By: Staff Writer

August 01, Colombo (LNW): Pakistan looks to gain insights from Sri Lanka’s recovery from its economic crisis. Pakistan praised Sri Lanka’s leadership and its populace for managing the debt crisis effectively and expressed a desire to learn from Sri Lanka’s experiences.

On Tuesday, the Seventh Round of Bilateral Political Consultations between Sri Lanka and Pakistan concluded successfully at the Pakistani Foreign Ministry in Islamabad. This round marked a return to in-person meetings after a hiatus of over three years, with the previous round being held virtually in December 2020.

The consultations, which provided a thorough review of the current state of relations between the two countries, were co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane of Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi.

Discussions covered a wide range of cooperative areas, including economy and trade, defense and security, education, culture, media and sports, consular issues, agriculture, and technology. Both sides also deliberated on their joint efforts in multilateral and regional forums.

The Sri Lankan delegation extended their gratitude to Pakistan for its unwavering support in various international forums over the years.

Pakistan’s delegation praised Sri Lanka for its successful stabilization of the debt crisis and noted that there are valuable lessons to be learned from Sri Lanka’s experience. Both nations underscored the significance of high-level political exchanges in strengthening their bilateral relations and discussed the possibility of a forthcoming visit by a foreign minister from Sri Lanka to Pakistan.

The delegations agreed on the importance of boosting connectivity and bilateral trade to foster economic growth, with a particular focus on enhancing air connectivity between the two countries. They also saw potential for increasing tourism and strengthening people-to-people ties through cultural, religious, and sports interactions.

Cooperation was also agreed upon in combating transnational organized crime, such as drug trafficking, which affects both countries.

At the end of the meeting, Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane presented Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi with five eye corneas donated by the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society, continuing the longstanding tradition of Sri Lanka providing such donations to Pakistan.

The next session of Sri Lanka-Pakistan Bilateral Political Consultations is scheduled to take place in Colombo at a mutually agreed time.

By: Staff Writer

August 01, Colombo (LNW): Thales and Just in Time Technologies (JITT) have secured a contract to provide biometric passports for Sri Lanka, with an initial batch of 100,000 chip-based passports due by July 2025. The agreement includes an annual supply of one million passports for five years, with the first biometric passports expected to be issued in January.

Initially, the Ministry of Public Security had called for international tenders to outsource the printing of five million ePassports over ten years. This tender was canceled when the Ministry decided that the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s (DIE) updated infrastructure could handle the printing. A new tender was then issued solely for the procurement of ePassport books. Thales and JITT won the tender.

DIE has mandated online applications for passports, limiting daily applications to 800, down from 3,000, causing public outcry and significant revenue loss. Controller General Harsha Illukpitiya explained that this measure aims to reduce congestion and manage the limited stock of machine-readable passports (MRPs) until the ePassports are rolled out next year.

Thales and JITT have since informed that the current DIE infrastructure cannot print the new ePassports, proposing instead to provide a complete printing infrastructure at a per-transaction fee. This proposal has led to a Cabinet paper seeking approval to proceed, which deviates from the original tender terms and violates government procurement policies.

This situation parallels the VFS Visa issuance controversy, where DIE paid a foreign company in Dubai for tourist visa processing, despite having a robust, cheaper system provided locally. The ePassport process seems to be heading in the same direction, with the Ministry supporting the new supplier against their own policies.

The tender documents required the selected company to have the necessary technology and expertise for secure biometric passport production, adhering to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards. Developed and developing countries use ePassports for secure international travel.

The DIE has mandated prior online registration for passport applications until the ePassports are available. Recently, a lack of public awareness about this requirement led to large crowds at the DIE head office.

The government plans to replace the current N Series MRPs with ePassports by next year. After an eight-year delay, the project was reactivated, awarding Thales and JITT the contract to supply five million ePassports over ten years. The first batch of 100,000 ePassports is expected by January 2025, with an annual need for one million passports.

To meet current demand, 300,000 MRPs will be procured from the same company, bypassing the tender process and violating procurement policies. A Cabinet paper proposes overhauling the IT infrastructure for ePassport printing, expected to take 18 months, risking a passport shortage. The original tender was for ePassport books only, with printing to be done using the existing infrastructure.

Thales has proposed a fee-based personalisation system, stating that the current infrastructure cannot handle their ePassports. This would cost over Rs.1 billion and involve procuring their Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) system, essential for ePassport functionality. This proposal, submitted without a tender process, could result in significant public expense and the abandonment of the current personalisation system.

By: Staff Writer

August 01, Colombo (LNW): Offering a sneak peek view of the consumer markets in the foregoing quarter, Ceylon Cold Stores PLC reported better top and bottom lines, which showed signs of continued recovery in consumer spending.

The John Keells Holdings subsidiary reported a top line of Rs.38.1 billion in the April-June quarter, the company’s first fiscal quarter (1Q25), up 10 percent from the same period in 2023.

The operating profits however surged by 69 percent to Rs.2.33 billion.The group’s manufacturing segment, which produces Elephant House-branded frozen confectioneries, beverages, dairy products and others, reported revenues of Rs.8.42 billion for the quarter, up 14.6 percent from the same period in 2023.

This reflects that the consumer is gradually returning to consumer discretionary items, which they for a long period stayed away from, due to the runaway inflation and also the sky-high interest rates, which effectively killed the demand for things other than for the staples.

Meanwhile, the group’s retail business, represented by the Keells Super supermarkets, also showed strengthening results, with the quarter registering a revenue of Rs.30.52 billion, which translated into an 8.4 percent growth from the same period a year ago.

The earnings of the two segments rose by at least three folds.The company, at a consolidated level, reported earnings of Rs.1.24 a share or Rs.1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to Rs.0.34 a share or Rs.322.17 million in the year earlier period.

The top and bottom-line performances are a reflection of a clear turnaround in the company’s performance across its two key business segments.

Meanwhile, the net finance cost also fell sharply by 38 percent to Rs.596.4 million in the quarter, partly as a result of the decline in the borrowings and also due to the softening interest rates. 

Ceylon Cold Stores to a larger extent offers clues about the Sri Lankan consumer, as he is gradually picking up from the distressed conditions in the last two years.

The company’s higher top line shows that the consumer is loosening his purse strings while the expanding bottom line shows the company is benefitting from the cooler inflation and lower borrowing costs, in addition to its own efficiency enhancing measures.

The company’s share ended unchanged at Rs.56.10 yesterday. The company declared a first interim dividend of 73 cents.John Keells Holdings PLC owns a 70.66 percent stake in Ceylon Cold Stores.

August 01, Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lankan Rupee indicates slight appreciation against the US Dollar today (01) in comparison to yesterday, as per the official exchange rates released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).

Accordingly, the buying price of the US Dollar has dropped to 297.79 from Rs. 297.85, and the selling price to Rs. 307.08 from Rs. 307.17.

August 01, Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lankan Rupee indicates steadiness against the US Dollar today (01) in comparison to yesterday, as per leading commercial banks in the country.

At Peoples Bank, the buying price of the US Dollar has dropped to Rs. 296.89 from Rs. 297.14, and the selling price to Rs. 307.54 from Rs. 307.80.

At Commercial Bank, the buying price of the US Dollar has increased to Rs. 296.69 from Rs. 296.67, and the selling price remains unchanged at Rs. 306.50.

At Sampath Bank, the buying and selling rates of the US Dollar remain unchanged at Rs. 298 and Rs. 307, respectively.