Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) indicates a slight fluctuation against the US Dollar today (08) in comparison to yesterday, as revealed by the official exchange rates list issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).
Accordingly, the buying price of the US Dollar has increased to Rs. 316.71 from Rs. 316.27, but the selling price has dropped to Rs. 327.99 from Rs. 328.06.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Rupee has appreciated against several other foreign currencies, whilst indicating depreciation against the Australian Dollar, Swiss Franc, and Gulf currencies.
Colombo (LNW): The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will ensure an uninterrupted supply of power with thermal power generation, asserted Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara.
Calling in a meeting with the CEB representatives, the Minister noted that the progress of coal procurement for the next season, financial situation of the Board, power generation plans and forecasts for the next 12 months and other issued related to the CEB was reviewed and discussed.
The Lanka Coal Company has successfully called tenders and offered the spot and term tenders for the next season and hopes to unload 40 cargos of coal by May 2024, the Minister noted.
The first Coal cargo of season will arrive next week at Norochcholai, and the CEB’s system control and management presented that the power generation has decreased in hydro generation capacity, he added.
“CEB system control estimates 3500-3750 GWh of hydro generation this year but will ensure an uninterrupted supply of power with thermal power generation. Since next year is predicted to be a dry year, CEB has advertised calling for least cost private generation plants to be absorbed to the national grid,” Wijesekara wrote on his X (previously known as Twitter).
Progress of coal procurement for the next season, financial situation of CEB, power generation plans & forecasts for the next 12 months & other issues related to CEB was reviewed & discussed.
Lanka Coal Company has successfully called tenders and offered the spot & term tenders… pic.twitter.com/BxDoTexxLc
Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara said that a cultural centre will be provided to the Sri Lankans of African origin (Kaffirs) living in the Sirambiadi area of Puttalam.
He said this will help this community to focus international attention on their culture.
The Minister noted this after meeting the Kaffir community in Sirambiadi. He visited the area for research regarding this community.
Minister Nanayakkara further said that this proposed cultural centre will also help in getting the active contribution of this population group to develop tourism.
“It will help boost their living standards and income earning opportunities and will also be a platform to showcase their unique culture,” he said.
The Minister engaged in a lengthy discussion with the elders of the community regarding their history, employment conditions and cultural aspects.
The Minister also paid attention to the activities of the youth in the community.
British High Commissioner Andrew Patrick called on Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at the Temple Trees yesterday (07) to exchange views on bilateral ties and development cooperation between Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.
The High Commissioner expressed his firm commitment to further enhance bilateral ties and development cooperation between the two countries.
The Prime Minister urged the United Kingdom to explore possibility of initiating new investment projects with the participation of the private sector. He added that Sri Lanka encourages UK investment in sectors such as education, banking and financial services, pharmaceuticals, hospitality and tourism.
High Commissioner Andrew Patrick expressed happiness over the growth of participation of British universities and educational institutions in Sri Lankan education sector. He agreed to look into the possibility of expanding English language teaching facilities in collaboration with the British Council.
Secretary to the Prime Minister, Anura Dissanayake and Second Secretary of British High Commission, Siobhan Latham also attended the meeting.
Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka’s official reserves have dropped to US $3,598 million in August, 2023, a decline of 4.4 per cent compared to the month before, revealed the the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).
In July, the official assets remained at US $3,765 million, and in the following month, the assets have dropped to US $3,598 million, indicating a drop of 4.4 per cent.
The official reserves include the US $ 1.4 billion swap facility from China, the CBSL noted, adding that the amount is subject to conditionalities on usability.
Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) happens to be remaining steady against the US Dollar at leading commercial banks in the country today (08) in comparison to yesterday.
Accordingly, Peoples Bank reveals that the buying and selling prices of the US Dollar remain unchanged at Rs. 314.34 and Rs. 329.34, respectively.
At Commercial Bank, on the other hand, the buying price of the US Dollar has increased to Rs. 314.73 from yesterday’s Rs. 314.24, and the selling price to Rs. 326 from Rs. 325.
At Sampath Bank, the buying price of the US Dollar remains stead at Rs. 317, and the selling price has dropped to Rs. 327 from yesterday’s Rs. 328.
Cumulative tourist arrivals for the period January 1 – September 6 stand at 927, 214, nearing the 1mn milestone
By:Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka welcomed a total of 22,896 tourists for the first six days of September, fulfilling 19 percent of the target set for the month. Sri Lanka aims to draw at least 120,201 international visitors for the month of September.
Based on the provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLDTA), the cumulative tourist arrival for the period January 1 – September 6 stood at 927, 214, nearing the 1 million milestone.
The daily arrival average in the six days of September is 3,816. The composition of the top source markets for Sri Lanka has changed with China slipping away from the third position, moving to the sixth. China contributed to 5 percent of the total arrivals for the month of September so far, bringing in 1,114 tourists.
India and the United Kingdom retained their position as the first and second largest tourist traffic generators for Sri Lanka, accounting for 27 percent (6,188), and 7 percent (1,693) of the total arrivals so far for the month.
While Germany ranked in the third position, bringing in 7 percent (1,513) visitors, the Russian Federation moved up to the fourth position, accounting for 6 percent of the total arrivals (1,434).
Sri Lanka expects to host 1.55 million visitors and earn $2.7 billion in much-needed tourism revenue this year, as it maps a road to the recovery of its tourism sector amid its worst economic crisis in decades.
This is up from the 720,000 tourists and $1.1 billion in tourism earnings in 2022, Padma Siriwardana, managing director of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, told The National on Thursday on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. However, this is still below the record 2.3 million visitors that flocked to the country in 2018. The recovery comes after the country’s tourism sector suffered several setbacks: the Easter attacks in 2019, the two-year Covid-19 pandemic and widespread street protests in 2022 in response to an unprecedented economic crisis that led to severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel, cooking gas and electricity.
Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka will assume the Chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) for the period 2023 to 2025 at the forthcoming 23rd Council of Ministers’ Meeting hosted by Sri Lanka on 11 October 2023 in Colombo.
The Council of Ministers’ Meeting will be preceded by the 25th Meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials. This is the second time that Sri Lanka will assume the IORA Chairmanship, having previously served as the Chair from 2003 to 2004.
The Indian Ocean Rim Association is the only intergovernmental regional forum that brings together 23 littoral States of the Indian Ocean.
There are also 11 Dialogue Partners in the Association. Sri Lanka is a founding member of the Association. The Indian Ocean Rim Association marked its 25th anniversary in 2022.
The Secretariat for Sri Lanka’s Chairmanship of IORA will function under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Executive Director General Prof. Sudharshan Seneviratne, former High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Bangladesh. Officials of the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) and Sri Lanka Navy will be attached to the Secretariat, along with senior officials of the Foreign Ministry.
The Council of Ministers is the highest decision making body of the Indian Ocean Rim Association, and Foreign Minister Ali Sabry will be the Chair of the Council of Ministers during Sri Lanka’s Chairmanship. Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane will chair IORA Senior Officials Meeting preceding the Council of Ministers.
Sri Lanka has chosen ‘Strengthening Regional Architecture: Reinforcing Indian Ocean Identity’ as the theme for its Chairmanship of IORA. Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the 23 Member States and the 11 Dialogue Partners or their representatives and Senior Officials are expected to attend the Indian Ocean Rim Association Council of Ministers and Committee of Senior Officials meetings in Colombo in October 2023.
The Member States of the Indian Ocean Rim Association are Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
The Dialogue Partners are China, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, UK and USA.
Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka has over Rs.1.1 trillion worth of currency notes and over 67% of them are among public and are not in circulation, said General Manager, Chief Executive Officer of LankaClear, Channa De Silva.
He said that according to the Central Bank Q 3 figures out of Sri Lanka’s total currency notes, only Rs. 281.4 billion are banked. “A staggering Rs. 828.7 billion is not in circulation and is being kept by people in either safety boxes or in their personal care.”
“As per regional statics, ‘cash costs’ for printing money accounts to around 1.5% of GDP to an economy,” he said at a special event held to create awareness to the entire financial sector towards countering social engineering attacks and financial scams with a nation level public awareness campaign.
This was done on the direction of the National Payment Council of the Central Bank and Sri Lanka’s National Payment Network, (LankaClear) partnering with Sri Lanka’s Banks’ Association, SL CERT, FinCSIRT and the initiative funded by the International Finance Corporation and the campaign will be carried out island wide.
“This campaign will no doubt meet a long-felt need towards apprising the general public on financial frauds which has grown in numbers and complexity to an alarmingly high level over the last few years.”
He said that digital transactions among people have increased steadily. He said that in 2022 and 2023 up to now Rs. 24.1 trillion and USD 922 million transactions were facilitated via connecting 30 banks and 27 Non Banking financial institutions. Real time payments to government institutions amounted to Rs. 591.53 billion. “In addition 32.5 million cheques to the value of Rs. 9.9 million were cleared.
Over Rs. 89 million interbank ATM transitions amounting to Rs. 1.08 Trillion in value were facilitated. He said that there are also few incidents where hackers and fraudsters have taken money from users and on average around 130 takers are reported each month.
“But sadly the defense and recovering money from such crimes is still very low in Sri Lanka. It’s not because there aren’t adequate laws but there are delays in executing them. True we see a gap here.”
Director Payments and settlement Central Bank, Vasantha Alwis said that up to now the most secured system to prevent such incidents is the One Time Password (OTP) , the temporary, secure PIN-code sent via SMS or e-mail that is valid only for one session. “This like the bank or credit card PIN should never be given to anyone.”
Colombo (LNW): Leading global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) said this week it will provide a holistic offering to the Sri Lankan Government in successfully carrying out the divestiture of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation.
The assurance follows A&M being appointed by the Government’s State-Owned Enterprise Restructuring Unit (SRU) to advice on the divestiture of the Government’s shareholding in the state-owned SLIC.
A&M has been mandated in partnership with Capital Alliance (CAL), the Colombo-headquartered investment bank, to manage the divestment of all, or part of, the shareholding of SLIC, one of seven state-owned enterprises currently being targeted for divestiture of government ownership by the SRU.
The A&M team delivering the mandate will be led by the firm’s Sovereign Advisory Services (SAS) practice Global Head Dr. Reza Baqir, a former Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, and previously a senior official of the IMF.
The CAL team will be led by the firm’s Investment Banking practice head Nishok Goonasekera, a former Executive Director of Morgan Stanley Asia in its Institutional Securities business.
The mandate is part of the Government’s overall reform program to enhance competitiveness, productivity and efficiency across the economy and to assist in the country’s socio-economic development and fiscal consolidation efforts.
A&M’s Global Head Sovereign Advisory Services practice Dr. Reza Baqir said: “We are delighted to support the Government of Sri Lanka’s economic reform program and its efforts to divest Government ownership in identified state-owned enterprises.
The goal of SAS is to provide a holistic offering to sovereigns to help them with their needs in sovereign finance, operational and financial performance improvement in state-owned enterprises and financial services, and related challenges. We will be working closely with our partners at CAL on this mandate.”
CAL Founder and Director Ajith Fernando said: “CAL is pleased to be partnering with A&M on this strategic collaboration, which signifies a powerful fusion of our on-the-ground knowledge and A&M’s deep restructuring experience. This is a welcome opportunity to support the Sri Lankan Government in achieving its economic reform policy objectives.”
A&M’s Financial Services Practice Managing Director Tariq Hameed said: “The appointment of A&M and CAL on this mandate is testament to the holistic approach of our Sovereign Advisory Services offer. A&M’s heritage in corporate restructuring and financial services and CAL’s local capital markets expertise makes us well-positioned to jointly lead this economically important mandate.”
