owned retail store network consisting of 403 outlets currently running at a loss under commerce ministry is set to be revamped with the introduction of sophisticated system, Finance Ministry report revealed.

Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy yesterday declared that though the Easter Sunday attacks were a setback to the economy, they have not thrown macro fundamentals off-track, nor is there any basis for growth to dip below 3% in 2019.