Sri Lanka Insurance of Sri Lanka closed the year 2021 with a positive note recording a staggering combined Gross Written Premium  (GWP)  of Rs. 43 billion amidst the turbulent time.

In the year 2021 Sri Lanka Insurance reported 14 % growth in life insurance premium increases to Rs.21.9 billion whilst general insurance reported 5.4% growth in premium, for a total value of Rs. 21.2 billion amidst the stagnant market conditions. 

The company achieved a combined Gross Written Premium (GWP) growth rate of 9.7 % during the year. Life insurance contributed 51% towards the total GWP whilst General Insurance contributed 49%.

Marking 60 years of excellence as the protector of the nation, Sri Lanka Insurance recorded many remarkable achievements during the year 2021.

Sri Lanka Insurance yet again declared the highest Life Insurance bonus in the industry of Rs. 8.6 billion. The insurer was able to produce 189 MDRT members with 5 COT and 1 TOT member for the MDRT conference 2021 marking a historic milestone as the highest ever representation from Sri Lanka Insurance.

In the year 2021 Sri Lanka Insurance managed to uphold the leadership position of the General Insurance sector and Motor Insurance sector while introducing multiple innovative motor insurance products that cater to the unique needs of customer segments in the motor insurance market.

Further, Sri Lanka Insurance was recognized with many awards and accolades in the year 2021. 

The insurer tops the ranking in many aspects in the Brand Finance report on Sri Lanka’s Most Valuable Brands 2021 edition. 

Sri Lanka Insurance was awarded The Most Loved Insurance Brand of the year and the Most Valuable General Insurance Brand of the year proving its prowess to be awarded these prestigious titles for the 4th consecutive year. 

Also, SLIC Life recorded the highest brand value growth among the Life Insurance brands in Sri Lanka. SLIC was also recognized as a ‘Great Place to Work” in Sri Lanka in the year 2021, reiterating the insurer’s commitment towards developing and empowering employee relationships at the workplace.

Exploring the avenues to broaden the protection to communities SLIC served different segments, age groups and different affinity groups through product and market development initiatives. 

SLIC Speed Investment and SLIC Early cash and SLIC Minimuthu life insurance products were relaunched understanding and catering to a new generation of SLIC clientele. 

“Nagaraja” an exclusive medical insurance cover was also launched as the first product designed in Sri Lanka to provide protection for Buddhist clergy and their family members and “Motor Plus Commercial” was launched with unique features to complement the needs of the commercial vehicle users.

SLIC has been making steady progress in transforming its operational architecture and front end customer interfaces to ensure digital integration. 

SLIC Mobile App introduced many enhanced features to constantly evolve with the consumer needs and proved to be a significant tool during the pandemic period. 

The motor claim settlement process has undergone a major reengineering process to facilitate fast-track and contactless claim settlements to customers. 

SLIC also increased the digital integration with other service providers to expand the number of payment platforms available to customers enhancing the accessibility and switching to contactless mode to ensure health and safety guidelines. 

The “Work Flow Management System” is transforming all internal manual and paper-based operations to digital-driven systemized operations.

Commenting on the excellence achieved during the year SLIC Chairman Eng. Vijitha Herath noted “The past year has been a testing time which compelled us to embrace changes and respond to challenges. .”

Chief Executive Officer of Sri Lanka Insurance Chandana L. Aluthgama noted, “Operating in a very competitive landscape we have demonstrated our resilience again with the excellent and sustainable achievements during the year 2021.  

Sri Lanka will be starting commercial production of tea wine which had been invented and introduced by local tea sector scientists.  

The Tea Research Institute (TRI) has called for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from interested companies to commercialise the process of manufacturing tea wine.

TRI has successfully conducted pilot-scale manufacturing of tea wine, which is a unique and patented process based on traditional wine fermentation methods, producing a ‘dry red wine’ containing 12 percent  alcohol.

It is rich in its unique taste with medium body and soft tannings carrying pronounced tea aroma with the sweet smell of delicate black BOP.

A unique and patented process for making tea wine, based on traditional wine-fermentation methods. 

The process utilizes a specific Sri Lankan tea variety and special aging techniques to produce a tea wine with unique flavor and aroma profiles. 

While this unique tea wine has received positive reviews by consumers and wine-specialists, its most valuable attribute may be its opening up of the potential for novel Sri Lankan tea-based fermented beverages.

 In this pilot effort, the tea wine exhibits a unique taste, aroma and stability in storage. 

This particular fermented tea is made with tender leaves of Dimbulla black, involves chaptalization, use of Saccharomyces bayanus, and aged in Halmilla (Beralia cordifolia) casks. 

The patented process has established a platform for producing a variety of unique tea beverages through many potential variations including tea variety, fermentation method, and aging.

 While fermentation of tea leaves is a traditional method of producing certain types of dry tea leaves, methods of producing fermented tea beverages are not as common.

 However, the low alcohol, fermented-tea beverage kombucha has become very popular in the U.S. and other countries. 

The U.S. kombucha market is currently over $1billion and is predicted to reach $3.8 billion by 2023. Similar types of fermented tea beverages are also seeing significant growth.

 Fermented teas of varying alcohol contents, and flavors are a hotbed of innovation and market growth.

 The Tea Research Institute is interested in partnering with industrial innovators, in and outside of the tea industry to commercialize this technology and to develop other novel fermented tea beverages.

 The Tea Research Institute will consider trademarks and Geographical Indication (GI) protection for certain fermented tea products it develops with private-sector partners. 

Pilot scale tea wine production (approximately 50 L per batch) successfully conducted. Types of deals sought: Non-exclusive licenses, regional and field of use exclusive licenses would be considered. TRI is seeking commercial allies in tea and beverage manufacturing, distribution and sales, other food innovators.

We would like to now elevate our product from its current pilot scale to a more commercial level with a royalty to the institution,” TRI Manager – Technology Transfer Office Dr. M.A.B. Ranatunga said. 

He also said that TRI expects to expand the existing product and procedure with the prospective company, and the capacity to undertake R&D activities would be an advantage in the evaluation of EOIs.

TRI will grant a non-exclusive or exclusive licence to a company or companies, a royalty-bearing right and licence to use and practice the technology and process (‘licensed technology’) to manufacture, sell and commercialise the product during the term of the agreement (‘licence’). 

It will bear the right to choose the basis of agreement to be executed as ‘Non-Exclusive’ or ‘Exclusive’ and the decision shall be taken upon negotiations during the preliminary discussion with the shortlisted firms.

Dr. Ranatunga also pointed out that the TRI had already spoken to the Excise Department to assist the prospective company to obtain the production licence.

“TRI already got a number of inquiries regarding the project,” he said, adding that the deadline for prospective firms to apply is 30 January

Sri Lanka will develop a strategic plan to promote electric vehicles (EV) in line with an expansion in renewable energy according priority to EV imports, a senior minister said.   

The cabinet of ministers has approved a strategic plan to create the background needed to import and promote the use of electric vehicles.

The proposal was submitted by the Minister of Environment. A study by the University of Moratuwa has found that 60 per cent of the air pollution was caused by vehicle emissions, the proposal had said.

Sri Lanka’s environment minister Mahinda Amaraweera has submitted a cabinet paper proposing that electric vehicles be prioritised when resuming vehicle imports, the minister said, amid an ongoing power crisis on top of a dollar shortage.

Amaraweera said the proposal was made in line with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s commitment towards renewable energy.

In the wake of this proposal Vega Innovations, the company that unveiled VEGA, the flagship electric supercar, the first of its kind built in Sri Lanka, has designed an electric Three-wheeler and an electric ATV.

Director and co-founder of Vega Innovations Dr. Beshan Kulapala said the electric three-wheeler will be introduced to the Sri Lankan market in late 2022, for a competitive price.

“We hope to introduce this three-wheeler to India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Africa,” he said adding that it would be manufactured in Sri Lanka and then exported.

Sri Lanka has an ongoing import ban on vehicles, with Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa stating in December that no new vehicles will be imported in 2022. 

However, President Rajapaksa in his policy statement to parliament last Monday (18) said the government will allow the resumption of vehicle imports in the future, with priority given to electric vehicles.

“When we allow the import of vehicles in the future, we hope to give priority to electric vehicles. Accordingly, we should plan to use renewable energy sources as much as possible when supplying electricity to vehicles,” he said.

The president also noted that about 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s annual import expenditure is allocated for oil imports.

“When the total export earnings are less than 1,000 million US dollars a month, we have to spend about 350 million a month on oil alone. About 70 percent of the imported fuel is used as fuel for vehicles. 

It costs about 21 percent to generate electricity. Only 4 percent is used for industry,” he said.

The government’s emphasis on electric vehicles comes amid a power crisis, with the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB)’s engineering union warning consumers of daily outages of nearly two hours starting Monday.The power crisis has been triggered by a shortage in fuel and furnace oil supply to the CEB’s thermal generation plants by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) amid a forex shortage for imports and insufficient water levels at reservoirs for hydro power generation, on top of a breakdown at the Norochcholai coal power plant

The long delayed clearance of over 1000 essential commodity containers struck at the Colombo port due to lack of dollars for repayments for food imports are still to  be cleared in a phased manner.  

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has released US$ 5 million to clear these containers of essential commodities stranded at the Colombo Port.

The Ministry of Trade said a total of US$ 14 million is required to release such stranded containers.

However the dollar issue has not been settled as the remaining amount of funds is yet to be issued by the Central Bank, official sources 

disclosed, adding that failing which the money will be released in  a phased manner. .

The ministers recently submitted a report to the Central Bank containing details of the stranded items of importers of essential items.

It is reported that nearly a thousand containers carrying essential food items including rice, sugar, dhal and potatoes are still held at the Colombo Port due to the shortage of US dollars in the country.

At least 1300 containers of essential food commodities and other items have piled up at the Colombo Port during the past three months mostly due to the inability of obtaining bank documents on letters of credit (LCs) as a result of the dollar payment crisis and also a limited workforce at the port, importers complained.

The raising of concerns by CASA comes whilst Sri Lanka last year saw record $ 20.6 billion in imports and $ 12.4 billion in exports. 

Ships calling at Colombo Port in the first 11 months of 2021 had been declined by 4.4percent  to 3,826.

However total container handlings rose by 4.8% to 6.6 million TEUs. Transhipment saw a 3% growth to 5.3 million TEUs. Handling of domestic boxes rose by 10.5% to 1 million TEUs.

Shipping agents on Sunday 23 warned that import container build-up in the Colombo Port is worsening primarily due to the foreign exchange crisis, and urged authorities to resolve it fast so as to avoid a more serious impact on the economy.

Shipping companies rely on import containers being cleared from the ports de-stuffed and returned back to the containers’ depots, either to be used as export containers or be repositioned to high demand areas.

However, the Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents (CASA) said since Sri Lanka is facing a dollar shortage, importers are not able to pay the necessary dues to clear the import containers from the port. “This means that the static containers are lying at the terminals incurring demurrage day by day which at the end of the day will have to be borne by none other than the consumer,” CASA said.

Pressuring shipping lines for demurrage waivers will have an adverse effect making Sri Lanka unfavourable.

CASA said containers dwelling at the terminal also mean that the supply of empty containers available for exports too are reducing drastically, which results in further hikes in freight rates and even if the exporter is willing to pay that higher freight rate they may not still not be able to secure a container due to limited supply availability.