Coca Cola invests Rs.600mn in new beverage


Coca Cola has invested Rs.600 million to launch the first fresh orange juice with authentic pulp to the Sri Lankan market.

Minute Maid Orange was launched on Tuesday by Coca Cola which has an immense portfolio of fruit drinks that are marketed worldwide in glass bottles, plastic bottles and Tetra cartons. Coca Cola Far East Ltd. would be catering to the local market and they are intending to branch out into other fruit drinks such as Mango, Pineapple, Passion fruit and mixed fruit and Sri Lankan fruit juices as well.

“Minute Maid is the largest fruit juice manufacturers in the world. Coca Cola wants to produce liquids that would satisfy the consumer’s beverage needs daily,” said Coca Cola Far East Ltd Sri Lanka and Maldives Country Manager Manish Chaturvedi.

He also added that Minute Maid will be sampled in the next few weeks among 180,000 consumers and launched in 20,000 retails outlets in the island. Minute Maid is being launched in a phased manner starting with Colombo, Negambo, Chilaw, Ratnapura, Gampaha and across the coastal belt up to Galle and will be available in 200ml glass bottles priced at Rs.30.

The advertising campaign is to be centred upon the theme ‘Where’s the Pulp?’ and Coca Cola is to adopt a 360 degree market programme in all the types of media. The Brand Ambassador for Minute Maid is Malith Perera the Runner up of the Sirasa Super Star in 2006. Coca Cola had chosen him as the brand ambassador since he is also a UN youth ambassador and because most of the Sri Lankans already knew him.

The new machinery allows us to put an exact amount of pulp into the bottle as well as to prepare the juice in the highest quality possible everyday’ said Coca Cola Sri Lanka Country Manager Basil Gadzios.

Moreover he pointed out that surveys have revealed that not all juices meet the standard required by the consumers. Sri Lanka is one of the first countries in Asia to launch Minute Maid and that it was the second in the region to receive Minute Maid in returnable glass bottles. In addition, the employees of Coca Cola Beverages Sri Lanka were also the first to experience the taste of the juice through a grand internal launch at the factory premises in Biyagama.

“We intend to expand and become first in the Sri Lankan juice market in a very short period of time Minute Maid expects a market share of 25 percent in the first year. However our intension is to make up a lone market for Minute Maid since there is no direct competitor in Sri Lanka among MD, SMAK and the other fruit juice manufacturers,” Coca Cola Sri Lanka Country Marketing Manager Dusty Alahakoon told the Daily Financial Times.

Coca Cola Country Sri Lanka Country Supply Chain Manager Kapilia Welmillage declared that Coca Cola was more than 120 years old covering around 200 countries. He further stated that the out of the 35 percent of commercial beverages per day in Sri Lanka sparkling beverages such as Coke, Fanta and Sprite hold a share of 6 percent.

Minute Maid was established during the Second World War in response to increasing demand for an easy to prepare orange juice for the US army. Florida Foods Corporation created the initial product and named it ‘Minute Maid’ and marketed it for general consumption. Over time it became a global giant and was bought over by Coca Cola in 1960. Since then it has been launched worldwide with the most recent launches in China, Vietnam and India.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/11/29/ft/11.asp)

Good initiative, this is just what Coca-Cola has to do, in order to remain the local and worldwide beverage giant...

Private sector, government and international partners have agreed to enter the sea sand mining business to end environmental problems and reduce sand prices in the country.

The proposed sea sand mining and washing project in Muthurajawela will reduce current sand prices and provide over 500 employment opportunities, specially for the Western Province and the rest of the country.


Sand minining: Since the ban on sand mining in rivers, brooks etc, was imposed unscrupulous persons proned to deal with illicit mining without legal authority bringingforth environmental hazards. Picture shows the traditional pattern of sand mining which is expected to replace with modern machinery in the sea.

At present the construction sector needs over 10,320,000 Metric tons of sand per annum and the Western province needs 4,334,400 metric tons of sand annually.

The entire sand supply is fulfilled by extracting sand from river beds. According to the contractors the prices of sand is increasing day by day. At present a cube of sand is Rs. 9000.00 and the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau [GSMB] issues sand permits to dredging sand from river beds.

CEO of the Lanka Orix Project Development Limited Engineer Nimal Mendis says the proposed BOI Company under incorporation between Dredging International NV, Belgium and Lanka Orix Project Development Ltd. will take this task of offshore sand mining, washing, sieving and grading to supply sand for the construction industry.

Dredging International, NV - Belgium rated as one of the largest dredging and reclamation companies in the world will be the technology provider for the project with financial assistance from the Flemish Government of Belgium and KBC Bank, Belgium.

Lanka Orix Project Development Ltd act as the project promoter and the Belgium government’s representatives have pledged to provide a grant 35 per cent and balance as an interest free loan for the sand washing facility of the project.

Mendis said sea sand is being seen as a viable alternative to river sand, the illicit mining of which has adversely affected rivers and fragile ecosystems. The sand is to be pumped out from a 20 metre depth.

Several successful trial studies have been conducted.International studies have backed deep sea sand utilization as a better and less environmentally hazardous option, but Sri Lanka lacks the expertise.

According to the promoters of the project the Cabinet sub committee chaired by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa has approved the project to be implemented on “Fast Track” scheme to witness elimination of the severe damage to the environment and supply sand to the construction industry at affordable rates.

The Board of Investment has granted its approval for the project.

“Our Belgium partners with the concurrence with the Belgium authorities are in the process of collecting data to formulate and compile the feasibility study and the project covers North of Negombo, Beruwala, Balapitiya and Muthurajawela off shore areas demarcated by Geological Survey and Mines Bureau [GSMB] for exploration, he explained.

“We have suggested that the relevant government agency that could spearhead this project be the Central Environmental Authority [CEA] as this project is inclined towards protecting the rivers in the Sri Lanka and the environment, he said.

The CEA will receive anticipated benefits as the implementing agency of this project such as a complete ban on harvesting sand from river beds, receipts of payments on royalties as applicable, commission on sales of sand, employment for Sri Lankans islandwide, be a partner of this pioneering project and transfer of modern technology.

Mendis said after the commencement of the project the company could meet the entire sand demand of Sri Lanka within 16 months. :nuts:


DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/12/10/bus01.asp)

The Ceylon Glass Company PLC (CGC) opened its new glass bottle manufacturing facility in Horana yesterday.

The total investment of the new facility is Rs. 3.7 billion. The company will increase its production capacity to cater to the local and international market.

Speaking at the opening ceremony CEO of CGC, Sanjay Tiwari said they will have five manufacturing lines for the new plant. One manufacturing line has already commenced operations and the other four lines too will commence production within a few weeks. This will enable the company to produce nearly 200 metric tonnes per day and the fifth manufacturing line will increase their production capacity to 250 metric tonnes per day.

The new plant will be equipped with the facility to manufacture colour bottles. With the commissioning of the new plant, the company's current production capacity for manufacturing colour bottles of different shapes would be more than doubled.

"The old plant in Ratmalana has been mothballed. With the commissioning of our new plant there will be employment generated to over 500 persons both directly as well as indirectly.

"We have signed a collective bargaining agreement with the Inter Company Union for the next three years, including the amicable relocation of people and I am pleased to say we enjoy a most cordial relationship with the Union" Tiwari said.

http://i8.tinypic.com/6k09ky9.jpg
The new factory complex in Horana
Pictures by Saliya Rupasinghe

Chairman of the Piramal Enterprises, India Ajay Piramal said they acquired CGC because they are familiar with this sector and need to grow outside India.

This acquisition was very profitable for our company and it helped us with some acquisitions in other countries too.

"Only developed countries focused on specialised glass manufacturing but developing countries too have potential in this sector, he said.

Chairman of the CGC, Vijay Shah said there was excellent support from the trade unions for relocating the new facility in Horana.

"The world market for food and beverage glass is over US$ 12 billion and is growing at 12%, the Cosmetic and Perfume glass is US$ 1.9 billion US$ and growing at 5%, while the pharmaceutical glass market is around US$ 2 billion.

"Key markets for specialty food and drinks are the US and Europe which are forecast to be US$125 billion by 2009 with the Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) being 5%.

"We are already the sole supplier of blue bottles for a major brand of the world's second largest liquor company and we are currently exploring export opportunities in India, the Philippines, Mauritius, and Australia".

Shah said the domestic demand for glass containers too had grown, all of which were contributing factors that had made CGCL invest in the new production facility.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/12/11/bus01.asp)

Good news, nice spreading development into a rather rural area...

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed Agreements for 9 new projects on 13th December 2007. Mr. Dhammika Perera, Chairman/ Director General, signed the Agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the investors with the BOI Certificates of Registrations.

The 9 agreements signed by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka are for a total investment of estimated US $ 125.08 million (Rupees 13883.75 million).

United Telecom Lanka (Private) Limited

United Telecom signed an agreement to set up a project to undertake IT enabled services for the local market. The US $ 1.5 million venture will be sponsored by United Telecom Limited. The Indian investment is expected to generate 130 employment opportunities and will be located at Colombo 05.

San Spence Limited

The agreement signed with San Spence is to set up a regional operating headquarters. The project sponsored Aitken Spence & Company is an investment of US $ 250,000. The regional headquarters will be located at Mulleriyawa New Town.

MAS Research and Innovation (Private) Limited

MAS Research and Innovation, signed an agreement to develop solutions, design new products and samples for the Apparel Industry. This project is an investment of US $ 3 million. The venture sponsored by MAS Capital will be located at Biyagama Export Processing Zone.

Sunchemie Industries (Private) Limited

An agreement for a project to refine used oil for export was signed with Sunchemie Industries. The US $ 1.16 million venture will be sponsored by Indian Investors. The project is expected to generate around 30 employment opportunities.


Tea Craft (Private) Limited

Tea Craft, a project under Nipayum Sri Lanka 300 Enterprise Programme signed an agreement to cultivate and process tea for the export market. The venture is expected to generate employment for a work force of 75. The Rs. 28.2 million venture will be located at Akuressa. The project is expected to start in February 2008.


Provimi Vet Lanka (Private) Limited

An agreement to set up a project to manufacture animal feed additives and supplements for the export market was signed with Provimi Vet Lanka. The US $ 1 million investment is sponsored by Terragon Chemie Private Limited, India. The project which is expected to generate employment for around 20 will be located at Malabe.

Kalhari Enterprises (Private) Limited

An agreement to recycle rubber waste for export was signed with Kalhari Enterprises. The project is an investment of US $ 395,000. The project is expected to provide employment for 100. The project would be located at Mahara.

Dutch Bay Resorts (Private) Limited

Dutch Bay Resorts, a Project under Nipayum Sri Lanka 300 Enterprises Programme is a project to undertake a Project to set up a Tourist Resort at Kalpitiya. This is an investment from the Kingdom of Bahrain. The project expected to generate 425 employment opportunities is an investment of Rs. 13,000 million. The Tourist Resort will be located at Dutch Bay Area, Kalpitiya.

Central Park International Campus (Private) Limited

The agreement signed with Central Park International Campus is a project to set up a Higher Education Institute. The institute commenced lectures in January 2007. It will offer Degree Courses recognized in UK. The institute sponsored by CSR Holdings is an investment of US $ 400,000 .The institute located at Nawala is expected to generate employment for 100.

BOI (http://www.boi.lk/boi2005/view.asp?NewsID=3444&CatID=1)

Nice investment...FDI

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed agreements for six new projects yesterday.

BOI Chairman/Director General Dhammika Perera signed the agreement on behalf of BOI and formally presented the investors with the BOI certificates of registrations. The eight agreements signed by the BOI are for a total investment of an estimated US $ 33.3 million.

The projects will create 700 new jobs. Jatropha Energy Lanka, a project under Nipayum Sri Lanka 300 Enterprise Programme signed an agreement to cultivate Jatropha production of bio diesel for the export market.

The project at Ethimole, Monaragala is an investment of Rs. 27 million. The venture is expected to provide employment for 160.

The agreement signed with Quail’s Project is for the construction of housing complexes. The venture will be sponsored by Lion Asian Construction Limited. The project will provide employment for 20. The housing complexes will be at Ruppagoda, Gonahena and Gonawala, Kelaniya. This is an investment of US $ 600,000.

Hyosung O N B, signed an agreement to manufacture bio fertiliser for the export market. This is a Korean venture sponsored by Hyo Sung ONB Company. The project is an investment of US $ 5.2 million and will be at Kochchikade.

An agreement for a project to manufacture Nitrile Coated Gloves for the Export market was signed by Digno Gloves. The US $ 1 million venture is an investment from South Korea. The venture is expected to generate 350 employment opportunities and will be at Kaduwala, Katana.

Vinseth Leisure Resorts signed an agreement to set up a luxury hotel at Kabalgamuwa, Kegalle. The Rs. 61 million investment is expected to provide 120 employment opportunities.

The agreement signed with Spaceway Construction is for a project for the construction of an apartment complex.

The complex at Narahenpita is an investment of US $ 11.1 million. The project is expected to provide employment for 20.

In addition, two agreements were signed to set up mini-hydro power plants with an investment of US $ 15 million.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/12/28/news21.asp)

ok nice, but we need the real mega FDIs now, 25 million USD and more...

LBO >> Industries
Indian Interest
28 December 2007 12:42:11
Sri Lankan market draws India's Piramal group


Dec 28, 2007 (LBO) – India's Piramal Enterprises, which has just opened a bigger container glass plant in Sri Lanka, plans to sell pharmaceutical products in the island, its chairman said.


The company, part of India's Piramal Group, also plans to make use of its Sri Lankan glass plant, Ceylon Glass Company (CGC), to penetrate specialty high value Western consumer markets, Ajay Piramal told LBO in an interview.

CGC's Indian parent Gujarat Glass, a Piramal subsidiary that is one of the world's biggest container glass makers, has just expanded its plants in the subcontinent and used its experience in Sri Lanka to buy up plants elsewhere.

Piramal said they would use the Gujarat Glass global network of offices to push sales of Ceylon Glass specialty glass bottles in niche markets.

The Piramal group is in pharmaceutical healthcare, textiles, glass packaging and engineering in Indian and recently also got into real estate development and information technology.

"We're in pharmaceuticals, financial services and development of real estate and we look to Sri Lanka as a future area for growth," Piramal said at the opening of the new Ceylon Glass plant in Horana, south of the capital Colombo.

But he said business in the island faced a few challenges such as high inflation, high interest rates and total dependence on imported oil as fuel.

The new Ceylon Glass plant in Horana, which will have a capacity of 250 tonnes a day when its fifth production is commissioned early next year, can meet Sri Lanka's entire demand for glass containers and export as well.

New furnace technology gives it the ability to make flint, amber and coloured bottles ranging in size from 50 ml to 2.5 litres and it has already won customers in high value wine markets.

The company got import duty and income tax benefits by shifting from its original site in Ratmalana.

Piramal, whose group is setting up glitzy shopping malls called 'lifestyle plazas for shoppertainment' in Indian metros, would not be drawn in the LBO interview on future plans for the Ratmalana land, now considered prime property.

"We're looking at alternative uses. If we get a good value for it we may sell."



http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=198397638&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=17

Laugfs Holdings plans to construct its own gas terminal and also expand market penetration in LP Gas both in the domestic and industrial sectors next year, the company said.

Group Managing Director Thilak De Silva said Laugfs branded lubricants will be in the market place during the first quarter of the year while commercial production of one of the company’s biggest investment made in the recent past -- manufacture of solid and industrial tyres -- will commence during May/June and will be exporting the products to North American markets initially. Laugfs will install its facilities for Vehicle Emission Testing of the entire vehicle fleet of the country by April 2008 under the licence of the Department of Registrar of Motor Vehicles. De Silva said they would also start construction of the proposed seven star “small luxury” hotel in Marawila of the west cost by mid 2008.

ST (http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071230/FinancialTimes/ft305.html)

Serendib Flour Mills (Pvt) limited will be entering the local wheat flour market soon.

The company will be investing Rs. 6 billion for their operations in Sri Lanka.

A subsidiary of Al Ghurair flour Millis in Dubai, the Company has already installed machinery and are in the process of employing more staff. Testing of flour for the local market too has commenced and samples have been distributed to buyers.

The new company based in Wellampitiya would be importing raw material via the Colombo Port for processing.

“This would give a price advantage for the consumers as it would save transport charges” an company official said.

Prima Lanka a subsidiary of Prima Singapore, is based in Trincomalee.

Meanwhile it was announced that the price of wheat has risen above US$ 10 a bushel for the first time.

The price of wheat has more than doubled since the beginning of this year, as adverse weather reduced output in the major exporting countries of Australia, Argentina, Canada and United States.

The reduced output comes on top of high demand, partly also generated by the Biofuel industry.

The supply will remain tight until new crops are harvested in United States and Europe in July and August 2008. Finagle Lanka Limited, Akra Bakers followed by Perera and Sons and Prima Lanka Limited use flour on a large scale to manufacturing bread and other flour- based products.

In addition there is major a retail market for wheat flour by mainly to manufacture bread and other flour based products by individual bakers and households.

Marketing analysts point out that a second player to the market would create better competition and would help to give a better deal to the consumers.

In the gas market too with the intervention of the second player there are two price levels in the market.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/12/31/bus01.asp)

Nice investment, but it is not FDI right....

uae investment counts as fdi i think. anyway how much fdi did we get this year, obviously not the targetted amount right.

Nice investment, but it is not FDI right....

$60Mil from UAE^^

but if a foreign company or so invests in SL using a sri lankan, like singapores shing kwan group in overseas reality of SL (Havelock city and the WTC), it does not count as FDI, because it is indirect...

Laugfs Gas Holdings will invest a further Rs. 800 million to enter the international solid tyre market this year.

"There is growing global demand for solid tyres and this was the reason for us to enter this market," said Chairman Managing Director Laugfs, W. A. Wegapitiya said.

First on the pneumatic tyre portfolio in Sri Lanka was Laugfs Colt, a 4.00x8 small pneumatic tyre with a 425kg at 425KPa (60RSI) and flexible sidewalls designed and manufactured for three-wheelers. "This has proved to be a major success and we commend a high market share," he said.

A range of larger pneumatic tyres for motorbikes, passenger vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles would be introduced this year.

The company hopes to introduce under the brand names Palomino and Stallion. Since the company is also involved in the lubricant and Auto Gas conversion market in Australia they will also export tyres to the Aussie market as well. "We have established our presence in Australia," he said.

Laugfs introduced Auto Gas Conversion Industry to Sri Lanka is already manufacturing tyres for local three wheelers from their factory. "We have the technology and machinery to move into other areas of production," he said.

Loadstar based in Mirissa Matara is today one of the largest solid tyre manufactures in the world. "This proves that 'Made in Sri Lanka' tag is well accepted all over the world.

The company hopes to install new machinery at their tyre factory in Horana for these new operations.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/08/bus03.asp)

Does solideal loadstar, provide their tyres for the local market aswell?

Does solideal loadstar, provide their tyres for the local market aswell?

Export oriented only , I have seen a lot in Australia^^^^^^

Dubai-based TransAsia Gas International said it is in talks to develop oil refineries in Pakistan and Sri Lanka at a cost of $1.4 billion (Dh 5.1 billion), part of a trend by private Gulf energy companies to expand abroad.

TransAsia is among a wave of private or part-private Gulf companies such as Abu Dhabi National Energy Co and Dana Gas that are expanding outside the Gulf, where state-owned oil and gas producers dominate.

Talks with the Governments of Pakistan and Sri Lanka focus on developing a 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery in each of the two countries, Muzzafar said.

Each unit will cost at least US$ 700 million (Dh2.6 billion), he said. In Pakistan, where it has licences to build two 130 megawatt power plants, TransAsia is in “advanced” talks to relocate a refinery to Port Qasim, 35 kilometres east of Karachi.

It will take units from old refineries and use them to build new plants, which should help cut costs and construction time, Muzzafar said.

It has also secured land in Sri Lanka to relocate a refinery to Hambantota, Muzzafar said.

TransAsia expects to select an international bank in the next few days to advise on financing, Muzzafar said. “There will be project finance, but we are open to anything, including Islamic finance,” he said, declining to be more specific. Emirates Business 24/7

Xinhua

Dubai-based TransAsia Gas International said it is in talks to develop oil refineries in Pakistan and Sri Lanka at a cost of $1.4 billion (Dh 5.1 billion), part of a trend by private Gulf energy companies to expand abroad.

TransAsia is among a wave of private or part-private Gulf companies such as Abu Dhabi National Energy Co and Dana Gas that are expanding outside the Gulf, where state-owned oil and gas producers dominate.

Talks with the Governments of Pakistan and Sri Lanka focus on developing a 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery in each of the two countries, Muzzafar said.

Each unit will cost at least US$ 700 million (Dh2.6 billion), he said. In Pakistan, where it has licences to build two 130 megawatt power plants, TransAsia is in “advanced” talks to relocate a refinery to Port Qasim, 35 kilometres east of Karachi.

It will take units from old refineries and use them to build new plants, which should help cut costs and construction time, Muzzafar said.

It has also secured land in Sri Lanka to relocate a refinery to Hambantota, Muzzafar said.

TransAsia expects to select an international bank in the next few days to advise on financing, Muzzafar said. “There will be project finance, but we are open to anything, including Islamic finance,” he said, declining to be more specific. Emirates Business 24/7

Xinhua
this is very good project for srilanka but i dont know our political parties such as jvp say what about this in later,coz they create matter for indian oil companey for their propose refinery in trincomalee,have some confusion,,,,:ohno:

Fri, 11 January 2008 21:36:59
LBO >> Finance
Joint Investment
11 January 2008 17:41:20
Sri Lanka HNB in Indian investment bank venture


Jan 11, 2007 (LBO) -- Sri Lanka's Hatton National Bank has signed up with City Union Bank to start an investment banking unit in India, the two banks said in a joint statement Friday.



"The proposed Joint Venture Investment Banking entity will focus on serving the Indian market to deliver capital raising and advisory services to the booming market," the statement said.

"Both the partners firmly believe that the investment banking arena in India for the growing mid-sized corporate segment is under serviced and there is potential for a focused investment banker."

The promoters hope to incorporate the bank this year if regulators of the two countries approve the joint venture for which an agreement was signed between HNB managing director Rajendra Theagarajah and City Union Bank chairman S Balasubramanium.

Hatton National Bank, rated AA-(lka) by Fitch Ratings Lanka is a 120 year old commercial bank in Sri Lanka.

City Union Bank is a 103 year old private sector bank with a mid-sized corporates and small and medium sector clients, the statement said.


HNB is also in a joint venture investment banking venture with DFCC Bank in Sri Lanka.



http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=608975702&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=2

Fri, 11 January 2008 21:36:59
LBO >> Finance
Joint Investment
11 January 2008 17:41:20
Sri Lanka HNB in Indian investment bank venture


Jan 11, 2007 (LBO) -- Sri Lanka's Hatton National Bank has signed up with City Union Bank to start an investment banking unit in India, the two banks said in a joint statement Friday.



"The proposed Joint Venture Investment Banking entity will focus on serving the Indian market to deliver capital raising and advisory services to the booming market," the statement said.

"Both the partners firmly believe that the investment banking arena in India for the growing mid-sized corporate segment is under serviced and there is potential for a focused investment banker."

The promoters hope to incorporate the bank this year if regulators of the two countries approve the joint venture for which an agreement was signed between HNB managing director Rajendra Theagarajah and City Union Bank chairman S Balasubramanium.

Hatton National Bank, rated AA-(lka) by Fitch Ratings Lanka is a 120 year old commercial bank in Sri Lanka.

City Union Bank is a 103 year old private sector bank with a mid-sized corporates and small and medium sector clients, the statement said.


HNB is also in a joint venture investment banking venture with DFCC Bank in Sri Lanka.



http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=608975702&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=2

Very encouraging, local must look in to investments^^

Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce (HDCC) and Manchester Solutions signed a further MOU to continue their partnership through to December 2010. Mr. Richard Guy (CEO) signed on behalf of Manchester Solutions and Mr. Azmi Thassim, (Director General) signed on behalf of HDCC.

Under the new Agreement, Manchester will continue its existing support and, in addition, help launch a major initiative to create an all-encompassing Economic Development Strategy for the Hambantota District.

Plans focusing on a common vision are being prepared to organize and undertake the task of bringing increased economic prosperity to the District.

HDCC is spearheading this initiative, which is based upon the need to bring together all the stakeholders under a common, agreed and well-coordinated programme in order to gain maximum advantage for the District from the large-scale development projects now under way and proposed projects in the future.

Large scale projects like the international port, the international airport, the oil refinery, as well as infrastructure development (including railway links, highways, electricity, telecommunications, schools, hospitals and new settlements) have been identified as the agents of economic development and it is proposed to draw up a carefully-planned and agreed programme for implementation based on extensive discussions with all stakeholders.

Consultation and a convergence of ideas is an absolute necessity to make true economic development a reality.

Accordingly, discussions have already been held with key officials of the Ministries of Port and Aviation Services, Highways and Highway Development, Tourism, Industrial Development and Investment Promotion, Vocational Training as well as the Sri Lanka Port Authority, the Central Bank of Ceylon, the Urban Development Authority, and the Sri Lanka Board of Investment, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Asia Foundation all of whom have the potential to make a major contribution to the current economic development programme of the District.

Discussions have also been held with the Chamal Rajapakse, Member of Parliament for the Hambantota District and Minister in charge of the Port and Airport projects, and he has kindly agreed to actively extend his cooperation and support to this initiative.

Based on the ideas which emerged during these various discussions, a set of proposals was drafted and forwarded to all stakeholders and a meeting to review these proposals was held on January 3 in Colombo.

A meeting to familiarize the donor community and agency representatives with the proposals was held on January, 4 also in Colombo. A further discussion was held on January 10 in Hambantota with regional level institutions and the business community associated with the economic development of the Hambantota District.

As part of our new three-year agreement, the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Manchester Solutions will collaborate with the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce in these efforts. Manchester Solutions has agreed to provide appropriate expert assistance in the preparation of the proposals, in presenting them to all relevant stakeholders, and in the preparation and implementation of the final plans.

These plans for the future - and the ability to tap into the international expertise of partners like Manchester - are the culmination of the knowledge and understanding HDCC has acquired over a long period of time about the needs of the District and the opportunities to aid its development.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=3637)

January 10, 2008: The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed an agreement with Hotel Services Limited to set up a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Centre for Hospitality Trade. Mr. Dhammika Perera, Chairman/ Director General, signed the Agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the investor with the BOI Certificate of Registrations.

The project sponsored by Amanresorts Management BV, Netherland is an investment of US $ 911,000. The venture located at Colombo 3 is expected to provide employment for a workforce of 23. Operations are expected to commence in April 2008.

Hotel Services Limited will provide sales and reservation services for the chain of small global luxury hotels. Amanresorts owns and manages 18 small luxury resorts worldwide. Each Amanresorts hotel is singularly unique and their resorts are quite different in location, look, and mood and guest experience.

Amanresorts already operates two luxury resorts in Sri Lanka (Amangalla and Amanwella). Ms. Rohini Delilkhan Nordmann said skilled manpower is available in the island and the cost benefits were factors in deciding to locate the centre in Sri Lanka.

On the lookout for exceptional circumstances in which culture and history combine strongly in a unique natural environment, Amanresorts expects to continue to expand its worldwide presence.
Ms. Rohini Delilkhan Nordmann, Director/General Manager signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Nice move...

Trelleborg a Swedish multinational with a global history of 102 years existence in the polymer industry will invests US 4 20 million to expand operations here. The expansion entails the shifting of a complete tyre plant from Hartville, USA.

Trelleborg manufactures industrial tyres for the export market and operates two plants Trelleborg Lanka at Sapugaskanda and Trelleborg Wheel Systems Lanka.

The present production capacity of the two plants exceeds 560,000 units of resilient tyres, 60,000 units of POS and 550,000 pneumatic tyres. With the anticipated expansion, the capacity is expected to grow by 50%.

The Company employs 925 in both plants and has an annual sales turnover exceeding Rs. 7 billion.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/14/bus05.asp)

A first for Sri Lanka:

CIC exports country rice to USA


Shirajiv SIRIMANE

For the first time in the history of agriculture in Sri Lanka, CIC Agri Business will export country rice to USA. An initial order for three containers of rice has already been placed and the quantity would be exported next month.

CIC, a 100 per cent locally owned company is already exporting various varieties of rice to Europe and this will be the first time that the company is exporting country rice to the US market.

According to Assistant General Manager - Production of CIC Agri Businesses Priyanga Dematawa at Pelwehera in Dambulla, the company had received many international inquiries for rice. “However, we were not in a position to export as we did not have our own rice mill,” he said.

The company recently invested Rs. 110 million and set up a rice mill in Maho as a BoI venture. “This has given us facilities for exports,” he said.

Dematawa said that they are not only catering to Asians living in USA. “There is a new trend for health foods in Europe, Australia and USA and red rice has been identified as one of the most nutritious foods.

“This is the reason for us to explore this growing untapped market,” he said. He said that a special one kilogram pack has been designed for the US market which also provides step by step instructions as to how the rice should be prepared for consumption.

CIC recently launched their rice to the local market as well and they are now looking at introducing new varieties.

CIC have a outgrower base of over 3,000 farmers with whom the company has a forward sales agreement. The company had provided them seeds, manure and the technical assistance and buys paddy in return at a higher price than the Government certified price.

“With new export orders on the pipeline and having our own rice mill we are now expanding. CIC Agri Businesses is the largest private seed production centre in Sri Lanka. In Pelwehera laboratory the production is over 20 per cent of the total seed paddy requirement in Sri Lanka.

The facility also has a soil testing laboratory and a tissue culture lab. CIC Seeds (Pvt) Ltd. is the market leader of the private sector seed companies in Sri Lanka and the only seed company in Sri Lanka to receive ISO 9001 quality management system certification, he said.

The company also manages a 1300 acres of mainly paddy, fruits and vegetables in Hingurakgoda.

CIC Agribusinesses encompasses all agriculture related businesses that are carried out within the CIC group.

This includes the companies CIC Fertilizers Pvt Ltd, CIC Seeds Pvt Ltd, CIC Agri Biotech Pvt Ltd and the divisions pertaining to Agri Technology, Agro Consultancy, Agri Equipment, Home Gardening and Agro Tourism.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/14/z_bus350.jpg

http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/14/bus01.asp

An old article with some details about CIC.

http://servesrilanka.blogspot.com/2006/05/cic-grows-exotic-rice-with-export-aim.html

Trelleborg a Swedish multinational with a global history of 102 years existence in the polymer industry will invests US 4 20 million to expand operations here. The expansion entails the shifting of a complete tyre plant from Hartville, USA.

Trelleborg manufactures industrial tyres for the export market and operates two plants Trelleborg Lanka at Sapugaskanda and Trelleborg Wheel Systems Lanka.

The present production capacity of the two plants exceeds 560,000 units of resilient tyres, 60,000 units of POS and 550,000 pneumatic tyres. With the anticipated expansion, the capacity is expected to grow by 50%.

The Company employs 925 in both plants and has an annual sales turnover exceeding Rs. 7 billion.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/14/bus05.asp)

Is that supposed to 20 million USD or what?

BTW nice stuff CIC...

Is that supposed to 20 million USD or what?

BTW nice stuff CIC...

Yep, that was $20million^^

CIC Agri-Business Centre will invest Rs. 50 million on their tissue culture laboratory to produce plants for the local and export market.
http://i14.tinypic.com/81s9ldu.jpg
Assistant General Manager (Production) of CIC Agri-Business Priyanga Dematawa told the Daily News Business, that the tissue culture laboratory is one of the most modern labs in the country that produces high quality plants.

It has the capability of producing more than two million plant varieties to agriculture and plantation industry needs especially for the export market.

He said once the expansion project is complete within the next five years, the CIC Agri-Business lab will be able to cater to all planting material needs in the country. They also plan to focus on the export market.

They export plant varieties to Australia and to many Middle Eastern countries. They use quality plant tissues to produce planting materials through a scientific multiplication process to obtain any amount of plants especially for the mass production market in their laboratory at Palvehera in Dambulla.

The CIC Agri-Business Centre also has a soil testing laboratory.

Dematawa said their lab could store more than 200,000 plant varieties including all types of fruits, vegetables or horticulture plants. Plants are stored for the local market and also the export market.

They obtain high quality disease free mother plants to produce plants through the multiplication process.

The company has recruited workers from the area to help the villages in the area. The company also gives training for their employees on the latest agricultural methods, he said.

The CIC Agri-Business Centre claims to be the market leader of the private sector tissue culture producer in Sri Lanka and has received many local and international certifications including the ISO 9001 quality management system certification. CIC Agri-Business encompasses all agriculture related businesses that are carried out within the CIC Group.

This includes the companies CIC Fertilisers, CIC Seeds, CIC Agri-Biotech and the divisions pertaining to agri-technology, agro-consultancy, agri-equipment, home gardening and agro-tourism.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/16/main_Business.asp)

Nice...

Fri, 18 January 2008 21:44:33
LBO >> Utilities
Bigger One
18 January 2008 14:23:02
By Asantha Sirimanne
Sri Lanka looks to triple refinery capacity with Iranian help


Jan 18, 2008 (LBO) -- Sri Lanka's state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) refinery expansion may be doubled to a 100,000 barrels-per-day project and its cost may go up to a billion dollars, a top official said.


"An Iranian team has already started a feasibility project and now we are looking at a bigger project, which may cost 800 to 1,000 million dollars," CPC chairman Ashantha de Mel said.

"The feasibility will be completed by May."

CPC now has a 50,000 bpd refinery and also imports refined products from abroad but doubling its capacity will allow the utility to stop imports. A 50,000 bpd expansion with was expected to cost around 500 to 700 million dollars.

Boosting total capacity to 150,000 bpd will allow CPC to export refined products.

"We can even sell to LIOC," he told LBO.

CPC has a more than two thirds of the market and is the only retailer of kerosene, while LIOC, a unit of the Indian Oil Corporation has the balance.

CPC's existing refinery, built in 1968 with Soviet help, is not very efficient as it yields a large volume of furnace oil.

De Mel wants to install a hydro cracker which will allow CPC to produce less furnace oil and more diesel and petrol which are more valuable.

Attempts to raise commercial loans for the project failed after government politicians shot down a plan to market price petroleum products and stabilize the finances of CPC, which would have given confidence to lenders.

The CPC is under pressure from politicians to subsidise fuel, which they believe will keep inflation low.

The refinery project is now being financed by Iran, but the exact terms of the loan have not yet been decided, he said.

The loan was promised following a state visit by President Mahinda Rajapakse to Iran. Iran is also giving seven month of credit for CPC to import crude oil.

Iran itself has a shortage of refinery capacity as it heavily subsidises petrol and has to spend billions of dollars each year to import refined products.

Late last year Iran started rationing petrol.

In November 2007 inflation in Iran was 19.1 percent compared to 19.3 percent in Sri Lanka.



http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=900777842&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=4

Fri, 18 January 2008 21:44:33
LBO >> Utilities
Bigger One
18 January 2008 14:23:02
By Asantha Sirimanne
Sri Lanka looks to triple refinery capacity with Iranian help


Jan 18, 2008 (LBO) -- Sri Lanka's state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) refinery expansion may be doubled to a 100,000 barrels-per-day project and its cost may go up to a billion dollars, a top official said.


"An Iranian team has already started a feasibility project and now we are looking at a bigger project, which may cost 800 to 1,000 million dollars," CPC chairman Ashantha de Mel said.

"The feasibility will be completed by May."

CPC now has a 50,000 bpd refinery and also imports refined products from abroad but doubling its capacity will allow the utility to stop imports. A 50,000 bpd expansion with was expected to cost around 500 to 700 million dollars.

Boosting total capacity to 150,000 bpd will allow CPC to export refined products.

"We can even sell to LIOC," he told LBO.

CPC has a more than two thirds of the market and is the only retailer of kerosene, while LIOC, a unit of the Indian Oil Corporation has the balance.

CPC's existing refinery, built in 1968 with Soviet help, is not very efficient as it yields a large volume of furnace oil.

De Mel wants to install a hydro cracker which will allow CPC to produce less furnace oil and more diesel and petrol which are more valuable.

Attempts to raise commercial loans for the project failed after government politicians shot down a plan to market price petroleum products and stabilize the finances of CPC, which would have given confidence to lenders.

The CPC is under pressure from politicians to subsidise fuel, which they believe will keep inflation low.

The refinery project is now being financed by Iran, but the exact terms of the loan have not yet been decided, he said.

The loan was promised following a state visit by President Mahinda Rajapakse to Iran. Iran is also giving seven month of credit for CPC to import crude oil.

Iran itself has a shortage of refinery capacity as it heavily subsidises petrol and has to spend billions of dollars each year to import refined products.

Late last year Iran started rationing petrol.

In November 2007 inflation in Iran was 19.1 percent compared to 19.3 percent in Sri Lanka.



http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=900777842&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=4

Nice work ,but they gotta get this expedited^^

January 17, 2008: the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed Agreements for 4 new projects. Mr. Eshana de Silva and Upali Samaraweera (Board Members) signed the Agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the investors with the BOI Certificates of Registrations.

The 4 agreements signed by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka are for a total investment of US $ 7.88 million. These projects cover a range of sectors and will be generating an estimated 1300 new employment opportunities.
N M K Industries (Private) Limited

N M K Industries is a project to manufacture value added Coconut products (Coconut Cream, Coconut Milk Powder, Coconut Milk) cosmetics and extraction / crushing of oil bearing materials to produce cooking oil including virgin Coconut Oil for the export market. The project sponsored by NMK Holdings Limited is an investment of US $ 3.28 million. The venture is expected to provide 80 employment opportunities. The factory will be located at Danwella, Uhumeeya. The project would be implemented in 2 stages. The venture will be using latest technology imported from Europe. The products are expected to be exported to the European Market. Mr. N M M Narayana (Managing Director) signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Courtaulds Clothing Dambadeniya (Private) Limited

The agreement signed with Courtaulds Clothing Dambadeniya Limited is for a project to manufacture garments for the export market. This is an investment of US $ 1.1 million. The venture is expected to provide employment for a workforce of 1000 and will be located at Dambadeniya Industrial Zone. The company would be manufacturing men’s essentials and ladies intimates for the export market. Mr. Charles Jackson (Chief Operating Officer) and Ms. Ilma Marikkar (General Manager - Finance) signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Hero Industries (Private) Limited

Hero Industries Limited, a project under Nipayum Sri Lanka 300 Enterprise Programme signed an agreement to manufacture motor spare parts and assemble automotives. The project will be located at Millaniya, Kalutara and is expected to provide employment for 210. The venture sponsored by Alba Industries is an investment of US $ 2.5 million. Commercial operations are expected to start in August 2008. The project will focus on manufacturing 3 Wheelers to the local and export markets. This venture will be carried out with Malaysian collaboration. Mr. M Y M Nassar (Chairman / Managing Director) and Mr. Nandasiri Ponnamperuma (Director) signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

B M Global Marine (Private) Limited

An agreement to undertake deep sea fishing and processing of fish for the export market was signed with B M Limited. The project located Global Marine Limited. The project would be operated from Fisheries Harbour Complex, Panadura. The venture sponsored by South Korean investors is an investment of US $ 1 million. Commercial operations are due to start in 2 months. The products will be exported to Japan and Korea. Mr. Ki Chang Kang (Director) and Mr. Poorna Dissanayake (Director) signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Nice I like the 1300 employment oppurtunities part...

1300! thats big:nuts:

CIC Agri Business will embark on a liquid milk processing project investing over Rs 300 million in the near future.
http://i30.tinypic.com/2h6bngk.jpg
Director CIC Agri Business, Waruna Madawanaarachchi told Daily News Business that they need a 1,500-acre land for the project and the company is negotiating with the Government to find suitable land. "We are looking for a land closer to Eastern Province.

This will be a mega project and we expect to import milch cows and set up milk processing centres," he said.

Apart from the milk produced by the company plans have also been made to collect milk from the outside farmers.

Initially 500 milk farmers will benefit from the project. The company expects to collect 2,000 litres per day from these farmers and produced 3,000 litres in house. Total daily milk production will be 5,000 litres, he said.

The Company will provide technology, know-how, animals and animal feed for these farmers.

The plant will produce liquid milk, flavoured milk, yogurt and cheese as end products, he said. Meanwhile Operations Manager of CIC Seeds (Pvt) Ltd., Chandana Jayaratne said: "Due to high prices of milk powder in the local market today many consumers have switched to local products such as fresh milk and curd. We have noticed significant growth in demand for curd specially in Colombo and Kandy areas.

Today many consumers move towards traditional foods and people are much more health conscious. Demand for traditional foods such as curd have been increased and consuming curd is much more easy than using fresh milk, he said.

"The demand is mainly generated through the supermarket chains and we are unable to meet this huge demand. At present we provide 500 litres of curd per day and are now planning to increase the production to 2,000 litres per day. We are also collecting 250 litres through outside farmers," he said.

"Our farm has 170 buffaloes and the company is planning to increase the number to 400 to cater to the ever-increasing demand. The company is also planning to grow grass in the available lands in the farm for feeding buffaloes after the expansion programme", Jayaratne said.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/01/23/bus02.asp)

Good...

Colombo, Jan 31 (IANS) India has emerged as one of the largest foreign investors in Sri Lanka, with a commitment of over $200 million since 2000. There are signs $364 million will be added to this soon, if some prestigious projects fructify.

The Lanka Indian Oil Corp (LIOC), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of IOC, is the largest Indian investor, having pumped in Sri Lankan Rs.7.57 billion ($74.2 million). LIOC is among the top 10 foreign investors in the island.

But if Bharti Airtel does enter Sri Lanka this year with an investment of $150 million, the Indian telecom giant will be the top dog.

What is especially noteworthy is that new areas like infrastructure and private property development as well as IT parks are attracting Indian investment. Infrastructure projects worth $122 million and property development schemes worth $58 million are in the pipeline.

The Sri Lankan Board of Investment (BOI) says that 50 percent of Indian joint ventures and 54 percent of Indian equity investment in South Asia are in Sri Lanka.

The Tatas have been in Sri Lanka in a big way for a long time, with an interest in hotels and plantations. Two Indian cement companies, UltraTech and Gujarat Ambuja, are constrained by administered pricing of cement and are only in packaging cement. Tyre company CEAT has overcome its teething troubles and has added new facilities to its plant.

Lanka Ashok Leyland, a joint venture between Ashok Leyland and the Sri Lankan government, is a major player in building bus bodies. In recent times, Nicholas Piramal has entered the glass industry with the acquisition of Ceylon Glass. It has started a new plant in the country.

Indian public sector companies are exploring big investments in power.

The State Bank of India has the reputation for being the oldest bank in the island. Two Chennai-based banks, Indian Overseas Bank and Indian Bank, have also been in the country for long. All three excellently service India-Sri Lanka trade. The new entrant, ICICI, is setting a new pace in retail banking.

The BOI's 2005 list of successful Indian investors includes LIOC SLRs.7.57 billion ($74 million), Gujarat Glass SLRs.2 billion ($19.6 million), Haikawa Industries, manufacturers of air conditioners, SLRs.816 ($8 million), Motherson Electrical, auto cable makers, SLRs.163 million ($1.6 million), and CEAT tyres SLRs.155 million ($1.5 million).

LIOC, which has 170 petrol stations, has started a lubricant plant. It is thinking of a refinery with a capacity of seven million tonnes to serve the local as well as the overseas markets.

Indian investments in Sri Lanka, or for that matter, any Indian activity in Sri Lanka, tends to generate controversy, given the xenophobia about Indian domination. But Sri Lankan companies are also venturing into India, albeit in a smaller way.

The niche market furniture company, Damro, has as many as 25 outlets in India, especially southern India. Ceylon Biscuits (manufactures of locally popular Munchee brand) has manufacturing facilities in India. Sri Lankan garments giant Brandix has a factory at Visakhapatnam. MAS Holdings, which has a franchise for Victoria's Secret, also has interests in India.

Leveraging Sri Lankans' long experience in the hotel industry and a natural talent for hospitality, Aitken Spence runs the Poovar Island resort in Kerala. The resort offers floating cottages on the picturesque backwaters of the southern state.

Apart from investments, India has given credit lines totalling $281 million for imports of essentials and consultancy services. Another $100 million is on offer for the rehabilitation of the southern railway corridor.

The two countries are on the verge of signing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) though Sri Lankans continue to be wary about the influx of Indian professionals.

Although bilateral investments have been growing, there are hurdles on both sides. If high costs and political and security uncertainties in Sri Lanka deter Indians, Sri Lankans face non-tariff barriers and delaying tactics in India.

But experts say that increasing liberalization in the years to come will trigger changes for the better.

IANS

Feb 01, 2008 (LBO) – Two UAE petroleum firms have won Sri Lankan government approval to build the island's second refinery with an investment of 1.2 billion dollars, a senior minister said.
Trans Asia Gas International LLC and Star Petro Energy LLC of the UAE plan to build a 100,000 barrels-per-day refinery in the southern town of Hambantota, minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told reporters.

The project has been approved by the Board of Investment, the investment promotion agency that grants investors tax and other concessions.

Yapa has previously said the planned refinery's entire output will be shipped to overseas markets.

The refinery project will provide employment to about 700 people in the area, one of Sri Lanka's most neglected districts where unemployment and poverty are high.

It is the home electorate of Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapakse.

The government has also started work with Chinese funds to build a new port in Hambantota, to exploit its location close to the main shipping lane across the Indian Ocean.

The new refinery investment comes at a time when Sri Lanka is offering petroleum firms the chance to bid for oil exploration blocks in offshore areas.

The island's sole refinery owned by state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp at Sapugaskanda, north of Colombo, has a capacity of only 50,000 barrels per day.

The government is also seeking foreign investment to upgrade this refinery and raise its capacity.

Lanka IOC, a unit of Fortune 500 Indian Oil Corporation that commands a third of the local retail fuel market, has also proposed an oil refinery in northeastern Trincomalee.

............................

way to go^^^^^^

Good news...

More good news^^
http://i30.tinypic.com/2wp4j93.jpgMan behind all success!!!
Aditya Birla Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates is planning a massive investment in southern Sri Lanka following a meeting, Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama had with Rakesh Jain, Global Business Head of Birla Carbon and Dr. Ajit Ranade, the Group Chief Economist in New Delhi.

Dr. Amunugama who was in New Delhi to attend the annual Partnership Summit organised by CII, the Indian Chamber of Commerce to convinced Birla that Sri Lanka was the most efficient location to establish its new carbon black plant to serve the group’s customers in Sri Lanka, India and Southeast Asia.

Although the group had initially selected western India for its new plant, the company has convinced Sri Lanka would be a better location after the meeting with Amunugama, as well as its own feasibility studies.

The plant will entail an investment of US$ 120 million, making it one of the largest industrial investments in Sri Lanka. After scouting several locations in Sri Lanka, the group has earmarked Koggala Export Promotion Zone for the proposed investment based on proximity to Sri Lankan customers on the western coast, easy access to the Colombo Port, availability of land and other factors.

Carbon black is one of the main raw materials in the manufacture of tyres. Sri Lanka is already the world’s largest exporter of solid rubber tyres. Dr. Amunugama noted that Sri Lanka will have a competitive advantage in both natural rubber as well as synthetic rubber with the launch of the plant.

The Birla investment is expected to draw interest in Sri Lanka from some of the world’s largest manufacturers of tyres, including Michelin of France.

The Aditya Birla Group is one of India’s largest and most dynamic conglomerates with an annual turnover of US$ 24 billion and a market capitalization of over US $ 31 billion, placing it in the league of Fortune 500 companies.

Associated at the talks in New Delhi with Minister was Executive Director (Promotions) of the BOI, Duminda Ariyasinghe.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/02/02/news32.asp)

Awesome, Sarath Amunagama seems to be one of the few ministers with some brains, skills and devotion to his country...

Touchwood the only publicly listed, ISO certified Forestry Company in Sri Lanka and in the South Asian region has embarked on the journey to turn a new chapter in the country’s economy by making a change in Sri Lanka’s export earnings by the year 2015.

Touchwood Head of Sales and Marketing Kanil Hattotuwa said the company is on its way to create a new export market where the country would earn an annual income of Rs 30 billion from timber exports by the year 2015. This he said would be achieved with the increasing demand for wood which is currently 6.5 cubic meters which is bound to multiply with the increase of population.

The Company also aims to achieve AAA rating, to plant 12,000 acres by 2015 and to increase foreign investment of around US $ 5 million by 2008.

Mr. Hattotuwa said the economy would benefit further as the abandoned land would be made use of by the company’s line of business.

He further explained that the company’s main business line of cultivating timber such as Mahogany, vanilla and Sandalwood is linked with its CSR as it automatically preserves rain forest in the county. “We are doing a service to the nation by preserving the rain forests in the nation which is expected to totally diminish in 40 years,” he added. It will also put a stop to diminishing of plants and animals. According to Touchwood over 130 species of plants animals and insects are lost every day. Apart from this it provides 1500 jobs annually for locals.

The company’s business model brings profits from initial plot sales and brings annual maintenance fees which are collected from the buyers of plots which, is 10% of the initial investment. Touchwood therefore has forward contract with the customers spanning over 17 years by means of annual maintenance fees a strong fixed long term income. The company will later sell the produce and transfer the proceeds to the client.

The company claimed that this can be an effective savings scheme for parents for their children for their future.

Profit is guaranteed to the customers by the company in the forms of maintaining buffer stock in addition to the annual global timber market which is said to be US $ 200 billion.

Touchwood which is headed by a Sri Lankan Roscoe Maloney is today present in 11 countries and has ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification. It has over 15,000 clients worldwide.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=5688)

Awesome, but I heard that Touchwood is not a safe investment...

Many foreign investors are attracted to Sri Lanka because of the relative ease in setting up enterprises in the country. A Japanese enterprise at the BOI Katunayake Export Processing Zone manufactures advanced electronic components. Sri lankan workers can easily be trained to perform complex work processes.

In the current international environment where there is very strong competition for trade and investment, a select group of international institutions have established ranking systems based on internationally acceptable variables. Investors and decision makers decide in which country to invest based on these ranking measures. The stakes are very high as most countries nowadays have free market economies and therefore seek to attract investment. This is because investment levels have a significant impact on levels of employment, influx of foreign exchange, technology transfers and other economic benefits. Furthermore FDI is a resource that a nation can create if certain conditions can be improved.

According to a study conducted by the World Bank, Sri Lanka though placed 101st out of a total of 178 countries, has performed well in some of the criteria that the World Bank uses to ascertain the business friendliness of economies of countries. According to the World Bank, "a high ranking on the ease of doing business index means that the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business. This index averages the country’s percentile ranking on 10 topics, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic".

The ten leading countries in order are Singapore, New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong-China, Denmark, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia and Iceland. Interestingly Sri Lanka is ahead of a number of economically more developed and larger countries, which have considerably more resources or industries. These include Russia (106), Argentina (109),India (120), Brazil (122), Indonesia (123), and Egypt 126).

Among the 10 criteria used by the World Bank, Sri Lanka was placed 29th in the category "starting a business", 64th in "protecting investors" 60th in "trading across borders" and 39th for "closing a business).

Sri Lanka is with the more successful States in these criteria and this could be attributed to the New Companies Act, which is very liberal. The efforts made by the investment promotion agency of the Government, the BOI, to speed up the application process are another important factor. The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka now offers over the counter approval for most projects. Hence Sri Lanka has become a more investor friendly country in a number of respects.

A number of steps were taken in this direction. The first was the initiative taken by Dhammika Perera, Chairman and Director General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka to examine personally all pending BOI project proposal files and clear those that had no reason to be kept on hold. Perera, who is a leading entrepreneur in Sri Lanka, had stated that the single biggest impediment to investment was the lengthy period of time taken to process applications. These delays had frustrated potential investors and compelled them to look elsewhere.

Another factor identified, this time by Dr Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, was the complex nature of the documentation that the BOI required investors to fill prior to approval. Since many of the questions asked by the BOI were not absolutely necessary, the 12 page document that had been in use for many years was replaced by a much more investor friendly one-page document. Investors could obtain approval if everything was in order with this simplified application form. Only exempt from this were projects where environmental approvals were needed.

The third improvement on the part of the BOI was the assigning of dedicated BOI officers for each investor. The objective of the BOI was to create a service reminiscent of that offered by a major bank, where personalized service would ensure that the investor is "not lost" at any stage of the application process. For very large projects such a major commercial investors or infrastructure projects, Dr Amunugama established a dedicated Mega Projects Unit consisting of senior and highly experienced officers of the BOI. These changes within the BOI have played an important in improving the business climate of Sri Lanka and making the island more investor friendly.

Island (http://www.island.lk/2008/02/08/business1.html)

Awesome, but you allways have to keep in mind that the Island Newspaper, is government controlled and therefore pro-government, but nevertheless, positive changes at the BOI and investment in general...

Huh ? Island is a Upali Group paper if i'm not mistaken. Daily News, Sunday Observers, Dinamina are gov. ones.

http://i30.tinypic.com/16gxyzl.jpg
Nawaloka Hospitals Limited, (NHL) will invest Rs. One billion to construct their new wing of the hospital in Colombo. This would add 100 more beds for the hospital increasing its capacity to 425.

Deputy Chairman and CEO of the NHL, Jayantha Dharmadasa said that the eight storied building would be opened by end of April this year. In addition the new complex would have 12 operating theaters, 35 consultation rooms, a large auditorium for training and lectures and several other facilities.

“We are also looking at training more nurses,” he said. He added that profits within the group were utilized for this investment and the new project would provide employment opportunities for nearly 400 increasing the staff strength to over 2,000. “The group turnover increased by 19 per cent to Rs. 1,986.7 million the highest level achieved in the history,” he said.

He said that they had invested over Rs. 120 million to acquire new technology, as they want to give the best for their patients.

The local private health care business is now getting more competitive with the annual turn over of around Rs 30 billion.

The major players in the private sector are Nawaloka, Durdens, Asiri, Asha Central, Apollo and Oasis.

He said that looking back Nawaloka was Sri Lanka’s first purposely built private hospital and the success of it is due to its investing on new technology. “The hospital will continue to invest in high technology, better business practices and improved efficiency methods to enhance return to our stake holders,” he said.

The company listed under the main board of the Colombo Stock exchange in 2004 has also tied up with Nexus cardholders, Janashakthi Insurance and Metropolis Health Service India, one of Asia’s leading laboratory chains.

He said that one of the biggest problems the industry is facing, is to retain trained medical staff from migrating to Australia, UK and elsewhere.

“In a bid to retain and encourage staff NHL offer a highly competitive remuneration package. This together with high electricity costs has rose by almost 14 percent to Rs. 77 million in the last financial year,” he said.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/02/11/main_Business.asp)

Huh ? Island is a Upali Group paper if i'm not mistaken. Daily News, Sunday Observers, Dinamina are gov. ones.

Yeh thats what I thought as well :)

Yeh thats what I thought as well :)

Independent, but it's pretty "pro-government" they days. Not all that bad, since most of the other private media is strongly opposed to the government.

I would say they are rather unbiased in their reporting compared to the other newspapers, which can be easily divided into two groups as you said.

Feb 11, 2008 (LBO) – India's Aditya Birla group has suggested expanding a defunct cement plant in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula to exploit the region's rich deposits of limestone, government officials said Monday.

A team from the Birla group is in the island for talks with government officials on several investments.

Sri Lankan officials said the initial proposal submitted by the Birla group suggested raising capacity at the Kankesanturai plant to 3.6 million tonnes a year depending on the availability of reserves of limestone, the basic raw material for cement manufacture.

The proposal did not have any details of financial investment and the Sri Lankan authorities are trying to make arrangements for Birla group experts to visit the site in Jaffna, which is cut off from the mainland as Tamil Tigers control the road to the peninsula.

Government officials said Birla was considering selling in the local market and exporting the surplus cement from Jaffna to southern India where construction activity is expanding owing to India's economic boom.

Sri Lanka's construction minister Rajitha Senaratne has said that the plant would be leased to Birla to run on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.

The KKS plant, which has been defunct for more than 10 years owing to the fighting between Tamil Tigers and government forces, has a designed capacity of 500,000 tonnes.

The plant is now part of a sprawling military complex.

Jaffna has high purity limestone deposits but cement production ceased with the flare up in hostilities.

The deposit has been eyed by other cement players including Holcim, a Swiss firm that operates a 500 million tonnes per annum plant in north-western Puttalam, and Tokyo Cement, a unit of Japan's Mitsui, with a factory in the eastern port of Trincomalee.

Holcim had also toyed with the idea of setting up a one million tonnes a year factory in Kankesanthurai, to cater to India.

But the risks of the war and high insurance costs had so far deterred plans to revive the KKS plant.

"Birla has indicated interest in reactivating the cement plant at KKS," said a construction ministry official. "We're negotiating with them to come to some finality."

"The plant needs extensive repairs as it has not been functioning for over 10 years and there's a lot of damage to machinery."

The Aditya Birla Group is the 11th largest cement producer in the world and the seventh largest in Asia.

A subsidiary, UltraTech Cement Limited, with an annual capacity of 17 million tonnes, has five integrated cement making plants, five grinding units and three terminals — two in India and one in Colmbo, Sri Lanka.

Good news...

http://i28.tinypic.com/im1bvk.jpg
Dr. Sarath Amunugama and Minister of State for Commerce, Shri Jairam Ramesh.

India’s private sector is looking at investing US$ 2 billion in various projects here in Sri Lanka particularly in the IT and textile industrial sectors.

Indian companies have already invested US$ 220 million in Sri Lanka and further investments amounting to US$ 360 million is in the pipeline, said Minister of State for Commerce, Shri Jairam Ramesh after talks with officials from the Ministry of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Ministry of Investment Promotion, BOI and representatives of the private sector, held yesterday.

Ramesh, who led a delegation from India’s private sector, said that the purpose of the talks was to promote private sector investment flows between the two countries.

"We discussed ways in which we could have closer cooperation through joint ventures in textiles and BPOs and together cater to the world market," Ramesh said.

Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, said that total foreign direct investments for 2007 amounted to US$ 700 million and India’s contribution amounted to US $ 220 million.

While this meeting brought the private sectors of both countries together to focus on specific industries, the Indian minister extended an invitation for a delegation to visit India with the purpose of focusing on building educational ties.

"Indian educational institutions in both the private sector and public sector could invest in Sri Lanka to provide technical education and training in engineering, science and management," Ramesh said.

Amunugama said that his ministry would make a concerted effort to bridge the gap between education and employability of our youth by accepting Ramesh’s offer.

The Indian companies represented at the discussions were: Quatro, Wardham Textiles, Aditiya Birla Group, Arvind Mills, Virtusa, Indorama, L&T, Indian Oil Company, Reliance SEZ, Mahindra and Mahindra, WNS Sri Lanka and Textprocil.

- DD

"Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, said that total foreign direct investments for 2007 amounted to US$ 700 million and India’s contribution amounted to US $ 220 million."

Oh come On ! Where did the 1 billion go ? Still, an increase though right ?

February 8, 2008: The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed an agreement with Green Solutions Lanka (Private) Limited. Mr. Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General, signed the agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the investor with the BOI Certificate of Registrations.

The agreement with Green Solutions Lanka is for a project to set up an integrated solid waste management plant. The venture will be sponsored by Green Solution Investment, Australia.

The solid waste management plant is an investment of US $ 24.3 million and will create employment for an initial workforce of 40. The venture will be located at Wattala.

The project will get non bio degradable waste collected by Burns (Pvt) Limited which will be converted to Oil and Gas. The Oil and Gas would be then used to run the turbine which would be used to generate Electricity.

Dr. Mahesh Jayaweera, Director of Green Solutions Lanka said that this venture is carried out with the objective providing a solution to the garbage problem and providing electricity. He said that they would generate 2 mega watts of electricity.

The venture would be using a technology called “pyrolysis”. The machinery used for the implementation of the project would be imported from Japan. Dr. Jayaweera further stated that they expect to commence construction of the plant soon and commercial operations are expected to start early next year.

Dr. Mahesh Jayaweera, Director of Green Solutions Lanka signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

BOI (http://www.boi.lk/boi2005/view.asp?NewsID=3515&CatID=1)

Total FDI was 700m?Shit thats realy not alot.(EG:vietnam pulls in 12 B)Lets Hope for more in the future

M&M to set up $ 100 mn IT centre in Sri Lanka

Colombo (PTI): Mahindra and Mahindra on Tuesday entered into an agreement with the Board of Investments of Sri Lanka to set up a 100 million dollar IT-ITeS centre in the Economic Processing Zone at Katunayake near here.

The MoU was signed between M&M Executive Director Arun Nanda and Sri Lankan Minister of Enterprise and Investment Sarath Amunugama, in the presence of visiting Indian Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh.

The centre, to be developed on 53 acre land, would generate 25,000 IT jobs in the island country, Nanda said.

Besides the IT unit from M&M, efforts would be made to rope in top national and global clientale of the Indian company into the Sri Lankan facility, he said.

The work for the IT centre will start within the next six months, he said, adding that the job opportunities provided by the centre would also have a spillover effect on employment in other areas.

Board of Investments is a statutory agency responsible for promoting and facilitating foreign investments in Sri Lanka.

Jairam Ramesh announced that besides the IT centre, the Mahindra group has also decided to set up a manufacturing facility over 900 acre of land at Trincomalee in Eastern Sri Lanka.

He said the agreement to this effect will be reached soon.

Speaking on the occasion, Amunugama said while the IT project will provide employment opportunities, the Trincomalee manufacturing base would act as an integrating point for Sri Lankan communities as this eastern province had equal ratio of Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim population.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/006200802121641.htm

Hehe, I thought about the chocolate brand when I saw the titles..and was dissapointed in a way :P

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Mou: Mahindra & Mahindra Group singed an Mou with the BoI to build an IT park in Katunayake. The Agreement was signed by Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Dr Sarath Amunugama, , and Vice Chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra. Arun Nanda. Also present at the event and exchanging documents were the Indian State Minister of Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, who is on an official visit to Sri Lanka, and Minister of Investment Promotion Navin Dissanayake, and senior officials of the Indian High Commission and the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After lengthy talks since 2006, happy 2 see that it's off the ground, well nearly

Mahindra & Mahindra, signed an MoU with the Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka for a new IT Park at Katunayake on Feb 12, 2008.

http://i32.tinypic.com/2vnna4j.jpg
Courtesy of M&M World City

February 14, 2008: The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed Agreements for 4 new projects. Mr. Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General, signed the Agreement on behalf of the BOI. Hon Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion formally presented the investors with the BOI Certificate of Registrations. Hon Navin Dissanayake, Minister of Investment Promotion was also present at the occasion.

The 4 agreements signed by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka are for a total investment US $ 20 million. These projects cover a range of sectors and will be generating 760 new employment opportunities.

Comfortwave (Private) Limited

Comfortwave is a project to manufacture garments for the export market by taking over the factory of Janatha Garment Manufactures Limited situated at Watupitiwella Export Processing Zone. The project sponsored by Comfortwear is an investment of Rs. 400 million. The venture is expected to provide 430 employment opportunities which will increase the group’s total workforce to 3800. The venture will manufacture swimwear for export and it has already commenced commercial operations. Ms. Roshini Sangani (Chairman) signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Terraqua International (Private) Limited

The agreement signed with Terraqua International is for a project to set up five mini hydro power plants at Halatura Ganga, Rassagala and Wewa Ganga in the Ratnapura District. This project is an investment of US $ 7.63 million. The venture is expected to provide employment for a workforce of 30 and will generate 7 mega watts of electricity. Mr. Enzo Azzola (Director) and Mr. Asgi Akbarally (Director) signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Cleanco Lanka (Private) Limited

Cleanco signed an agreement to setup a project to operate vehicle emission testing centres in Sri Lanka. The venture is expected to provide employment opportunities for 150. The venture sponsored by Industrial Service Bureau and Akbar Brothers is an investment of Rs. 600 million. The venture will operate 16 Fixed and 40 Mobile vehicle emission testing centres of which the first one will be located at Kochchikade. Mr. Asgi Akbarally (Director) and Mr. Anura Vidanagamage (Director) signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Radiance Films International (Private) Limited

An agreement to produce Films, TV Programmes and other visual effects was signed with Radiance Films International. The project sponsored by Light of Asia Foundation and Beyond Dreams Entertainment, India is an initial investment of US $ 2.5 million. The joint venture between Light of Asia Foundation and Beyond Dreams Entertainment Limited, India will produce the epic film “Siddhartha Gauthama – The Buddha”. The film location for the making of “Siddhartha Gauthama – The Buddha” will be on a picturesque mountain range in Kiriella. Mr. Navin Gooneratne (Honorary Chairman, Light of Asia Foundation) signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

BOI (http://www.boi.lk/boi2005/view.asp?NewsID=3525&CatID=1)

Plans to build an oil refinery in Hambantota are to be finalized within the next fortnight, according to Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion. Speaking at Friday’s Imexpro 2008 Foreign Trade Promotion Exhibition, he confirmed that the oil refinery is to be a project of a Dubai-based private investor. He says that the initial discussions will result in them signing the agreement in two weeks time.

Elaborating on the project, Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona (also present at the event) said that the oil will be brought in from the Middle East, refined in Hambantota and then re-exported. “This oil will not be for local consumption,” he said adding that the investors were “very enthusiastic” over the venture. According to Amunugama, the project will be a $1 billion investment that will be handled by the private firm.


ST (http://www.sundaytimes.lk/080217/FinancialTimes/ft304.html)

Having completed its new major phase of expansion and development, Textured Jersey Lanka is now the country’s largest weft knit fabric manufacturer, housing one of the world’s most modern dye houses. Ceremonially inaugurated by the US Ambassador Robert O Blake yesterday, Textured Jersey Lanka which has always been considered the Rolls Royce in Sri Lanka’s fabric industry employs a highly literate and skilled team of over 1,200 within its 18 acre green field site at the Seethawaka International Industrial Park.

Speaking at the site, Blake said that the United States and Sri Lanka are in the apparel industry together and have a long history of partnership. “Sri Lanka has become a world leader in ethical practices in the garment industry due to the relentless initiatives for best practices including the ‘Garments without guilt’ initiative, good working conditions and sustainable environmental practices. Sometimes, natural resources may suffer due to industrial development but Textured Jersey Lanka is a good example of how environmentally sustainable practices and good business go hand in hand.”

TJL is a joint collaboration between Pacific Textiles Hong Kong, one of the world’s leading knitwear manufacturers and Brandix Lanka, one of Sri Lanka’s two leading apparel manufacturers with an ownership of 60:40 respectively. Chairman of TJL and Pacific Textiles Hong Kong Bill Lam firmly believes that with this expansion, TJL has become a significant player in the region. “Having supplied fabric to the Sri Lankan apparel industry from its inception, the friendship that Pacific Textiles strengthened over the decades has now transformed into a controlling stake in the company. Having begun as a small commercial operation producing about 150,000 meters of fabric a month, today, TJL is a US$ 48 million investment with a capacity of 2,500,000 meters per month of finished fabric,” he said.

Retracing TJL’s beginnings, Director of TJL and Managing Director of Brandix Lanka Ashroff Omar explained that the company which was originally a 50:50 joint venture between UK’s Textured Jersey and Sri Lanka’s Linea Clothing, was established to serve the large and expanding Sri Lankan apparel industry. “Overseas customers were exerting pressure on Sri Lanka to reduce its lead times, improve flexibility and invest locally in the downstream supply chain. Today everyone wants innovation, flexibility and speed at an affordable price and TJL is poised to deliver that. We remain very bullish with this expansion and aim to double the capacity in the next two years.”

The dye house is one of the most modern in the world, certainly the most modern in all of South and South East Asia and utilizes automated robotized colour control. The single largest investment has been the company’s fully automated colour kitchen which uses Arel hardware and Colour Service software, both from Italy. Once one has the recipe arrived at using Data Colour technology from the US, everything else is automated; all dyeing is done blind. Every batch of dyed fabric is tested for quality in the areas of colour, quality and moisture. Tests include shrinkage, colour and light fastness, stability and recovery, skewing, indeed all physical properties. The dye lab is both self certification LACE (used by Mothercare, Tesco, BHS, etc) NEXT and M&S accredited. A fully integrated SAP ERP system is used to control sales and distribution, production planning, materials management and finance. Terminals are in place on the shop floor to enter material stocks as soon as each knitted roll has been through quality control.

“The success of this company is solely due to the production of high quality top end fabrics and customer focused service levels delivered by a set of talented and committed people,” states Rohan Goonetilleke, CEO of Textured Jersey Lanka, adding that TJL is the first fabric supplier in the world to have been awarded Gold Certification on the Limited Brands Quality Systems Audit as a supplier of excellence. “The audit covers areas of leadership, laboratory controls, quality assurance, process controls, house keeping and training and development. The company can boast of its excellent health and safety standards, fire protection system and excellent housekeeping with the Japanese 5S in full operation.”

However, despite this major expansion, Textured Jersey has the potential to further expand and the company has already invested in land and infrastructure for the next expansion planned for 2009/10. “Today, 40-50% of Sri Lanka’s cotton knit fabric is still imported,” avers Goonetilleke. “At present Textured Jersey caters to all known cotton mixes including poly-cotton, cotton Lyrca, model Lycra, viscose cotton and 100% cotton. Only around 20% of production is currently 100% cotton. Most are high end mixes, whilst special finishes like moisture management, encapsulating and sueding are also on the increase. Single and double jersey, rib, pique and Marl fabrics are all produced.’ TJL’s customer profile includes UK’s Next and Marks and Spencer, USA’s Victoria’s Secret, Nike, Ann Taylor and The Limited and Italy’s Intimissimi. Local manufacturers making up the fabric for export include MAS, Brandix, Martins, Hirdaramani and Omega Line.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsCategoryView.aspx?MAINCATID=4&SUBCATID=0)

Saw this in the papers, really awesome project...

Sun, 16 March 2008 19:32:06
LBO >> Industries
Changing Hands
16 March 2008 15:06:21
Birla Sri Lanka cement deal to be passed to new ministry: report


Mar 16, 2008 (LBO) – An unsolicited proposal by India's Birla cement group will be forwarded by Sri Lanka's construction ministry to the industrial ministry which is in charge of two defunct plants in the island's Jaffna peninsular, a media report said.

Sri Lanka Cement Corporation, a fully state-owned unit and Lanka Cement, a Colombo stock exchange listed firm, have two plants in the Kankasanthurai area of the Jaffna peninsula, which the Indians have offered to refurbish and operate.

The Aditya Birla proposal came through the construction ministry with minister Rajitha Senaratne, who crossed over from the opposition last year, arranging a meeting for an India delegation with President Mahinda Rajapakse earlier in the year.

But industries minister Kumar Welgama was later quoted in the media denying any deal and saying the plants came under his ministry.

The Sunday Leader newspaper said the proposal by Birla will be submitted to the industries ministry on Tuesday, quoting construction secretary Nissanka Wijeratne.

The two firms are estimated to control around 1,000 acres of land in Kankasanthurai which is rich in limestone, the report said.

A planned visit to the plants, which is cut off from the rest of the island, by an areas controlled by Tamil Tiger guerillas had not taken place, Wijeratne told the newspaper.

There is fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger guerillas in the Western side of the Jaffna peninsular, but the cement plants are located in an areas fully under military control.

The limestone deposits have also been eyed by Holcim, a Swiss cement giant which runs the island's only integrated plant in the Puttalam area, in the Western coast.

Wijeratne was quoted as saying that Holcim was now "finding it difficult" having to dig up to a depth of 40 metres to access limestone in Puttalam.

Lanka Cement which now sells imported cement has seen its share price more than double so far this year amidst expectations of a deal with Birla.

The company closed at 15.75 rupees Friday up from 7.25 on January 02.

Holcim Lanka told LBO two weeks ago, that it was still interested in the cement deposits and the government will give all interested party and equal chance to bid for them.

"Holcim is interested," chairman Manilal Fernando said. "We are sure the government will go about it in a transparent manner.

Holcim also runs a clinker grinding plant in the south of the island.



http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=874216137&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=17

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March 18, 2008 (LBO) – Former Malaysian finance minister and entrepreneur Daim Zainuddin is hunting in Sri Lanka's banking and energy sectors for opportunities, the business magnate said on a flying visit to Colombo.

Daim said he is looking at either opening a bank or buying into an existing one, after coming to Sri Lanka on the invitation of Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal.

"But there are some restrictions here, where you can hold only 20 percent," he told LBO shortly before meeting Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapakse and after a meeting Governor Cabraal Monday.
I am looking at various options for me to come and invest."

"
Turning Around

Daim's Swiss based ICB Financial Holdings bought a 50 percent stake in Bangladesh's troubled Oriental Bank last month. The bank was also chased by Sri Lanka's Hatton National Bank who gave a conditional offer and dropped out of the race.

"It is an Islamic bank, so if you lose you lose," says Daim. "They share in the profit. They also share in the losses in Islamic banking."

In Islamic banking 'interest' is not charged as in conventional banking but 'profits shares' are built into trade finance and other contracts.

The central bank in Bangladesh has frozen the deposits for five years while Daim turns around Oriental Bank. ICB now owns banks in Europe and Africa.

Daim started in property development and moved into banking by taking over an Indo-Suez unit in Malaysia. Later he took a stake in a larger Malaysian bank which he had to sell when he became finance minister in 1984 in the midst of a recession.

As finance minister he set about cutting Malaysia's budget deficit, privatizing and closing a raft of state enterprises and engineering the country's turnaround with tight fiscal polices which brought stability and gave space for local and foreign investors to operate.

He was recalled as finance minister in 1999 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crises and had to sell a bank he had acquired in 1997. Daim built up ICB after his second retirement.

Daim says he is also interested in the power sector. His firms are already in power in Malaysia, India and in Africa.

His interest in Sri Lanka comes at a time when most investors are becoming cautious in the face of an intensifying internal conflict.

"When people run that is the time I will go in," says a smiling Daim. "Because I see opportunities and I have been following the political development here."

Daim is encouraged by the local elections in Sri Lanka's Eastern province.

"I am happy with what I see. Local elections are being held peacefully, and there is support," he observes.

"People are participating in elections, which is an excellent sign. People want to see the democratic process taking place and with that will come political stability."

First Mover

Daim says it is important to have stability and good governance as well as infrastructure to attract investors.

"In many countries when you have political stability, peace, people would come," he says.

"And I think the first to come will benefit most. If you wait till late when others have come in, you are not the first.

In Malaysia the ruling Barisan National coalition lost its two thirds majority this month sending financial markets into convulsions.

"It is a new game now," he says of his home country. "People can't be complacent anymore. I think basically Malaysians are sending a signal to the government. 'We want you to perform'.

"It applies to both now. Those who were in the opposition are also in the government. So they cannot behave as if they were in the opposition now. They also have to deliv

March 18, 2008 (LBO) – Holcim Lanka, the Sri Lankan subsidiary of the Swiss cement multinational, has begun a study reviving cement production in the northern Jaffna peninsular that is also being eyed by India's Birla group.

Manilal Fernando, chairman of Holcim Lanka, said he believes a brand new plant should be built at Kankesanturai, in the Jaffna peninsula where there are rich deposits of limestone, the basic raw material for cement manufacture.

Jaffna was the site of two cement plants owned by fully state-owned Cement Corporation and partially divested and listed Lanka Cement whose share price has been rising in recent weeks after reports of interest by the Birla group.

"We're interested and are doing scientific studies. We got engineering studies done and now we're doing an evaluation of the cost of reviving the plant and the Sri Lankan market," Holcim's Fernando said.

He said the capacity of the existing plant in Jaffna, built at a time when the island's cement market was much smaller, was inadequate and lack economies of scale to consider reviving today.

"In our opinion we should go for a brand new plant in Kankesanturai. Preliminary studies indicate that there is hardly anything that can be resurrected. We should do a million tonner," Fernando said.

The deposit in Jaffna has been eyed by other cement players including Holcim, which operates a plant in north-western Puttalam, and Tokyo Cement, a unit of Japan's Mitsui, with a factory in the eastern port of Trincomalee.

Holcim operates the island's only fully integrated cement plant in Puttalam, from mining limestone to making cement, and has said it wants to make further investments.

It sells 1.1 million tonnes of cement a year.

"We have long term investment strategy in Sri Lanka," Fernando said.

The island's booming construction industry is now facing a shortage of cement and high prices.

Lanka Cement's Jaffna plant has been defunct for more than 10 years and also been damaged by the fighting between Tamil Tigers and government forces.

The plant is now part of a sprawling military complex.

Jaffna has high purity limestone deposits but cement production ceased with the flare up in hostilities.

.

Interesting, best solution would be for Birla to run the two plants in Jaffna and Holcim to build a new one at KKS...

March 26, 2008 (LBO) - Lanka Milk Foods (LMF), the milk powder packer which is part of the Distilleries group, said it has invested 625 million rupees in setting up a new liquid milk producing plant.

The new factory at Ambewela will have a production capacity of 9.5 million litres of cow milk by 2009, LMF said in a statement to the Colombo Stock Exchange Wednesday.

It has set up a new company called Ambewela Products (Pvt) Ltd to operate the plant which will produce, process, pack and distribute fresh liquid milk.

LMF operates two farms producing cow milk that is processed, packed and sold under the 'Ambewela Fresh Milk' brand.

LMF acquired them in 2001 when it bought 90 percent of the shares of Ambewela Livestock Company and Pattipola Livestock Company.

"Since then these two diary farms have been developed to international standards, and one of these farms was selected by the Department of Agriculture as the best large scale farm in Sri Lanka for the year 2007," the statement said.

The LMF statement said it aims to improve the milk industry in Sri Lanka.

The government has said it wants to encourage more local milk production to meet the nutrition needs of the people and reduce dependence on imported milk products.

Milk stalls have been set up in schools and universities to increase liquid milk consumption among the students and reduce import of milk powder.

Local milk prices have been going up because of rising global milk prices. The price of imported milk powder doubled in the last year.

The Ministry of Livestock Development last year said it had raised the price of milk it buys from farmers and said it wants to improve collection.

Sri Lanka imported 70,000 metric tons of milk powder at a cost of 17 billion rupees in 2006, a figure that was expected to double in 2007.

Good initiative...

March 27, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's top computer stationery firm, Toppan Firms, which opened a new factory to boost output in the island, hopes to enter Bangladesh within the year, an official said.

"We are looking at countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Maldives. This year we should probably be in Bangladesh," assistant general manager of Toppan Forms Shazly Oowise told LBO.

"We are looking at a fully fledged company (in Bangladesh) maybe with the same standards (as in Sri Lanka) with more than 500 million rupees (investment)."

The firm has just commissioned a 200 million rupee plant south of Colombo in Panadura to produce a variety of paper forms for businesses, data printing paper and cheques.

"We have got more than 40 percent growth rate year on year and we have moved from conventional printing to data printing. Data printing is very new to Sri Lanka," Oowise said.

Customer statements, bank statements, telecommunication bills, utility statements and other statements which institutions print in-house to avoid fraud, is called data printing.

This year the firm is forecasting 30 percent growth is business.

Toppan Forms, affiliated to Japan's Toppan, is a unit of the Sri Lanka information technology group EWIS.

The 26 year old firm says it has near monopoly for data printing services in Sri Lanka.

It provides print services to public and corporate institutions such as banks, telcos, hospitality sector and airlines.

The new factory employs around 250 youth from the nearby villages and uses paper imported from Japan, the Netherlands and Indonesia

Cool, didn't know about this company, but they seem to have some cash lying around...

Monica Chen, Shanghai; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 2 April 2008]

Having achieved great results from its investment in China, Intel is planning to next invest Sri Lanka, which has a population of over 20 million, according to Cadol Cheung, managing director at Intel Capital Asia Pacific.

Cheung pointed out that the company invested US$200 million in China to set up a technology foundation beginning in 2005 which has achieved great results, as a result the company will continue to proceed with this strategy.

In 2007, Intel spent US$639 million across 166 investment plans, of which, 77 were new projects totaling US$554 million while 63 were investments overseas valued at 37% of the total amount. Main target markets included mobile Internet communications, digital home, business applications, storage, medical and processing.

Ian Yang, general manager of Intel China also pointed out that in 2007, PC shipments in China increased to 37 million units from a mere two million units in 1995. Nine million of the total units were notebooks. With the overall PC penetration rate reaching 21% in 2007, the CAGR of PC shipments in China is likely to remain at 17% over the next five years. Compared to PC shipments of 67 million units in the US during 2007, for a penetration rate of 76%, China's PC market offers better growth potential, according to Yang.

:banana::banana::banana::banana:

Way to go^^^^

Good...No, concrete plans yet, right...?

Good to hear. :)

I bet there's a lot more money in stuff like this than call centers and other basic outsourcing projects.

Good to hear. :)

I bet there's a lot more money in stuff like this than call centers and other basic outsourcing projects.

This could be the 1st major move & no doubt others will follow^^^^

Fonterra Brands Lanka has invested Rupees 1.2 billion on their new project to expand the yoghurt manufacturing capacity and treble its supply of raw milk.
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"This investment is one of Fonterra's largest off shore investments. It underpins our confidence in the future of the market and opportunities to grow within the Sri Lankan dairy industry and the investment is funded from the capital within the business. We are planning to complete the project within six months," Managing Director of Fonterra Brands Lanka Achyut Reddy, said.

He further stated that the project will include Fonterra establishing new raw milk collection centres throughout the country to assist in processing the required increase in volume. Fonterra would also be seeking raw milk supply from up to 3000 dairy farmers so that we could help the farmers in Sri Lanka, helping the Sri Lankan economy growth, he said.

The Fonterra raw milk procurement team is currently working closely with dairy farmers to provide technical assistance on increasing production, pasture management, and breeding. They also assist the farmers by providing micro- finance loans, he added.

Reddy said the Sri Lankan yoghurt market has experienced double digit growth in the past five years and now consumers eat more than 12,000 metric tonnes of yoghurt annually and has a 27 per cent share of dairy milk products and Fonterra hopes that there will be better demand in the future.

The plant's production is estimated to be 52,000 liters of raw milk per day. Increasing the local milk supply allows Fonterra to have a buffer against the increasingly volatile international prices for milk powders and dairy products, and also allows Fonterra to use its on farm expertise developed through more than 100 years of dairy farming to play an active role in enhancing the capabilities of local farmers, he said.

The manufacturing and milk supply investment is a key strategy in maintaining our projected growth. We hope to produce the best and most nutritious dairy products in Sri Lanka, Reddy said.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/05/14/bus01.asp)

Great development...

Okaya Lanka, singed an agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka for a project to manufacture electrical components for the export market.

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Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Dr. Sarath Amunugama, formally presenting the BOI Certificate of Registrations to Aoki and Director Operation Oguchi. Manager, Gingi Somaweera was also present at the occasion.

This project is an initial investment of US $ 30 million sponsored by Okaya electric Industries, Japan. The venture located at the Katunayake Export Processing Zone will create employment opportunities for a workforce of over 1000.

Okaya is an international company that designs, manufactures and markets Electrical Noise Suppression Components, LED products and for use in the Electrical and Electronics industry.

Managing Director of Okaya Lanka Aoki Masamitsu, said that Okaya Electric Industries is a prominent manufacturer of electronic film capacitors and has a 20 % share in the world electronic market. He further stated that Okaya Electric Industries supply electrical components to major brands such as Canon, Panasonic, Hitachi, Sony, Samsung and Delta Ex.

Okaya Lanka has purchased a fully operational factory and will commence commercial operations in July. The venture will also import state of the art technology from Japan.

Masamitsu also stated that there was an official launch of Okaya Lanka in Japan parallel to the agreement signing with the BOI. Okaya Lanka will invite top officials of Japan for the commencement of Commercial Operations. They hope with that more Japanese companies will see the investment opportunities and facilities available and encourage them to invest in Sri Lanka as well.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/05/15/bus10.asp)

Great news, good for our reputation and future FDI investments...

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June 10, 2008 (LBO) - Holcim Lanka, the Sri Lankan unit of the Swiss cement multinational, said it has made an investment proposal to Lanka Cement to revive production at its defunct plant in the northern Jaffna peninsula or build a new one.
Holcim Lanka chairman Manilal Fernando said his firm is prepared to invest in a profit sharing joint venture if the government does not want to sell the plant in Kankesanturai, in Jaffna.

He said the government must give a chance to all parties interested in the plant, sitting on a rich limestone deposit, which is also eyed by India's Birla group.

"We're here for the long term. We don't mind transparent, open competitive bidding – may the best man win. We're not asking for a closed bid."

State-run Lanka Cement, which is listed on the Colombo stock exchange, has a plant with a 250,000 tonnes-a-year capacity kiln that has been defunct for more than a decade owing to fighting between government forces and Tamil Tigers.

Last year, the Construction Ministry said India's Birla group had offered to invest and revive production in Jaffna by taking over the Lanka Cement plant.

The news led to speculative trading in Lanka Cement shares.

Fernando said he believes it is best to put up a brand new plant in Jaffna rather than revive the old one as it lacked economies of scale in today's market.

"Our main idea is to put up a million tonner (kiln with an annual capacity of a million tonnes)."

Another plant owned by the state-owned Cement Corporation was too old and cannot be used at all.

Fernando said Holcim's first priority, if it gets the Jaffna plant, would be the local market to fill the gap that's now served by imported cement.

He estimates that now at least half the cement requirement is imported.

great news. :)

I'd so much rather it be given to a company from any country other than India. Holcim being Sri Lankan managed (at least on the face of it) just makes it better.

Oil-rich Kuwait, a rapidly growing market for Sri Lankan workers, wants to invest millions of US dollars in Sri Lankan infrastructure like highways, airports, hotels or shopping malls but is constrained by the lack of investment protection and arbitration mechanisms.

Kuwaiti Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Fahad H. Sh. Almetairi, firmly believes Kuwait and other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries want to invest here, but “the problem is we still have not signed an investment protection agreement and until we sign this, no investor is willing to put their money in.”

In an interview with The Sunday Times FT, he said there is also a need for proper arbitration processes. “This is a beautiful and nice country. There is good labour and we can invest in roads, airports, five-star hotels, shopping malls,” he said. The GCC comprises comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Mr Almetairi said negotiations are ongoing on an Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) with Sri Lanka but the dispute is over the period. “We want a longer period while Sri Lanka wants to limit it to 10 years,” he said adding, “There is a conflict (war) here … its difficult to recover your investment in 10 years.”
He said countries around the region have longer IPAs like Malaysia which provides a 50 year IPA. A shorter IPA will not encourage investments here.

The ambassador said Kuwaiti investors are prepared to pour in millions of dollars as long as the investment climate is condusive in terms of protecting their investment and quick arbitration is allowed in case of a problem. “No one would like to take risk of going to courts – in case of a dispute -- as it would take 15-20 years. We need some protection and quick relief.”

Kuwaitis have invested heavily in Malaysia, Singapore and India with the sum total of investment in Asia being in the region of $4.5 billion. “There is a lot of scope for investment in infrastructure. For instance you need a five-star hotel in Nuwara Eliya and airports there and in Kandy. Road transport should be fast and should just take 30 minutes to go to the (Colombo) airport or Kandy; that’s what investors want,” he said.

The ambassador said the number of jobs for Sri Lankan workers is increasing in Kuwait with the number of visas being issued daily rising to 300 from 50, a few months back. The visa process has been streamlined and an applicant can obtain a visa within 24 hours if all documents and medical certificates are in order.Migrant worker industry officials said Kuwait is almost overtaking the demand from Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka’s biggest labour-receiving country, for jobs. This year jobs in excess of 50,000 are expected to be offered by Kuwait. Kuwait is one of the biggest donors to Sri Lankan helping in a range of sectors including education, new villages and infrastructure, the ambassador said.

10 years way to short:ohno:

ST (http://www.sundaytimes.lk/080615/FinancialTimes/ft302.html)

Laugfs Holdings Limited venture in to Cholera Alkyd Chemical manufacturing in Hambanthota, Sri Lanka. Laugfs Salt and Chemicals Limited, a subsidiary of diversified Laugfs Holdings Limited recently acquired 600 Acer extent of Masiththakkala Lewaya of Hambanthota which was a previously abandoned saltern to develop a modern saltern and salt based chemical manufacturing plan. Laugfs Salt will firstly develop Mahasittakkala Lewaya to a proper saltern to produce Salt and then use salt as raw material for manufacturing Cholera Alkyd Chemicals such as Choleren and Caustic Soda.

Sri Lanka had one of South East Asia’s most productive Cholera Alkyd Chemical manufacturing facilities in Paranthan which was destroyed due to the ongoing terrorist problem. After the destruction of the Paranthan Chemical Plant, Sri Lanka has been a net importer of all cholera Alkyd Chemicals such as Chlorine and Caustic Soda, used for water purification and as raw material for many other industries. It is estimated that Sri Lanka spends over Rs.6 billion annually to import Cholera Alkyd chemicals. Also, presently, nearly 15-20% of edible salt requirement is met by imported salt from other countries such as India. Sri Lanka will be able to save huge amounts of foreign exchange that are spent for importing salt and salt base chemicals, once this project is up and running.

Laugfs Salt and Chemicals Limited, a BOI approved project is planning to invest over Rs.800 million in this project which is going to be a joint investment with a Japanese partner who would bring technical expertise of producing chemicals. They are planning to establish a modern and sophisticated plant in Hambanthota once the salt harvests begin. In the first stage of the project, Laugfs will design and develop the Mahasittakala Lewaya to produce salt and the construction of the chemical plant will be in the second stage. Further, this project will generate more than 300 direct job opportunities for people living in the area.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.wijeya.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=20144)

http://i33.tinypic.com/5wjl3t.jpg
Dilan Trailer Manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd is a BOI project under the Nipayum Sri Lanka 300 Enterprise Programme that opened a factory at Lihiniyagama, Dankotuwa to manufacture container trailers, chassis and tankers for the export market. Hon. Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion was the chief guest of the factory opening ceremony. Hon Milroy Fernando, Minister of Public Estate Management and Development also attended the function

This Project is a US $ 500,000 investment from the United Arab Emirates. The venture is located at Dankotuwa and will provide employment for 200.

Hon. Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion stated that “through the 300 Enterprise Programme the BOI encourages local initiative, in accordance with his Excellency the President’s Mahinda Chinthana Programme to broadbase the economy, boost Productivity and expand the nation’s export potential. We have approved so far 316 such projects and soon their impact on the local economy will be felt. They have created new job opportunities in outlying areas with the result of upliftment of the rural economy”.

Minister Amunugama further stated that “there are three major sectors such as Service, Agriculture and the Industry sectors that are playing a vital role to develop the economy of the country. The service sector in the country is growing steadily. The BOI is working towards developing the Agriculture and the Industry sector simultaneously. This particular project is an ideal example of what I spoke about that.

I must thank Hon. Milroy Fernando for releasing this land to this young investor to establish his unique project. There are lot of investors are waiting for land at present. As the Minister of Investment Promotion I should be able to bring more investors to this area if the Hon Milroy Fernando can provide with us more land.”

The 300 Enterprise Programme is a progressive scheme of the Government of Sri Lanka and an integral part of the Mahinda Chinthana Programme to channel investment to Divisional Secretariats outside Colombo and Gampaha Districts, which have benefited from most of the investment in Sri Lanka.

Dilan Trailer’s mother company is based in Dubai and they cater to international customers.


DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=21254)

Dilantrailers (http://dilantrailers.net/)

July 28, 2008 (LBO) - Dubai's Al-Futtaim group may take Sri Lanka's listed Associated Motorways private as it injects capital to build a car-assembly plant and a solid rubber tyre venture following its take-over, officials said.
The group bought 71 percent of AMW as the founder de Zoysa family sold a 51 percent stake held through Associated Electrical Corporation, another listed firm.

At the same time 20 percent shareholder John Keells Holdings also sold out Monday.

The two stakes cost Al-Futtaim Engineering 6.9 billion Sri Lankan rupees. But it is looking to gain tighter control.

Al-Futtaim said it would pick up any shares that came to the market, and would also make an offer to buyout other shareholders at 174.50 rupees a share, a requirement of the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Cash Injection

AMW chairman Ajita de Zoysa said he had a choice of funding the firm's future expansion through debt or equity and he decided to bring in a new investor who had the cash to fund expansion.

"I could have been selfish and held on to the company for another 20 years," de Zoysa told reporters.

"But it needs capital for the expansion that we have in mind. I do not like debt, particularly in the high interest environment that we are now in."

De Zoysa says the take-over was very "friendly". He would remain as chairman for at least three months until loose ends are tied up and retire from the business. His brother Tilak would be the new chairman.

The money for new expansion would largely come from the Al-Futtaim group.

Bob Farrow, senior general manager business development at Al-Futtaim automotive, says the group may decide to take AMW private (de-list) once the take-over is complete.

A team from Dubai is due in Sri Lanka shortly to examine the AMW business in detail and decide on future opportunities and direction, he told LBO.

De Zoysa says any de-listing decision would be made by the new shareholder. A shareholder who has 75 percent of a firm can take a company private under Securities and Exchange Commission rules.

De Zoysa says a memorandum of understanding signed earlier in the year with John Keells Holdings and James Finlays to develop AMW's Union Place remains in place.

New Business

Al-Fattaim is interested in starting a solid tyre making plant in Sri Lanka because there is a "shortage of solid tyres in the world market." AMW has a long history in rubber and also started a joint venture with India's CEAT to make pneumatic tyres.

"We have been talking to two parties," Farrow told LBO. "The group also has a relationship with Volvo heavy equipment."

Belgian based Solideal-Loadstar, and Sweden's Trelleborg already have solid tyre plants in the island. Though a rubber producer it now imports lower grade rubber for tyre making.

AMW has the agencies for Nissan, Suzuki, Maruti and Yamaha motor brands in Sri Lanka. Al-Futtaim has agencies for Toyota and Lexus and also has businesses in real estate, retailing and construction.

Farrow said the group was interested in taking forward a car assembly plant in Sri Lanka planned by AMW, with an eye on exports.

But car assembly in Sri Lanka makes economic sense now because prohibitively high tarriffs on imports and light duty on completely knocked down units provides a tax arbitrage opportunity.

"Initially we are looking at the domestic market," says AMW director Tilak de Zoysa. "But countries that made cars first started with assembly."

But Farrow says being close to the final market has advantages with high shipping costs. He says it costs 1000 US dollars to ship a 4,000 dollar car from China to Dubai. Farrow says his firm sells about 10,000 cars a year.

Al-Futtaim is also interested in sourcing mechanics and sales people for its offices in the Middle East and buying garments, tea and other Sri Lankan products for its retailing businesses.

Al-Futtaim has recently bought Robinsons of Singapore and also operates Marks & Spencer franchises.

Interesting...

http://i33.tinypic.com/23msg1i.jpg
The Asiri Group of Hospitals has commenced the construction of its biggest venture so far, the USD40 million project ‘The Central’ on Norris Canal Road in Colombo 10 with easy accessibility both by public and private transport. The Group currently consists of three hospitals situated in Colombo, close to each other – Asiri Hospital, Asiri Surgical Hospital and Asiri Central Hospital and the latest addition in Matara. ‘The Central’ is a 270 bed hospital and is scheduled for completion by the end of September 2009. This will be the most modern hospital in country with state-of-the-art machines and technology that will provide the general public all the facilities required in modern health care keeping with western standards.

Asiri Surgical Hospital is currently completing a state-of-the-art Heart Centre, which will be opened to the general public in September this year. The Asiri Heart Centre will comprise of a Cardiology Unit and a Cardiac Surgery Unit equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, on par with the international standards. It boasts of the latest in Cardiac Diagnostics such as a Flat Panel Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory to enable Angiography and Angioplasty procedures as well as two state of the art Cardiac Operating Suites with Laminar Air-flow systems while a 10 bed Coronary Care Unit, 40 rooms and a Surgical ICU utilizing advanced monitoring systems and Telemetry which will be another first in Sri Lanka are among the facilities at the Asiri Heart Centre.

With the completion of ‘the Central’ the management of Asiri will be able to overcome the capacity constraints and cater to the growing demand for healthcare service in the country. Specialized services will be offer in line with global standards in the areas of Coronary Care, Oncology, Neurology, Geriatric Care etc. as well as enhanced Channeling Services, and supplementary Diagnostic Services.

Among the most up-to-date equipment and facilities at the ‘the Central’ are: A Coronary Care Unit – with the latest technology for By-pass procedures, Angiography, Angioplasty etc., A Neurology Unit capable of handling advanced Neurology Surgery as well as a Stroke Unit, an Oncology Unit for treatment of cancer patients care, a fully equipped Radiology Department equipped with state-of-the-art MRI scanners, 64 slice CT scanners, Mammograms and Digital X’ Ray facilities, Specialized Surgical Units for Paediatric Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, ENT Surgery and Eye Surgery etc., and a Theatre Complex comprising of 2 Cardiac operating theatre suites with a modern Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, 6 General operating theatre suites, 3 Gynaecology and Obstetrical theatres complete with Neo-natal ICU and a Paediatric ICU, A Generic Care Unit with Day Care Centre facilities. A Kidney Unit with Dialysis facilities comprising of 6 modern Haemodialysis, Water Treatment Unit and Pneumatic Lithotripsy System. And 24 hour OPD Service including Laboratory, Pharmacy, X’ Ray and CT Scanning facilities.

‘The Central’, will also cater to international communities from the UK, USA, Maldives and other countries promoting ‘health tourism’ in Sri Lanka. This will be in keeping with the healthy demand for specialist care facilities of the standards of countries such as Malaysia, India, Singapore and Thailand. There will be self contained apartments within the same complex to cater to those visitors with cafeterias and recreational facilities.

The proposed building complex will comprise 14 levels in addition to the basement and ground floor covering a total floor area of 435,000 square feet. Among the amenities are parking spaces for over 400 vehicles as well as a large Central atrium surrounded by food courts and malls. Other amenities include, fully equipped state of the art kitchen and laundry. Banking facilities will be available for patients, visitors as well as staff. Staff accommodation for 100 Nurses, 40 junior staff and 20 Doctors. This new hospital boasts of a Nurses Training School as well, offering international standard training for 100 student nurses at one intake.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=22399)

Park worth US$10 million

investment; nano technology to enhance industrial products

The first nanotechnology park is expected to commence operations from November with an investment of US$10 million which is backed by the Science and Technology Ministry and SLINTec and MAS Holdings Chairman Mahesh Amalean.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed the agreement with Nanco to develop and manage the country’s first Nanotechnology Park.Nanotechnology is a rapidly growing field of applied science where matter is controlled at an atomic or molecular scale. Examples of Nanotechnology include the manufacture of polymers based on molecular structure and the design of computer chip layouts based on surface science. Nanotechnology will produce benefits in two ways by making existing products and processes more cost effective, durable and efficient and by creating entirely new products.


The Nanotechnology Park, located at Homagama is an investment of US$10 million and will generate approximately 1,500 careers. A. N. R. Amarathunga (Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology) and Mahesh Amalean (Chairman, SLINTec and Chairman, MAS Holdings) signed the agreement on behalf of the company. Professor Sirimali Fernando, Chairperson of the National Science Foundation and Professor Ravi Silva (Director of Advanced Technology Institute of the University of Surrey) were also present at the occasion.

Professor Ravi Silva said “The project will infuse Nanotechnology into the Sri Lankan industrial sector and make Sri Lankan products world leading and competitive. Nanotechnology can be used to enhance most of the industrial products such as rubber products, apparels and energy.”

He explained that the Nanotechnology centre will develop new products and create intellectual products that can be exploited while the Park will house the manufacturing plants for local and foreign inward investors.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=23807)

Smart venture...invest in the FUTURE...invest in TECHNOLOGY!!! Great news...

naice.. nano tech in the sub con

A US based company, Tandon Enterprises, (TA) has selected their Sri Lankan factory in Pallekelle Kandy to manufacture High Definition Multimedia Interface Cables (HDMI) for the US Television market for the first time in the South Asian history.

The cable is the key link to provide crystal clear pictures for the ‘high definition TV’s’ that have now been introduced to the US market.

These cables are also manufactured in China to serve the next generation televisions that are now being introduced in US.

“However the supply in China is not adequate and this is the reason the company decided to manufacture this cable in the Sri Lankan plant,” Vice President Sri Lanka Operations, Tandon Enterprises, Bernard Peiris said in an exclusive interview with the Daily News Business.

He said Sri Lankan manufactured product returns are less that even 1 per cent and this was a major factor to award this project to Sri Lanka.

The company was set up in 1996 with an investment of US $ 10 million to manufacture Computer hard discs (Read and Write) and currently employs around 1,200. “We have reinvested US $ one million for this operation,” Peiris said.

He added that Tandon Enterprises is a historic company as it introduced the Floppy drive to the world. It had its first Asian factory in Singapore and now has factories in Malaysia, China, India and Sri Lanka.

The company’s roll out plan for the product would commence next month and would manufacture 20,000 HDMI cables in the first month and increase production to 100,000 within two months.

“All Memory manufactured products are ISO 9001 certified and TA memory is fast becoming one of the largest manufacturers of memory modules in the world. Such volume production reflects the ongoing demand it experiences for product from various retail and OEM customers.

TA has built memory products since 1998. The company has developed proprietary test software, which assures the overall quality and functional versatility of the memory product,” Peiris explained.

The factory was first scheduled to be opened in Sri Lanka on an invitation of Peiris in 1983 and due to the July riots it was postponed.

He said the US officials are amazed at the skills of Lankan workers. “However high electricity rates and lack of a highway have a negative impact,” he said. All modules are sold under ‘TA’ brand and are offered with lifetime warranty.

TANDON (http://www.tandon.com/factory.html)

Factory
In Kandy, Sri Lanka we have built two factories that provide us with approximately 250,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Our factories are ISO 9001 certified, along with FCC and CE certifications. In 2006, we converted our factories to be ROHS compliant.

BOI to record FDI worth US $ 1 billion in 2008


By Ravindu Peiris

BOI Chairman Dhammika Perera showing the BOI performance reports to Enterprise Development and Investment Promotions Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama at a press briefing. Pic by Kithsiri De Mel
The Board of Investment (BOI) yesterday reported that within the first six months of 2008 it had recorded Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) amounting to US$ 425 million and is expecting it to increase up to at least US$ 1 billion by the end of the year. This was a 36% increase compared to the corresponding period in 2007.

Addressing a media briefing on the latest developments of the BOI and its performance Enterprise Development and Investment Promotions Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama revealed that the Western Province has achieved a similar growth to that of the global economic giants China and India which are recording the highest economic growths at present.

“The Western Province has grown at a tremendous rate; this is because of the BOI. The only weakness is that the other provinces have not gained such a growth momentum,” he declared.

The Minister confirmed that the Eastern Province is indeed progressing and that if the East and the North are contributing to the country’s economy, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by at least 2 points from the current 7% to 9%. He explained in order for this kind of development the guidance of the government is necessary. According to him the BOI is to adhere to the theme of developing basic infrastructure especially in the North and Eastern Provinces with roads, water and electricity.

Moreover projects such as the Colombo-Kandy road, Colombo-Galle Highway and the Hambanthota and Oluvil Port constructions are to be enhanced and also initiatives such as the Colombo-Matara electric train is to be set up “which would take only 1 hour from Galle to Colombo.”

In a presentation the BOI divulged that services were the biggest contributor in terms of FDIs with US$ 363 million with telephone and telecommunications accumulating to a massive portion of it amounting to US$ 290 million. According to the report at the end of March 2008 the total number of direct employment was 451, 985 which is a 9% ascension compared to 2007. Between January and June 2008 the estimated investment from agreements signed is Rs.140.1 million which is a 27% rise compared to the corresponding period in 2007 which was only Rs.110 million.

Delving into foreign aid and grants Dr. Amunugama pointed out that other than for the usual bilateral and multilateral donors new donors such India, Japan particularly China and Iran have provided foreign finances. Iran which is a main donor now will be handling the Uma Oya and Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery projects which are underway with technical and financial feasibility studies done by local as well as foreign engineers.

He further announced that the BOI would be discussing with TATA Group specifically TATA Motors an offer to establish an automobile manufacturing plant in Sri Lanka to build a car with nano technology that would cost only Indian Rs.100, 000 or US$ 2,300. This alternative venture is estimated to be worth US$ 350 million. The objective of the TATA Nano is to provide an affordable vehicle.

The BOI also highlighted the speedy process in which Okaya Electric Industries of Japan producing noise suppression components, which set up an establishment of US$ 30 million in Sri Lanka.


http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=24510

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=24510

I saw the other day that BOI have signed US$3billion worth of projects for the first six months & $425 million already have implemented:banana::banana:^^^^^^

Cool...way to go...

new one good i have to gooooo.......

The Board of Investment (BOI), the governing body for promoting industrial investments in Sri Lanka and Cairn Lanka (Private) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India entered into an agreement yesterday for a commitment of an initial investment of more than USD 110 million towards the exploration of hydrocarbons.

The investment will be made in the Block SL 2007-01-001 site which is off the North-Western shore of Sri Lanka and covers approximately 3,000 square Kilometres (km2) in water depths of 200 metres to 1800 metres in the Mannar basin.

The signing took place in Colombo yesterday between Chairman and Director General, BOI Sri Lanka, Dhammika Perera and Director, Cairn Lanka P. Elango.

The signing for the exploration license to explore the target area for oil and natural gas in the Mannar Basin took place earlier in July this year in Colombo with the Minister for Petroleum and Petroleum Development Resources A.H.M Fowzie signing the license for the Government of Sri Lanka and Indrajit Banerjee, an Executive Director of Cairn India.

The Block SL 2007-01-001 was awarded to Cairn India in the recent Sri Lanka bid round. The work programme includes proposals to acquire a 5,000 km2 of Block 2D, 1,000 km2 of Block 3D and drill three wells in the initial three years of the eight year exploration period.

The Mannar basin is a frontier petroleum province that is yet to be explored. Cairn Lanka will invest in the region in exploring the block by applying the best in class technologies and industry practices in the search to establish whether commercial quantities of hydrocarbons can be found.

Cairn Lanka (Private) Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India which holds a 100% participating interest in the Mannar block. Cairn India is headquartered in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi, with operational offices in Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

On 9 January 2007, Cairn successfully concluded the flotation of its Indian business with the commencement of trading of Cairn India Limited on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. Cairn Energy PLC currently holds a 65% shareholding in Cairn India Limited.

Cairn India is currently focused on exploration and production in South Asia where it has a working interest in 15 blocks, two of which are producing hydrocarbons. The company holds material exploration and production positions in west India and east India along with new exploration rights elsewhere in India and Sri Lanka.

This focus on India has already resulted in a significant number of oil and gas discoveries. In particular, Cairn made a major oil discovery (Mangala) in Rajasthan in the North-West of India at the beginning of 2004. More than 20 discoveries have been made in Rajasthan block RJ-ON-90/1.

In Rajasthan, Cairn India operates Block RJ-ON-90/1 under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) signed on 15 May 1995. The main Development Area (1,858 km2), which includes Mangala, Aishwariya, Saraswati and Raageshwari; is shared between Cairn India and ONGC, with Cairn India holding 70% and ONGC having exercised their back in right for 30%. A further Development Area (430 km2), including the Bhagyam and Shakti fields, is also shared between Cairn India and ONGC in the same proportion. The Operating Committee for Block RJ-ON-90/1 consists of Cairn India and ONGC.

India currently imports approximately 2,000,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). It produces approximately 700,000 bopd itself of which approximately 50,000 bopd comes from the Cairn India operated Ravva field on the east coast of India.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=26030)

More FDI:banana::banana:

Cool, but first they need to find something substantial, before we celebrate too early...

Nawaloka Hospital, the first purpose built private hospital in Sri Lanka will open its state of the art hospital complex on November 18 investing Rs 1.5 bln.

http://i34.tinypic.com/2iac48i.jpg
An artist’s impression of the complex Pix: Chintaka Kumarasinghe

Director/General Manager, Nawaloka Hospitals, Prof. Lal Chandrasena told the Sunday Observer that the hospital will always invest on the latest technology to be ahead or on par with the rest of the world in healthcare. He said that Nawaloka Hospital invests around Rs 200 mln annually on technology alone.

The main aim of the hospital complex was to provide better facilities to the patients. The new complex has eight floors and each floor area is 10,000 sq.ft, the total being 80,000 sq.ft. One floor will be dedicated for consultations and the speciality areas will be segregated so that all consultants specialising in one area of medicine will be together. The new complex will have 13 operating theatres. Two operating theatres will be dedicated for out patients’ needs while another two will be dedicated for obstetrics and gynaecology. Prof. Chandrasena said that all the ICUs including the medical, surgical, coronary and the angiography laboratory will be expanded and housed in the second floor along with the staff so that attention and care will be prompt and easy.

In addition, the hospital has invested around Rs 60 mln to purchase equipment including monitors for the ICUs which helps the nursing staff to monitor the patients from a central location.

The seventh floor will house semi luxury, luxury and super luxury rooms while the new complex will add 100 rooms.

The new hospital will also have a sleep laboratory where patients having sleep disorders will be monitored overnight.

He said the hospital employs about 1,800 staff directly and with the opening of the hospital complex there will be employment for another 200 directly while many more are employed indirectly.

The staff of the hospital is a great strength and encouragement and at all times their dedication has paid rich dividends.

The Nawaloka Hospital was built at a cost of Rs 100 mln in 1985 with 100 rooms, three operating theatres, an ICU as well as CT and MRI scanners.

By stages the hospital added another 100 rooms. In 1993 The New Nawaloka Hospital was built adding 300 rooms, a new operating theatre complex as well as new equipment such as CT and MRI scanners.

In 1994 Nawaloka Hospitals was listed as a Public quoted company on the main board of the Colombo Stock Exchange. ‘We are the first and the only hospital to be ISO certified while the hospital has won many more awards over the years’, said Prof. Chandrasena.

“We saw the need for further expansion and launched the hospital complex project in September 2006 which will be opened on November 18, he said.

SO (http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/10/26/fin02.asp)

this is great news! and a sleeping lab!:P hehe...pretty cool!:)

Yeah great, but I still prefer Apollo and Asiri...

Dec 09, 2008 (LBO) - The Sri Lanka unit of cement multinational Holcim has got long-delayed approval for an import facility in the east and also proposed a multi-million dollar plan to revive a defunct factory in the north.

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Holcim Lanka chief executive Peter Spirig said the company plans to set up a cement import terminal in the eastern port of Trincomalee and later a grinding mill.

"There has been some delay. We wanted it five years ago. We've now got the necessary permits to put up the facility. Construction will start next year."

He said, without elaborating, that the company would be eligible for incentives like tax breaks given by the government for investments in the eastern region.

The government has launched an ambitious effort to revive the economy of the east and is inviting investment after driving out Tamil Tiger rebels from their jungle lairs in the region.

Reconstruction and new building activity in the east will lead to greater demand for cement in the region, now supplied by Holcim's competitor Tokyo Cement, in which Japan's Mitsui has a stake.

Cement demand has slumped this year as the economy slowed down and is seen by Holcim as remaining flat next year although an end to the ethnic war could suddenly create new demand.

Holcim's Spirig also said the firm it still keen on reviving a disused cement plant in the northern Jaffna, sitting on a rich deposit of limestone which has also been eyed by others including India's Birla group.

The government construction minister Rajitha Senaratne has said the contract to revive the Kankesanturai cement factory in Jaffna, owned by the listed Lanka Cement, would be given to Birla.

But other cement companies are also in the fray, including Hoclim Lanka which insists the government have competitive bidding for the plant.

"Holcim has a keen interest in Kankesanturai," said Spirig, "It offers a good opportunity to make the country self-sufficient in cement.

"I truly believe the government is making an open and fair bidding process for this project in which everyone would have a fair deal."

Sri Lanka now imports about half its cement requirements.

Spirig said the revival of the plant would depend on the absence of hostilities and availability of funds, which he said might be difficult to get owing to the current credit crunch.

The government has said it would look at reviving the plant once it completes military operations against the Tiger rebels in the north.

The Tigers have been pushed back from the Jaffna peninsula which they earlier threatened with artillery and are now getting cornered in the north-eastern part of the island.

Spirig said that reviving the Jaffna plant might require an investment of between 500 to a billion dollars, depending on production capacity.
:nuts::nuts::nuts::nuts:
"With the current financial crisis it would now be difficult to find investment for a location like Jaffna," he said.

"But if peace comes, sentiment could change and there could be an upswing in the market. Also, we could see the world economy coming out of the financial crisis in 2010 or 2011.

"Who knows, then it could be a good opportunity to re-look at Kankesanturai. In cement, we're looking at the long run - a period of decades."

Dec 11, Colombo: Sri Lanka plans to implement a multi-sensor surveillance system to protect its Exclusive Economic Zone which covers 517 000 square kilometers around 1,770 km of Sri Lanka's coastline.

The Cabinet today approved a memorandum submitted by the Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Felix Perera to accept a proposal by Frequentis AG to implement a multi-sensor surveillance system under the signed bilateral MoU with the Federal Republic of Austria.

The Director General, External Resources, is to negotiate with Raiffeisen Zentralbank AG of Austria to finance 85% of the cost of the project amounting to 35 million Euros.

Marine fisheries are of considerable social and economic importance around the entire country’s coastline and fisheries sector is an important part of Sri Lanka’s economy.

Lets see...

DHL announced today that it plans to invest US$8 million in Sri Lanka over a three-year period.
The investment will go towards a joint venture with Capitol AEI, called DHL Global Forwarding Lanka.
http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/03/13/z_pi-dhl.jpg
Chief Executive Officer South Asia, DHL Global Forwarding Thomas Tieber and Chief Executive Officer, South Asia Pacific Amadou Diallo after the media briefing.

As part of this investment, DHL will also launch the DHL Fashion & Apparel Centre for Excellence in Colombo by end-2009, to support Sri Lanka's ambition to become a logistics hub for South Asia.

The investments in the JV will be focused on employee training, information systems upgrades and the introduction of an enhanced range of services for businesses in Sri Lanka.

The DHL Fashion & Apparel Centre for Excellence in Colombo will comprise a core team of industry experts who will be responsible for developing tailored solutions and providing consultancy services to customers.

Amadou Diallo, DHL Global Forwarding CEO for South Asia-Pacific, said the company is very optimistic about Sri Lanka's growth potential, as its strategic location along the major Europe - Far East air and sea routes uniquely positions the country to capitalise on the increasing trade flows between South Asia and Europe.

The fashion & apparel industry is Sri Lanka's biggest source of revenue, contributing nearly 8% to the country's GDP and accounting for 45% of its export revenue and 67% of total industrial exports.

DHL estimates the fashion & apparel logistics industry in South Asia to be worth US$3.9 billion a year, with India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka alone accounting for well over US$2.4 billion.
Combining the operations of DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Supply Chain, the newly formed JV offers integrated global forwarding expertise and supply chain capabilities, and operates a combined warehouse space of more than 380,000 sq.ft and a fleet of about forty vehicles.

Eyeforstransport (http://www.eyefortransport.com/content/dhl-invests-sri-lanka)

http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/05/15/z_bus350.jpg
Minister of Enterprise Development Mano Wijeratne, felicitates Hermann Ude, CEO and Board Members of DHL. Chairman/Director General of BOI Dhammika Perera looks on.

DHL, a leading air and ocean freight provider which has operated in Sri Lanka for over 25 years, is exploring the possibility of setting up a global logistics hub in Sri Lanka to serve the South Asian region.

This follows the recent signing by DHL of a BOI approved joint venture where a commitment was made to invest US$ 8 million.

The visit by Board Member of Deutsche Post DHL and CEO of DHL Global Forwarding and Freight to Sri Lanka Hermann Ude is proof of the interest this Global 100 company has in the country as a future global logistics centre for South Asia. Ude held discussions with Minister of Enterprise Development Mano Wijeratne and Chairman/Director General of the BOI Dhammika Perera.

Ude’s delegation included senior company officials including his chief of staff Christian Allecote, Director Strategic Planning, South Asia Pacific Ms Anne Schaefer, CEO for South Asia Pacific Amadou Diallo and CEO for South Asia Thomas Tieber.

The delegation is visiting Sri Lanka on a fact-finding mission as the island is strategically located to set up a multi-national gateway to serve India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other SAARC countries. DHL has already introduced innovations in Sri Lanka such as GPS tracking and Garments-on-hanger boxes for the fashion and apparel industry.

Ude said that Sri Lanka’s advantages included very low costs of maintaining a logistics centre in the country, hence the return of peace, would lead to investment inflows. He said DHL was evaluating a country that had a good and clearly structured environment. Sri Lanka also benefited from a good education system.

Sri Lanka’s strategic location on the East-West trading route, progressive trade policies, highly literate work force and developed ICT infrastructure offers considerable opportunities for the logistics sector.

DN (http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/05/15/bus03.asp)

June 04, 2009 (LBO) - The Sri Lankan government said it had approved a proposal by an Indian company to set up a four-star hotel and convention centre with an investment of 25 million US dollars.
Media minister Anura Yapa said the unsolicited proposal had been received from Suchirindia Hotel and Resorts in Hyderabad, India.

The proposal hotel would be set up on a three-acre block of land owned by the island's investment promotion agency, the Board of Investment near the export processing zone at Katunayake, just north of Colombo where the international airport is located.

Yapa told reporters that according to the project proposal the hotel would have 170 rooms.

The height of the building would be restricted as it is in a high security zone being close to the airport.

The building has also to be built on pillars since the ground water is extracted from tube wells situated within the site for use by export factories.

As result of these restrictions the government has decided to value the land at 88.5 million rupees, give the land on a 50-year lease and charge 12,000 rupees a year as nominal rent during the lease period.

Sounds good, hope that more investments will trinkle in now...

Colombo, 04 June, (Asiantribune.com): Foreign Direct Foreign Investment Promotion and Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana YapaInvestment(FDI) proposals are pouring into Sri Lanka and the country expects the total figure to be one billion US dollars for the current year, Foreign Investment Promotion and Media Minister, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa announced a short while ago at the weekly cabinet briefing.

The subject of foreign investment surfaced after the presentation of routine cabinet memorandums at the weekly meeting t his morning.

The Minister pointed out that the majority investment was expected to come from non-telecom sector and added it was a great incentive following the defeat of terrorism in the country.

According to Minister Yapa, the total investment during the previous year stood at US $ 865 million which included investment from the telecom sector with Airtel coming in with an investment of US $ 100 million.

The minister expressed satisfaction over the flow of proposals by foreign investors to invest in Sri Lanka with investor confidence gathering momentum after the defeat of the LTTE.

source: (Asiantribune.com)

Let's hope that this will actually convert into increased prosperity, employment opportunities and increased GDP growth, rather than landing in off-shore bank accounts etc.

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Calamander Group Pte, a Singapore- based investment company, will create the first private equity fund focused on Sri Lanka, betting the nation’s economy will prosper after the end of three decades of civil war.

Calamander plans to invest between $50 million and $75 million in the island nation’s rubber, tea, timber, coconut, bank and ceramics businesses in the next 18 months, Managing Director Roman Scott said in a telephone interview on June 19. The fund aims to earn a return of as much as 35 percent, he said.

“It’s not a big fund by world standards but for Sri Lanka you can actually do a lot of damage with that kind of money,” Scott said. “There’s a huge opportunity to do a lot.”

Interest in Sri Lanka is growing after its military defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels last month, ending Asia’s longest running civil war. Investor Jim Rogers, who correctly predicted a commodity price rally in 1999, says he sees “wonderful opportunities” in Sri Lanka, while HSBC Private Bank says the country could become the “Hong Kong of India.”

“The end of the war has greatly enhanced Sri Lanka’s prospects,” said Jan Zalewski, a London-based analyst at IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting company. “But the future depends upon the government’s initiative to satisfactorily address the root causes of the conflict.”

Calamander’s Scott said the private equity market in Sri Lanka could grow to between $1 billion and $3 billion in five years provided the government gets its “economic and political policies right.”

Tamil Defeat
Sri Lanka defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on May 16 and ended their struggle for a separate homeland. President Mahinda Rajapaksa may still have to find a settlement to the separatist demands of the ethnic Tamils to secure lasting peace and build investor confidence, Zalewski said.

The final battles have left about 300,000 people displaced and living in more than 40 camps across the northern part of the country. Rajapaksa said last month he intends to resettle them in the region within 180 days.

Calamander is just starting to raise funds and is targeting high net worth individuals and institutions in Asia, particularly Indians and foreign investors in India, Scott said.

“Wealthy Indians understand the potential for Sri Lanka,” he said. “They get it because they see Sri Lanka as an economic extension of India. Effectively, Sri Lanka is part of a greater Indian economic zone.”

Arjuna Mahendran, HSBC Private Bank’s chief investment strategist, says Sri Lanka could benefit from its proximity to India, just as Hong Kong profits from being a trade hub to China. Sri Lanka lies 31 kilometers (19 miles) south east of India, the world’s second-fastest-growing major economy.

Colombo Port

Seventy percent of the goods handled by the Colombo port are goods for import by India and that could increase because Indian ports don’t have enough depth, Mahendran said. Sri Lanka plans to quadruple capacity at the Colombo port in three years.

Scott said Calamander has already identified investments in Sri Lanka worth about $40 million, mainly in rubber, banks and trading of commodities like coconut and tea. The fund has predominantly invested in real estate in London and Singapore and advised bank restructuring in Vietnam and the Philippines.

“The geopolitical risks are not half as bad as everybody thinks they are in the West,” Scott said. “So rather than waste our time trying to persuade people who have never been to Sri Lanka and never understood it, we are relying to tap resources in India.”

Companies and investors in India understand that the “trend growth rate in the long run for Sri Lanka should be about the Indian growth rate,” he said.

‘Huge Interest’

“People who understand India recognize that the huge private equity interest in India in the last five years has pushed up Indian asset prices,” Scott said. “And Sri Lanka is basically, we think, Cinderella, that is you get Indian growth rates and asset prices that are 50 percent of India’s.”

Calamander won’t invest in Sri Lankan textiles, tourism and tea plantations, businesses that the country is renowned for. Scott says even though Sri Lanka makes high-end apparel including Victoria’s Secret lingerie, he doesn’t like the structure of the business because it’s “far too prone to big single orders.”

Tea plantations have “horrible unionized labor” and Calamander will look for investment opportunities in factories, processing, blending and marketing of the commodity, Scott said.

Calamander is also “wary of tourist sector and hotels” because a stray security incident in the country could see tourist arrivals drop by half a million “overnight,” he said, making the business “a lot riskier and lot less stable.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Cherian Thomas in New Delhi at Cthomas1@bloomberg.net.

Interesting news...interest is slowing building up for Sri Lanka on the international stage...

they really shouldnt have put "tamil defeat" as their sub heading in that above article!!!! totally changes everything!!!! stupid western media!

^^Hey i ddnt knw whr to place this... But does neone have ne info on the new performing art center coming up infront of StBridgets? Ne updates? :cheers:

Its funded mainly by china, and its progressing rather well. The renders were posted in the Colombo megapolis thread IIRC>

Its funded mainly by china, and its progressing rather well. The renders were posted in the Colombo megapolis thread IIRC>

Ne construction updates? I saw the renderings which were published in the papers as well as what is posted up at the site.

Here is an article about foreign investment in Sri Lanka from The Island newspaper. A government official in Malaysia says that livability in Colombo should be improved as foreign investors would go there first. He is right, in Colombo there are many problems such as inadequate waste disposal management, lack of traffic lights, congestion, lack of metro rail, urban decay. All these things should be fixed immediately before expecting decent foreign investment.


http://www.island.lk/2009/07/02/business3.html

SL can be regional services hub,
brush up Colombo first – Dr. Govindan
By Devan Daniel
A top official of the Malaysian government said the city of Colombo needed a ‘brush up’ making it more liveable to foreign investors if Sri Lanka was to realise its potential for being a regional hub in the services industry.

"Sri Lanka has the potential for being a strong regional hub for services and the private and public sectors will have to galvanise into action. Singapore is where it is today and they started from nothing but Sri Lanka is rich in resources," Dr. K. Govindan, Deputy Director General of the Economic Planning Unit of Malaysia said addressing the inaugural session of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit last Tuesday.

Dr. Govindan said in the ‘50s and ‘60s Malaysians and Singaporeans grew learning from their schools that Sri Lanka was one of the countries with a high per capita income, where tourism flourished in an island paradise and its people had a strong command of the English Language.

But today, Malaysia and Singapore have surpassed Sri Lanka and Dr. Govindan said poverty in these two countries is virtually eradicated.

"Sri Lanka stopped in its track but it still maintained on average a five percent GDP growth during the last 20 years. Its literacy rate of 95 percent is astronomical. Its poverty rate of 15 percent is low and the World Bank has used Sri Lanka as a case study to show how effective state-sponsored healthcare can be," Dr. Govindan said.

He shared a few points which helped Malaysia to grow to where it is today.

Malaysia’s leaders paid attention to long term plans.

"They were interested in the welfare of the country and not who would be in power. They were not concerned about the next year or where the country would be in ten years time. They planned and executed policies for what they wanted the country to achieve in 30 years time," Dr. Govindan said.

"The private sector was put on a pedestal. It took a while to convince public officials that it was the private sector that drove the economy," he said.

In this regard, Malaysia took steps to remove its ‘complex nightmare’ of rules and regulations, making things more simplified instead.

"If things take an inordinate time to happen then it leaves room for corruption," Dr. Govindan said.

Building a strong capable public sector was also important. It was seen to that remunerations and other facilities were of the highest standards in Malaysia.

"Why should public officials get paid more than there private sector counterparts, after all, they bare a bigger responsibility to the entire nation," Dr. Govindan said.

"However, this should be accompanied by Key Performance Indicators. In Malaysia, the prime minister and other ministers are required to be subject to a key performance indicator every six months," he said.

Dr. Govindan said the public sector cannot be left to make key decisions where timeliness was required.

"Malaysia has a high powered minister chairing a committee comprising select ministers to make crucial decisions. This is because you cannot depend too much on government machinery," he said.

Dr. Govindan said Sri Lanka should pay more attention in developing its manufacturing sector, where agriculture would take a ‘down stream’ path. But Sri Lanka’s real strength lies in its services sector.

"In tourism for example, 20 million people visit Malaysia each year to see nothing where as Sri Lanka has all the natural resources," he said.

"Focus on Colombo first when planning out the future. Because this is where the investors would come to and you need to make it a liveable attractive place."

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval for ventures in manufacturing cooling equipment and an export trading house. Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General signed the agreements on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the BOI Certificates of Registration to the investors.

Lanka Cold Chain (Private) Limited

An agreement was signed with Lanka Cold Chain (Private) Limited to set up a venture to manufacture polyurethane panels and related cooling equipment for cold and refrigeration trucks. These cooling panels will be manufactured for export and the venture will also manufacture cooling equipment for the local market. The project is a joint venture between UK based Paneltex, Sommers and Frostaire, Sri Lanka.

The venture is an investment of US $ 1.1 million and will establish a state of the art manufacturing plant. Directors of Lanka Cold Chain (Private) Limited, Stuart Shreeve and Mukthar Marikkar signed the agreement on behalf of the investor. Ms. Gail Shreeve was also present at the occasion

Panglobe E T H (Private) Limited

An investment agreement worth US $ 100,000 was signed with Panglobe E T H (Private) Limited. The venture is a project to set up an export trading house for a variety of Sri Lanka products. The venture sponsored by Indian investors will be located at Nikapotha. This will initially export Sri Lankan spices.

Panglobe E T H will export the spices to US, European and Indian markets. The venture will provide employment for 30 initially and will commence commercial operations in two months. Ramesh Narayanan, CEO stated that they hope to start value addition to the spice products in the near future and that there is a big demand for value added spice products in the European and US markets.

Island (http://www.island.lk/2009/07/18/business3.html)

http://m1.2mdn.net/1799489/srilankaBanner.gif


http://www.hertz.com/rentacar/reservation/gaq/index.jsp?bsc=t&targetPage=reservationOnHomepage.jsp

The world’s largest car rental brand, The Hertz Corporation entered the Sri Lankan car rental business under a licensee agreement with Andrew, The Car Rental Company Pvt Ltd. yesterday

Mr. Mahen Kariyawasan, Managing Director of Andrew, said that Sri Lanka was the only missing country in the Hertz Asian map. Hertz has embarked on the Sri Lankan market on a three pronged entry strategy, with Andrew, the car rental company, Discover the World Marketing as Hertz general sales agent and as an exclusive car rental partner of SriLankan FlySmiLes, the frequent flyer programme of the national airline.

“In an effort to strengthen its business, Hertz has been strategically tapping into markets with growth potential and we’re pleased to commence operations in Sri Lanka,” commented Vice President and General Manger of Hertz Asia and Japan, Wong Soon Hwa.

The BOI hosted an 18-member Chinese Business delegation headed by Gao Feng the Vice Governor of China’s Yunnan Province. The delegation consisted of officials and entrepreneurs from a wide range of sectors such as telecommunications, aviation, power, import-export and construction, who visited Sri Lanka on the invitation made by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake to the Governor of Yunnan Province.

The meeting included presentations by the BOI and the delegation from Yunnan that were followed by one to one meetings between entrepreneurs of both countries with the objective of examining possibilities of investment, trade and joint ventures.

A.M.C Kulasekera, Deputy Director General (Promotion) of the BOI, briefed the Chinese delegation at the BOI’s Head Office at the World Trade Center.

Kulasekera spoke of the close relations between Sri Lanka and China that go back to the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Formal diplomatic relations were established in 1957 and relations have since gone from strength to strength and the BOI is making every effort to increase the quantum of investment from China, he added.

In fact in recent years there have been frequent visits to the BOI by Chinese delegations a who are examining the possibility of investing in Sri Lanka. A significant development to take place recently was the signing of an agreement between the BOI and the Chinese Company Huichen Investment Holdings to establish a dedicated Chinese Special Economic Zone at Mirigama.

Li Jimming, Deputy Director General, Department of Commerce of Yunnan Province, the leader of the Chinese business delegation also responded on behalf of his delegation.

He said that one positive outcome of this meeting will be the signing by one of the companies present of a MOU with the Ministry of Highways worth a total of US$ 120 million. This was a significant agreement that augured well for the economic relations between the two countries, he added. The purpose of the delegation headed by the Vice Governor of Yunnan Province was to promote trade, investment and business matching between the private sectors of Yunnan Province and Sri Lanka.

The Chinese delegation showed special interest in the free trade agreements Sri Lanka has established with India, Pakistan and the European Union and in the variety of incentives that the BOI offers investors.

Island (http://www.island.lk/2009/08/05/business2.html)

China heavily investing in SL, I heard that gateway conducting Chinese courses in CMB:cheers::cheers:

Sri Lankan stocks may offer better returns as the end of the 26-year civil war frees up government spending for investments in infrastructure and agriculture, investor Jim Rogers said.

The island-nation’s benchmark index has gained 33 percent in the past three months, the second-best performance worldwide as the army defeated the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam in May. The Colombo All-Share Index was the region’s third-worst performer in the past two years as record spending on defense strained government finances, and the country sought an International Monetary Fund loan.

“When you spend a lot of money on bullets, you don’t get much return,” Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said in a phone interview yesterday. “If governments can spend money on infrastructure and developing productive assets, then Sri Lanka’s strengths will become even stronger given that the war is over.”

The Ministry of Finance has said it will focus next year’s budget on rebuilding areas liberated from the Tamil rebels, where voting in the first elections in a decade began on Aug. 8.

“This is a structural change for the country,” said Singapore-based Samir Mehta, a fund manager at Silver Metis Capital Management Pte. “If the political process of integrating the minority Tamils is handled well, the economy could grow at above 10 percent per annum for the next decade.”

The nation’s central bank raised its 2009 growth forecast to as much as 4.5 percent in July from an earlier estimate of 2.5 percent after the separatists’ defeat. Sri Lanka plans to raise $500 million from overseas investors to help rebuild the nation, central bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said in an interview on July 31.

‘Capital is Ready’

“The capital is ready for coming into the country,” Ajit Gunewardene, deputy chairman of John Keells Holdings Plc, said in an interview on Aug. 5. “I don’t think there is going to be a shortage of investors.”

The nation’s hotels may be fully booked from December to April as tourists return to the island, Gunewardene said. Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka grew 8 percent in June, the first increase this year, according to the monthly statistical bulletin by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.

John Keells, which gets appreximatily 49 percent of its revenue from transport and tourism, has gained 69 percent in Colombo trading since the war ended on May 16.

Other stocks have more than doubled, including Ceylinco Housing & Real Estate Co. and Bogawantalawa Tea Estates Plc, leading a rally that has made the benchmark index Asia’s second-biggest gainer after Indonesia.

Trading Volumes Jump

Trading on Sri Lanka’s $7 billion stock exchange, Asia’s smallest, jumped fivefold in May, and average trading increased to 751 million rupees ($6.5 million) from 147 million rupees in April, according to CT Smith Stockbrokers Pvt. in Colombo.

Still, earnings at companies haven’t kept pace, said Talaal Maruzook, an analyst at CT Smith. Overseas investors have also sold shares worth 1.48 billion rupees in the three months ended July 31, his firm’s report showed.

“The ending of the war is a catalyst, but development will take some more time,” Maruzook said in an interview yesterday. Only about 10 percent of the 235 companies listed on the exchange are traded regularly, he estimated. “Even though turnover has picked up, it’s still low and earnings are only marginally up compared with the sharp gains in stock prices.”

Mark Mobius, chairman of Templeton Asset Management Ltd., said he’s looking for private equity or strategic investment opportunities in Sri Lanka as trading volumes remain low.

“The biggest challenge in the public market is

liquidity,” Mobius, who oversees about $25 billion of emerging market assets, said in an e-mailed response to questions yesterday. Templeton Asset Management plans to double its emerging-market assets within two years, Mobius had said in an interview on July 29.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=atau4U6_uAdY

A high powered delegation of Japanese investors already present in the country expressed their concerns and dissent on Monday towards promoting investment to Sri Lanka in the face of a lack of facilities and much needed infrastructure development. The key Japanese investors who already established themselves in the country, expressed dissent over the lack of required infrastructure, the smooth supply of electricity and harassment at the hands of Customs officials in addition to delays in payment by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).

The delegation was led by the Japanese Ambassador Kunio Takahashi while other members who participated included representatives from Lanka Precision Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Mitsubishi Corporation, Noritake Lanka Pvt. Ltd., Toyota Lanka Pvt. Ltd., Wakachiku Construction Co., Ltd., Itochu Corporation Colombo Liaison Office, Japan External Trade organization (JETRO), Nippon Koei Co. Ltd. and Shin Nippon Lanka Pvt. Ltd.

During the discussion with a Sri Lanka delegation led by Enterprise Development and investment Promotion Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, it was pointed out that the government would ensure assistance at every level possible and the Japanese delegation was also invited to become ambassadors in promoting Sri Lanka as a viable destination to invest in.

Certain issues brought to the fore were the acceleration of VAT refund that was urgently needed. The delegation noted that the following a questionnaire survey conducted by the Japanese Commerce and Industry Association (JCIA) on the current situation of refund of VAT, a total outstanding amount in VAT refund was approximately Rs.387,000,000 as at July 31, 2009 when the survey was conducted. “Such a long delay of a large amount of VAT refunds is a discouraging factor for investors,” the Japanese delegation pointed out. They also called for an amendment or flexibility in labour laws of Sri Lanka which according to the investors “seriously hinder efficiency in production and administration.”

Road development

Expressing their concerns over the delay in the construction of some key highways such as the Colombo-Katunayaka, Colombo-Kandy, Katunayaka-Anuradhapura and Colombo-Ratnapura, the Japanese delegation asserted the need for improved transportation infrastructure to “increase the efficiency of economic activity”. The delegation also made a firm request to the government to “avoid further delay and realize the network of expressways as soon as possible”.

Minister Yapa responding by stating that they are currently in the process of expediting the work on the expressways as much as possible. When asked as to how soon the road opposite Temple Trees will be opened, the Minister pointed out that while the war had been won against the LTTE, however, there was a need to maintain precautions. But the government was now gradually in the process of bringing down certain checkpoints and the minister noted that “this will happen very soon” and that within a period of one year everything will be “alright”.

Electricity supply not so smooth

The Japanese investors also noted with concern that there was no “stable and reliable electric supply” which was therefore causing a fluctuation in the voltage resulting in serious damages to production processes and schedules.

In this respect, the government delegation observed that the CEB had already commenced the construction of sub stations in Katunayaka that would be commissioned by April. Moreover, investors are likely to be provided with the smooth supply of power by mid next year with the commissioning of the power stations in Norochcholai and Upper Kotmale, the minister said.

At this point the Japanese delegation also highlighted the delays in payment by as much as three months by the CEB for which Minister Yapa stated that he would revert after a separate discussion with the Board’s Chairman.

In addition to this, it was emphasized that certain laws and regulations passed recently were imposed on these companies causing difficulty in carrying out their work.

The Japanese investors noted that they expected an exemption from the new law imposed in April 2008 relating to electricity whereby they were required to obtain a new licence whereas they already were in possession of a license.

It was pointed out here that such licenses would not be required if these companies were established according to the previous laws and regulations, according to the minister.

Import Duty

In a bid to improve the investment climate in Sri Lanka, the Japanese delegation asserted the need to bring down the high import duties levied on vehicles which was relatively higher than most other countries in the region.

It was noted that the import duties were very high resulting in a high cost incurred for the purchase of vehicles, which was a hindrance in doing business in Sri Lanka. “It is definitely a discouraging factor for a foreign investor,” the delegation members pointed out. The Toyota Lanka representative noted with concern on the other hand that Customs officials were causing much harassment and called them “strange people”. He noted that these Customs officials were not even complying with the Supreme Court decision on a particular case which the Customs Department had lost to the investor.

DM (http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=57716)

Finally, some big, influential corporates lash back and show these nice institutions and people in the public sector what is wrong...thank you!!!!

http://www.adaderana.lk/news_images/349526498Rocell%2001.JPG


Royal Ceramics Lanka Limited, today (August 14) announced the launch of its state-of-the-art production facility at Templeburg Industrial Estate at Panagoda in Homagama. This manufacturing facility is one of the largest and most sophisticated production facilty in South Asia, and is a result of a Rs. 1.8 billion investment which has been approved by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka.


According to the Managing Director of the Rocell Group Nimal Perera, Sri Lankais facing a decisive moment in its economic history and after a 30 year old war the country is at a threshold for accelerated growth. Opening a facility of this nature at a time like this is a reflection of a local brand gearing itself to face the challenges that lie ahead and seizing the opportunity for new beginnings. Rocell Bathware aspires to contribute substantially to the nation’s economy whilst offering employment to the people of Sri Lanka. With an annual rated production capacity of 250,000 pieces and employing a dedicated workforce of over 200 personnel who are committed to establishing a new standard in the sanitary ware market. Rocell Bathware is now equipped to manufacture high quality sanitary ware for both the Sri Lankan and international markets. In keeping with the Mahinda Chinthanaya, the Rocell brand plan envisions to position Sri Lankaon the global map as a manufacturer and marketer of value added products generating valuable foreign exchange.



“It’s a historic day for us. We are pleased to announce the opening of one of the largest sanitary ware manufacturing plants in Asia. Rocell has always pitched to be a ‘first’ in many areas, from being the first and only sanitary ware manufacturer in Sri Lanka, to now being hailed as having one of the most modern and state-of-the-art production plants in Asia. By building this production facility, we are proud to be progressively contributing Sri Lanka’s industrial and economic success, through enhanced wealth generation for the nation and its people,” stated Tharana Thoradeniya, Chief Executive Officer of Rocell Bathware Ltd.



The new production facility features technology from leading European sanitary ware machinery and houses a ninety cubic meter kiln, automated driers, and robotic glazing lines – equipment which gives the company the ability to produce bathware that meets international standards. The technical know-how and machinery for the plant is sourced from two of the world’s premier suppliers of the sanitaryware industry, namely Unimak of Turkey and SACMI of Italy, and is manufactured to quality standards conforming to British Standard Specification BS EN 3402-1962, thereby ensuring that the products will be on par with that of any leading European manufacturer in terms of both design and quality.



Always creating ways to inspire elegant living by being at the forefront of fashion, world class design, and integrity coupled with unmatched quality, Rocell caters to an audience that appreciates originality, quality, and aesthetic beauty. Rocell Bathware understands that in today’s modern lifestyle, the ambient space hitherto perceived as purely functional has now evolved to an extension of one’s living space. It is now a place where an individual’s life undergoes regeneration - a place to de-stress and to touch base with your inner self - a place to relax and enjoy a sense of well being. As such, Rocell Bathware strengthens the evolution of the bathroom from a functional space to a place of serenity, renewal, and relaxation.



The Rocell Bathware design philosophy is focused on contemporary designs that complement the global trends of minimalism and simplicity. Created by Italian designers, these modern, yet timeless ranges highlight space and light as essential elements in a room that is designed for life. The collection encompasses all plumbed-in ceramic bathroom fixtures used for personal sanitation and washing requirements such as wash basins and toilet suits – water closets and water tanks, bidets, and other related accessories, which come in design sets under titles such as Elements Aqua, Intense, Dune, Living, Eternity, Summer Blue and Deep Blue, all reasonably priced. Through the launch of Rocell Bathware, Royal Ceramics Lanka Limited has now become the pioneer in the industry, establishing themselves as the first and only state-of-the-art sanitary ware manufacturer in Sri Lanka.


The modern sanitary ware production facility is a result of the strategic expansion and diversification strategy of Royal Ceramics Lanka PLC. RCL was established in 1990 and was the first producer of homogenous tiles in Sri Lanka. Since its inception, the Rocell brand has been focused on its goal to inspire elegant living by creating timeless products based on its founding principles: design, innovation, quality, and integrity.


“It has taken us four years of conceptualizing, planning, implementing and carrying out research and development activities to bring this project to its present state. We have been able to develop a manufacturing plant with world-class facilities and production processes, and a product portfolio that is aesthetically pleasing and functionally superior. Now we are ready to launch our products to the local and international markets and we aim to be the market leader of bathware in Sri Lanka in a short span of time,” concluded Thoradeniya.


Rocell as a brand has already captured 55% of the Sri Lankan flooring market and enjoys the market leadership position whilst also exporting its products to numerous countries across the globe. The company’s marketing operations are supported by a strong distribution network comprising 40 owned showrooms, an island wide dealer network, and warehouses located in all strategic areas in Sri Lanka.
d-loqrPcH4E
Ada Derana (http://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=4819)

Awesome project, simply impressive would not mind more manufacturing plants of this high standard springing up all over Sri Lanka, from various companies and different fields, encouraging venture...

Aug 26, 2009 (LBO) - A 40-member Japanese trade and investment mission is due to visit Sri Lanka in November 2009, following the end of the island's 30-year ethnic war, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said.

During their visit, members of the mission will take part in the Japan - Sri Lanka Business Co-operation Committee meeting, scheduled to be held during November 18-20, 2009. Part of the joint meeting will also be devoted to one-to-one business meetings between members of the Japanese delegation and the Sri Lankan business community, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said.

"The objectives of the joint meetings are to promote trade, investment, tourism and services between the two countries." The Chamber represents the Business Co-operation Committee in Sri Lanka.

Japan has been a key aid donor and investor in Sri Lanka, helping to fund infrastructure modernization, like Colombo port container terminals, power stations and roads, as well as health care and education. Japanese private sector investments have also been important for the island. There are about 60 big enterprises with Japanese investment operating in Sri Lanka, employing about 12,000 people as well as several small-scale enterprises.

Investor interest in Sri Lanka has improved markedly in recent months after government forces defeated Tamil Tiger rebels in May.

Foreign investors are looking to invest in property, tourism, manufacturing and agriculture. Foreign funds have also invested in government securities.

Dormant canned fish factory to restart soon

By Yohan Perera

The government has decided to re-open a canned fish production factory at Pesalai in Mannar after nearly two decades.

Ceylon Fisheries Corporation Working Director Rohitha Siriwardene told Daily Mirror yesterday a corporate plan to restart the factory and to repair it would be drawn up shortly. “We have only mooted the idea to refurbish and re-start it,” he said. The factory was started in the 1968 but was closed for 17 years because of terrorist activities in the area. In addition an ice production plant which was also shut down is to also be restarted according to sources.

Chief of the Uthuru Wasanthaya Task Force, Senior Presidential Advisor, Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa together Minister Felix Perera are to play a major role in the task of rejuvenating the fishing industry in the area.

Meanwhile the Fisheries Corporation is to sign an agreement to start a second canned fish production plant in Galle with Spirit Wind Ltd (SWL) New Zealand on Monday. The plant would be a joint venture with the New Zealand based company.Mr. Siriwardene said the production was to start in 2007 originally but the signing was delayed due to unavoidable circumstances. The project is scheduled to reach completion within two years and SWL is set to invest over $60 million in the project. It is expected to generate 1500 direct and 4000 indirect employment opportunities according to sources. The forecast to be generated by this venture is said to be $70 million annually.

The land for the project will be given on long lease by the Southern Development Authority.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=60405

End of 30-year war allows Sri Lanka to target health tourism and investment

Aitken Spence Hotels, one of Sri Lanka's top hotel firms, has resumed talks with Six Senses Spas, an international spa chain, on building an up-market resort on the south-west coast. The firm, part of the Aitken Spence group, owns or manages nine hotels in Sri Lanka, five resorts in the Maldive Islands, five hotels in India and five hotels in Oman.

Aitken Spence Hotels managing director Malin Hapugoda says the project is near Ahungalla, in Beruwala, a prime beach resort where it has two properties, Heritance and Neptune, “ Six Senses are keen to re-look at it and now we're having talks to restart the project,"

The project had been mooted several years ago but shelved because of the island's ethnic conflict. But the 30-year war ended in May when government forces defeated the Tamil Tigers and there has been an immediate revival in tourist arrivals, with economic growth also expected to pick up.

Aitken Spence already has a tie-up with Six Senses that operates spas in the firm's Heritance Kandalama hotel in the north-central region and at the Tea Factory, a hill-country hotel. The new project with Six Senses, originally billed as Evason Hideaway, Ahungalla, is for a combination of beach villas and several villas on stilts on a private island in the nearby backwaters of the Madhu Ganga river. Sixth Senses is an international spa manager and developer.

Aitken Spence Hotels, one of the island's top hotel firms, is aiming at exploiting opportunities thrown up by the fast growth of the market of health/wellness, where rates are higher.

Neptune Hotel, a 500-roomed resort on the popular Beruwela beach on the south-west coast that is the oldest in the group's chain, is being turned into a health resort. The hotel has been closed and will be re-opened in November 2010 after a complete refurbishment and conversion.

Malin Hapugoda comments,” Health tourism is one of the fastest growing segments in the tourist trade. We decided to make Neptune Hotel exclusively a yoga, meditation and ayurveda hotel. We are drawing up plans at the moment for its conversion. We already have our ayurveda section in the present property that is operational. We’ve made a good name for authentic ayurveda. We want to expand to yoga and meditation which is a growing market, especially in Europe."

Rates at Neptune, when re-opened, will be "much, much higher" than what it would be able to derive if it remained in its present state, Hapugoda adds. This contrasts with recent price cuts across the country, as hotels struggle to regain visitors lost by the war and the recession.

In Sri Lanka, the health tourism sector is growing in popularity, especially with Western tourists, who look to treatments, such as the ancient Ayurveda methods of herbal medicines and massage, as a way to recover from their fast paced life back home.

To put the potential into perspective, Sri Lanka currently receives only 440,000 tourists a year, and a small proportion are health tourists. President Mahinda Rajapaksa wants more hotels and increased room capacity in order to attract 2.5 million tourists annually by the year 2016, with a focus on China. Most tourism investment is from overseas companies, with the Japanese, having already invested in two hospitals, sending a large investment delegation in November to assess potential.

http://www.imtjonline.com/news/?entryid82=155995

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Designed by Archt. Nileeka Senerath for Chinthaka Wickramage Associates.

sevenby3.blogspot.com/ (http://sevenby3.blogspot.com/)

Big corporate names in Jaffna as interest grows

By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera

JAFFNA - Some big names in the corporate world are gearing to set up businesses in Jaffna and are trying to beat each other to the race, according to officials. “Tuesday morning Hayleys PLC called us trying to set up a branch and last month Brown and Company wanted a small land in Jaffna to put up a showroom,” S. Yogarajasingam, CEO, Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Yarlpanam told the Sunday Times FT in an interview at his office in Jaffna this week.

He said Mackwoods is also eyeing land to build their agriculture base in Jaffna adding that Cargills is also planning to set up its supermarket following competitor, Keells Super’s entry into the now war-free peninsula.

“The Board of Investment has secured a place to set up their branch and by end of November they plan to start operations,” Mr. Yogarajasingham said. He said the real need for retailers of food items such as fish, prawns, lobster, onions, beetroot, banana, grapes, mango, etc in Jaffna is an ice-block making plant.

“This is an urgency, as now there are many food items starting to move. Iceman Technologies, a service provider in the cold chain operations is already gearing to set up a plant here, which will help the retailers to a large extent. Presently we have a small plant manufacturing about 60 metric tonnes per day, but we need more than 6,000 metric tonnes daily,” he noted.

He said that vehicles are also in high demand in the peninsula. A businessman dealing in trading in Jaffna confirmed this saying that last month vehicle retailer, DIMO had sold 30 cars. “They were mostly Tatas and there is a good demand here for other automobiles too,” he said.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090920/FinancialTimes/ft05.html

Aitken Spence gung-ho on hotel expansion

Aitken Spence Holdings PLC is on a mega hotel expansion drive both in Sri Lanka and in other markets, according to company officials. “We are trying to develop our 105-acre beach frontage land in Nilaveli and we are considering various possibilities with this property,” Malin Hapugoda, Managing Director Aitken Spence Hotel Management (Pvt) Ltd told the Sunday Times FT.

He said this property has 2 km of beach land which is ideal for a luxury hotel and they have not ruled out the possibility to develop it with prospective foreign partners. He said that the nearly 11-acre plot near Heritance Ahungalla will also be developed soon, adding that the company is also negotiating to purchase a property in Jaffna town. “We are not hunting for a large property like Nilaveli here, but a substantial property of about six acres,” he said.

S. Yogarajasingham, CEO Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Yarlpanam (Jaffna) told the Sunday Times FT that the biggest issue is that there are no ‘big’ lands for sale in Jaffna. “Last week some Aitken Spence officials were looking for a land to put up a hotel in the city,” he said, adding that they called him to inquire about it. “They wanted about five to six acres in the city to build a hotel or a rest house as there is an unprecedented demand for these in the Jaffna peninsula.”

Mr. Hapugoda said that Aitken Spence is currently in discussion with Six Senses Resorts & Spas (which is a resort and spa management and development company with properties in six countries including Maldives, Thailand, Vietnam, Oman, Jordan, and Spain) to develop the island they own in Ahungalla.

“It is a 27-acre island situated in Madhu River. We have revived talks with Six Senses to build eco-friendly luxurious villas in this island,” he added.

He also said the company is contemplating to brand Tea Factory as Heritance Kandapola (as it is situated at Kandapola). He said that Aitken Spence will invest more in Indian properties. “We own eight hotels here, three (management and part equity) in India and five are managed in Oman,” he said, adding that the company has plans to go to Cochin, Qatar and Dubai by next year. “We are planning to manage the hotels in these places,” he said. He said their fifth hotel in Oman, Desert Nights Camp was opened this month.

He said the company has tied up with an Indian partner to build a luxury floating villa type hotel in Cochin. “The construction is going on at the moment and we will open the hotel in November 2011,” he said.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090920/FinancialTimes/ft06.html

India Inc eyeing Sri Lanka for projects

A host of Indian companies are planning to develop projects across sectors in the island nation of Sri Lanka.

The companies have already identified the land and besides, have also received approval from the Sri Lankan Government for their projects.

“Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is constructing a commercial complex here and the total cost of the project will be USD 50—million,” Sri Lanka Board of Investment’s Director, C. Ignatius, told PTI here.

The company has already acquired the land for the project and it is expected to be completed by next year, Mr. Ignatius said.

The engineering and construction major has already developed projects in Sri Lanka such as a 26-storey residential apartment at Colombo, design and construction of urea storage silo for a fertilizer complex and design, test, manufacture and supply of 33kV, 132kV and 220kV transmission line towers for Sri Lanka’s electricity board.

A Bangalore-based commercial and residential property developer, Girish Puravankara-run Lalith Gangadhar Constructions Limited, is also constructing residential villas outside Colombo, he said.

http://beta.thehindu.com/business/article22662.ece

Land Ho! Indian companies head to Lanka for share of realty pie

28 Sep 2009, 1135 hrs IST, Sachin Dave & Jessica Mehroin Irani, ET Bureau

MUMBAI: For nearly three decades,politicians from Norway to New Delhi were flying to Colombo to facilitate peace in Sri Lanka. Now corporateexecutives from Larsen & Toubro’s AM Naik to Omaxe’s Rohtas Goel may join author-investor Jim Rogers in flying to the once war-torn Indian Ocean island to share a pie of the future prosperity.

L&T , Omaxe, Puravankara Projects are among those lining up to build projects anticipating an economic surge in Sri Lanka expected to happen after a bloody war. They are planning to build shopping complexes, residential homes and much more.

The island nation with hundreds of kilometres of beaches, hill-top plantations and a treasure of history from the ancient pandyas to portugals, is taking baby steps to revive its battered $40 billion economy. Delegates from the Sri Lanka board of investment met up with companies in New Delhi seeking investments . It aims to spend $20 million in promoting the nation once described where “history lies buried in its sands, and ghosts of romance lurk among its bastioned rocks’’ for global tourists.

“With the civil war over, we are seeing huge demand for housing,’’ said Purvankara group MD Ravi Puravankara which is planning to launch a villa project in Colombo. “We have already initiated the land acquisition process.” It is aimed at the Sri Lankan diaspora who may return to enjoy the long desired peace. But it will cost them around $2 lakh each. Thousands were killed and many thousands fled the island nation as its various governments fought a bloody war with the notorious Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, led by Velupillai Prabhakaran, since 1983. The war came to an end when the Lankan army succeeded in killing Prabhakaran last May triggering hopes across the world, including Jim Rogers, author of A Bull in China and a former business partner of billionaire George Soros.

The government led by Mahinda Rajapakse is targeting a foreign direct investment of $2 billion by 2010. According to government statistics, Sri Lanka received $889 million in FDI in 2008 and $400 million so far this year. The Board of Investment declined to comment on how much it expects the Indian real estate developers to invest.

It is not hot air. Larsen & Toubro has already laid the foundation stone for its commercial park in Colombo, it is all set to invest around $150 million for its residential and commercial projects in country with a population of around 20 million, about a fifth of Maharashtra.


FULL STORY: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/news-/Land-Ho-Indian-companies-head-to-Lanka-for-share-of-realty-pie-/articleshow/5064270.cms

It is not hot air. Larsen & Toubro has already laid the foundation stone for its commercial park in Colombo, it is all set to invest around $150 million for its residential and commercial projects in country with a population of around 20 million, about a fifth of Maharashtra.


Any news about this commerical project??

Any news about this commerical project??

No sorry, I couldn't find much online...

-----


Govt to set up two new FTZs in N-E

Two Sri Lankan investors indicate willingness to start cement and fertilizer factories.

Lakshmi DE SILVA

The Government will establish two new Free Trade Zones in the North and East - one will be in the Kilinochchi District and the other in the Trincomalee District, Enterprise Development, Investment Promotion and Mass Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told the Daily News yesterday.

Tax holidays for 15 years and other incentives would be offered to the investors who start industries in the North and East while the local residents would gain employment opportunities from these FTZs. Two Sri Lankan investors have already indicated their willingness to start a cement factory and a fertilizer factory, he said.

Though the FTZs were started as far back as 1978, the total foreign direct investments made up to 2005 was only 2,700 million US Dollars.

It was on an average around US$ 100 million per year but from 2005 to 2008 direct foreign investments had reached the 2,800 million dollar mark which is a great achievement, he said "We are a government that encourages the private sector and the BOI had initiated steps to approve new enterprises and now a total of 500,000 persons are directly employed in the FTZs and a large number of persons have also received indirect employment and we are heading for a brighter economic future," he said.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/10/16/news20.asp

Interesting, but infrastructure has to be greatly improved in the area, if we want to attract investments to the region...

I think North and East should have more investments through BOI.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/10/22/z_pi-uniliver.jpg
BOI Chairman/Director General Dhammika Perera presenting the BOI Certificate of Registration to Unilver Sri Lanka Chairman Amal Cabraal.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval to Unilever Sri Lanka Limited to set up a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at the Horana Export Processing Zone. Mr. Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General signed the agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the BOI Certificate of Registration to Mr. Amal Cabraal, Chairman of Unilever Sri Lanka.

The Rs. 4 billion investment agreement signed with Unilever Sri Lanka Limited is to establish its main manufacturing facility at Horana Export Processing Zone. The new state-of-the-art “green” manufacturing facility, established in a 26 acre area, will cater to the local demand and may also serve as a regional sourcing hub for Unilever.

As of today, Unilever Sri Lanka has 70 years of manufacturing history in this country and produces 95% of all the products it markets in Sri Lanka. This significant investment reflects Unilever’s commitment to its markets in Sri Lanka. The investment will ensure that Unilever will continue to provide Sri Lankan consumers with their favourite brands while adding substantially to the nation’s economy.

“By building the new production facility, we will contribute towards Sri Lanka’s industrial and economic success. We will be able to remain competitive and the new production facility provides scope for expansion of the business” stated Mr. Amal Cabraal.

“The decision to choose the BOI Zone in Horana as the site for the new facility was made in keeping with the Government’s 300 Enterprise Programme designed to spread development across the country” Unilever Sri Lanka has delivered outstanding results on all fronts of the business despite many challenges and has achieved seven consecutive years of double digit growth and maintained its overall market dominance.

Today Unilever Sri Lanka is home to 26 strong brands that are leaders in all the categories that they operate in. With the local consumer being at the heart of the business the company has products ideally suited to the Sri Lankan consumer. The company manufactures fast moving consumer goods such as home care personal care and foods at the local manufacturing facilities, reporting to the regional business groups for innovation and business results. Unilever Sri Lanka provides employment to 1100 people directly and many thousands more indirectly through its dedicated suppliers, distributors and service providers. Mr. Amal Cabraal, Chairman and Mr. Shrihan Perera, National Finance Director signed the agreement on behalf of Unilever Sri Lanka Limited.

BOI (http://www.boi.lk/2009/topstory.asp?NewsID=3823&CatID=44)

Sri Lankan leader welcomes investment by Thai investors


BANGKOK, Oct 23 (TNA) – Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka said he is pleased to see Thai investors invest in his country and is ready to facilitate bilateral trade and investment cooperation, according to Thai Trade Representative Kiati Sitthi-amorn.

The Sri Lankan leader paid a courtesy call Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva during a stopover in Thailand on Thursday.

Mr Kiati said the Sri Lankan premier welcomes investment by foreign investors, including Thais, in his country and said he would instruct state agencies concerned to help facilitate and oversee investment cooperation.

The Sri Lankan leader affirmed his country is stable and safe for investment following the government’s successful efforts to suppress an insurgency.

The Thai premier told the Sri Lankan leader that private-sector organisations are keen to invest more in Sri Lanka, particularly in the development of basic infrastructure.

The Board of Investment (BoI) and other agencies concerned with foreign trade planned to lead a Thai delegation to Sri Lanka to explore trade and investment opportunities there, he said. (TNA)

http://www.island.lk/2009/10/27/bus-1.jpg
Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General of the BOI formally presents the BOI Certificate of Registration to K. J Westman, Director of Flinth Industrial Park.
The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval for Aero Sense Limited to manufacture aircraft components for international aircraft and helicopter manufacturers. Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General signed the agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the BOI Certificate of Registration to K. J Westman, Director of Flinth Industrial Park.

The company representing a US $ 1 million investment will manufacture 14 aircraft components for international aircraft and helicopter manufacturers. They will be establishing a state-of-the-art production facility at the Flinth Industrial Park at Kadawatha. Westman stated the main reason for Aero Sense Technologies to establish the production plant in Sri Lanka was because of the services offered by the Flinth Industrial Park.

The parent company to Aero Sense (Pvt) Limited, here in Sri Lanka is Aero Sense Technologies LLC, US. The US based Aero Sense Technologies is owned by Aero Sense Inc., US, Swedcord Development AB, Sweden and Sveritec Limited, UK.

Aero Sense Technologies capability and product technologies for the Aerospace Industry includes production of Position transducers for aircraft flight controls, Single and multi-channel linear and rotary position transducers, Inductive proximity transducers and sensors, Pressure transducers and switches for hydraulic controls, Transducers for servo systems, Force sensors for pilot control inputs, surface control and control rod load detection, Pressure transducers for fuel systems and steering and braking systems. Aero Sense provides complete transducer engineering design and development & support services. The company is dedicated in providing robust, cost effective, reliable and innovative engineering solutions for the aviation industry. Aero Sense adherence to disciplined engineering and proven processes ensures creation of the best value and services for customers.


Island (http://www.island.lk/2009/10/27/business.html)

Interesting projects, but where are the huge, mega-projects?

German investors in Sri Lanka seeking investments (http://www.colombopage.com/archive_091/Nov1257178041CH.html)

A group of investors from Germany have arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday seeking investment opportunities in the country.

A ceremony was held yesterday in Negombo with the participation of Minister of Labour Relations and Foreign Employment Athauda Senaviratne to welcome the delegation.

The Germans arrived in the country on an invitation from the Western Provincial Ministry of Tourism to study the possibilities of starting investments in Sri Lanka.

Minister Senaviratne said more foreign investors are coming to the country seeking investment opportunities following the defeat of terrorism.

Aitken Spence Hotels would invest on a 500-room property in Nilaweli, Trincomalee early next year.

Managing Director, Aitken Spence Hotels, Malin Hapugoda said on Wednesday that this would be a mixed development hotel project where they would offer luxury Villas, standard rooms and apartments. We already have a 100-acre property and I think this is the time to invest in it , he said.

Having completed over three decades in the hotels industry, Aitken Spence has a chain of luxury hotels and resorts in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India and Oman. We are planning to build apartments sell and manage them, he said. Construction work on the hotel project would get under way next year and is scheduled to be completed by 2012. He also outlined plans to construct a business hotel in Jaffna next year. He said that they would also invest 25 million US dollars jointly with Six Senses Resorts and Spas to build a new hotel in Ahungalle.

This project was on hold for five years due to the war situation in the country. Now the investor is pressuring us to go ahead with this project, he said. Six Senses Resorts and Spas management and development company with properties in six countries including the Maldives, Thailand, Vietnam, Oman, Jordan and Spain is a leading hotel operator in the world and their presence in Sri Lanka would give additional value to the destination.

Ten acres of land for the project is already available next to the five star Heritance Ahungalle and we are looking at constructing 57 individual ultra luxury units, he said. The group would also operate two individual Spas in these two new hotels.

Aitken Spence would also invest on a 15-20 Backwater Villas hotel project in Madu Ganga next year. When these two properties are ready the total room strength in Ahungalle area would be over 220.

LNP (http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2009/11/50061.html)

Nice to finally see some investment in the hospitality sector, I hope some large, international chains also join the mix...

Sri Lanka firm offers for footwear maker (http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=2005921119)

Environmental Resources Investment (ERIL), a Sri Lankan investment holding company, said it is making an offer to buy out all other shareholders of Ceylon Leather Products, the island's biggest footwear manufacturer.
ERIL said in a stock exchange filing it was making the mandatory offer under trading rules after raising its stake by buying a 29 percent stake in Ceylon Leather on Friday.

Ceylon Leather Products said in a separate stock exchanging filing that Galleon International Master Fund, its biggest shareholder, sold its 29 percent stake or 3,625,000 shares at 55 rupees to Environmental Resources Investment.

Environmental Resources Investment said that as a result of Friday's acquisition, ERIL and its parent firm, Lionhart Investments, hold 52.79 percent of Ceylon Leather. Lionhart had bought an almost 24 percent stake in the firm in 2007.

Under stock exchange rules, with the latest acquisition, ERIL has to make a mandatory offer for the remaining 5.9 million shares of Ceylon Leather (47.20 percent stake) at 55 rupees, highest price paid by the buyers in the previous 12 months.

Galleon is owned by billionaire Sri Lankan-born hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam who was arrested and freed on bail on insider dealing charges in the US.

Rajaratnam, who had denied the insider dealing charges, is selling his holdings in the island to raise cash to repay investors who have been withdrawing money from his fund after his arrest.

SC Securities said in its weekly market report Rajaratnam is believed to be the selling party in all three negotiated deals or crossings on the stock exchange this week, involving Chemical Industries (Colombo), National Development Bank and Ceylon Leather Products.

Mphasis to set up delivery centre in Sri Lanka
Source: IRIS (09-DEC-09)


Mphasis today announced that it would set up a global delivery centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The company said that it would recruit 500 people in the captive centre in Sri Lanka.

Alongside the company also said that going ahead it would hire 1300-2000 employees.

Mphasis primarily offers cost-effective and quality software solutions to overseas clients

Shares of the company gained Rs 8.3, or 1.19%, to trade at Rs 708. The total volume of shares traded was 132,506 at the BSE (12.50 p.m., Wednesday).

http://www.myiris.com/newsCentre/storyShow.php?fileR=20091209125436707&dir=2009/12/09&secID=livenews



MphasiS to open captive centre in Sri Lanka with 500 people
Published on Wed, Dec 09, 2009 at 14:24 | Updated at Wed, Dec 09, 2009 at 15:03 | Source : CNBC-TV18


In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Ganesh Ayyar, Chief Executive Officer of MphasiS, spoke about the latest happenings in the company and his outlook for the sector.

Here is a verbatim transcript.

Q: Can you take us through the announcement you have made to the exchange, you all are opening a captive centre, a global centre in Sri Lanka, what is the cost, why Sri Lanka, what will be your margins there?

A: The focus was to go after an emerging centre rather than emerged centre. Being a small company, we look at advantages that we can bring to our customers. So we had extensive discussions with Sri Lanka and we found that there is a good talent pool available and working with the board of investment of Sri Lanka we have made a choice to go and set up a centre in Colombo and that is the announcement which we will be making in a couple of hours in Sri Lanka and we are sharing it in India right now.

Q: What is the cost and how many people—a few more numbers?

A: Stage one we are looking at about 500 people, we will start our operation by mid 2010 and within three years our plan is to go upto 2,000 people. So that is our current plan.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/mphasis-to-open-captive-centresri-lanka500-people_429842.html

Fortis in talks to buy Lanka hospital chain
Vandana & P B Jayakumar / Mumbai December 10, 2009, 0:06 IST

Move comes within months of acquiring Wockhardt hospitals.


Fortis Healthcare, a hospital chain promoted by former Ranbaxy owners Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, is close to a major acquisition overseas. The move comes within months of the company acquiring 10 hospitals belonging to Habil Khorakiwala-promoted Wockhardt Hospitals.

Fortis Healthcare was in advanced discussions to acquire three hospitals belonging to the Asiri Group of Hospitals, Sri Lanka’s largest private health care provider, according to investment bankers having knowledge of the deal.

The Asiri Group has four hospitals — Asiri Hospital, Asiri Surgical Hospital Plc and Asiri Central (all based in Colombo) and Asiri Hospital in Matara. Asiri Surgical Hospital Plc (ASHP) in Colombo is the flagship and is listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Shivinder Mohan SinghThe group is also setting up a fifth hospital in Colombo, its largest facility with over 260 beds with an investment LKR 400 crore (over Rs 160 crore). Asiri Hospital has 29 per cent shareholding in ASHP and over 40 per cent shareholding is with the public.

If the deal goes through, Fortis would get a minimum of 250 beds in Sri Lanka, a country with less than 4,000 beds and a limited number of organised health care players, said sources.

Early this year, Fortis had made its maiden overseas foray by acquiring Clinique Darne, the largest hospital in Mauritius, by teaming up with CIEL, a Mauritius-based industrial group. In August, Fortis had bought 10 hospitals belonging to Wockhardt for Rs 909 crore.

The Singh brothers are sitting on a cash pile of over Rs 10,000 crore from sale of their family stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories to Daiichi Sankyo of Japan.

“These are market speculations and I will not comment on such rumours,” said Shivinder Mohan Singh, vice-chairman and managing director of Fortis, when contacted. An e-mail sent to Asiri remained unanswered.

“We deny that we are in talks with the said group,” a Fortis spokesperson said.

Sources said Fortis was trying to acquire hospitals in England earlier, but high valuations were the main deterrent in closing deals. Fortis was actively looking at acquisition targets in Africa and the South East, Shivinder had said earlier.

Chairman and Managing Director Ashok Pathirage-led Asiri Group was planning to sell off its 100-bed Asiri Central, the erstwhile Asha Central, which was acquired two years ago. The sale is to part-fund the new 13-storied Asiri Central hospital, which would be the largest modern hospital in Sri Lanka. The group had also stalled its plan to set up a new hospital in Kandy to concentrate on funding the new hospital, sources said.

“At this point of time, it is not certain whether discussions include the new hospital. The deal could range between Rs 200-250 crore,” said an investment banker.

ASHP had revenues of LKR 115 crore (Rs 47 crore) with a net profit of LKR 17 crore (Rs 7 crore) for the year ended March 2009, according to its annual report.

Pathirage, is the chairman of the Softlogic Group, which is a leading diversified corporate entity in Sri Lanka and is also the chairman of Uniwalkers and its subsidiaries.

Apollo Hospital, the largest hospital chain in India, was the first to enter Sri Lanka, following an invitation from the government there to set up a modern hospital in that country. However, Apollo Hospitals had to exit the joint venture in 2006, after failing to stave off a hostile takeover bid by a local business tycoon Harry Jayawardena. The Apollo Hospital in Colombo was later re-named Lanka Hospitals.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/fortis-in-talks-to-buy-lanka-hospital-chain/379111/

Hotel Nallur to open February
The Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka PLC (MBSL) has decided to invest in the leisure sector in Jaffna, with the tourism boom there. MBSL is a premier investor in Sri Lanka. They have decided to improve infrastructure facilities in Jaffna with an investment of Rs 400 million on Hotel Nallur in Jaffna.

The venture into the hotel sector by MBSL will set standards in the tourism industry and provide adequate facilities, MBSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayaka told Daily News Business.

The hotel will be constructed on a considerable plot of land expected to be completed as early as possible to address the needs of influx of tourists to the Jaffna peninsula. “The intended investors on tourism infrastructure will take sometime to establish on their investments. MBSL expects to finish the construction of Hotel Nallur by February 2011,” Ratnayake said.

The Hotel Nallur will be a BOI approved three star city hotel with 80 luxury, deluxe rooms and suites.

It is expected to go for an Initial Public Offering in the near future. The intention of the IPO will be to invite public for the investment that MBSL has made. Hotel Nallur will create 150 job opportunities from the construction till the completion and it will be equipped with a swimming pool and vegetarian and non-vegetarian restaurants.http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/03/30/bus02.asp

^^ leaisure industry is fine, but I think what Jaffna needs at the earliest is an technology park ( it/electronics/manufacturing ) that will provide direct employment to thousands. Tourism industry as such wont directly affect so many local's life as a technology park might.

^^
I agree.

Good employment and a reasonable standard of living for the youth is the only thing that makes them say "thanks, but no thanks" to a potential future wave of terrorism.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) is targeting foreign investment of US$5 billion in the next six years after securing US$602 million last year and US$ 250 million for the first three months this year.

Disclosing the board’s ambitious investment promotion (FDI) plan, BOI Chairman Dhammika Perera told a media conference in Colombo on Tuesday that they plan to generate 80,000 new direct employment opportunities, develop 50,000 new hotel rooms, set up 50 IT/BPO companies, add 5,000 hospital beds and establish 25 higher education institutes for 30,000 students during this period.
He said that the BOI received US$5,600 million as FDIs since 1978 and 50% of this amount had been received during the 2006-2009 period.

Mr Perera announced that nine new companies will start projects at the Horana Export Processing Zone. The total value of their investment once completed will be US$ 57.15 million and 1,221 workers employed at the zone.

He revealed that Unilever Sri Lanka will set up a massive factory at the zone that will be producing food items, soap and toothpaste and investing US$ 40 million and providing employment for100 workers. Another 300 room Hilton hotel will come up in Tangalle, he said.

The Horana zone in the Kalutara District commenced operations in November 1999 on 385 acres. The current total investment there is US$54 million and its 11 enterprises provides employment to 1,623 workers.

ST (http://sundaytimes.lk/100411/BusinessTimes/bt13.htm)

Investment Deals

Sri Lanka to get investments in hydro power, hotels
Apr 22, 2010 (LBO) - Two mini-hydro power plants and new hotels and hotel refurbishment are among several investments approved by Sri Lanka's investment promotion agency, a statement said.
The Board of Investment (BOI) said it has approved and signed agreements for eight new investments worth 20 million US dollars that will create 500 job opportunities.

BOI approval is required for investors to get tax breaks and other concessions like duty free raw material and machinery imports.

The BOI statement said it signed a deal with Nilwala Vidulibala Company for a venture to establish a mini-hydro power plant at Morawaka, south east of the capital Colombo, with an investment of over 3.28 million dollars.

It also approved an investment of over 5.5 million dollars for another mini hydro-power plant, of 4,000 kilowatts capacity, at Kirkoswald Estate, Norwood in the central hills.

The listed Aitken Spence Hotels, which operates a chain of hotels in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and India, signed an agreement with the BOI for an investment project to refurbish and upgrade Neptune Hotel at Beruwala, a beach resort on the south-west coast.

The investment will be over four million dollars.

BOI approval was also given to the listed Stafford Hotel for a 4.4 million-dollar investment to refurbish and upgrade Club Dolphin at Waikkal, on the north-west coast.

The BOI also said it approved an investment of 500,000 dollars to set up a 25-room hotel in north-central Vavuniya by Thampa Tourist Hotel and Inn.

Other investments were in agribusinesses for the local and export markets.

Jugas Agro Dairies signed an investment agreement to invest over 1.5 million dollars to set up a project to process milk for the local market in Chenkalady, in eastern Batticaloa.

B F P Enterprises got BOI approval to establish a project to process banana fibre into value-added products for export with an investment of over 500,000 dollars in southern Hambantota.

Another project by Hambantota Trading Company was approved for an investment of 500,000 dollars to set up an export trading house in the southern Koggala Export Processing Zone.

LBO (http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=1600723010) :cheers:

Sri Lanka’s Jaffna Lures Investments After Defeat of Rebels

By Anusha Ondaatjie

April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, a former stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels in the country’s north, is attracting investments by Indian companies in construction and agriculture after the defeat of the separatists, an industry official said.

As many as 10 Indian companies have this month expressed interest to set up factories for food processing, plastics and glass recycling, garments and ready-mix concrete, Kanagasabai Poornachandran, president of the Jaffna Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in a telephone interview today from his office in Jaffna city.

The end of the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka has encouraged Indian Oil Corp. and Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s biggest state-run refiner and largest mobile-phone operator respectively, to expand in the island nation. Sri Lanka could benefit from its proximity to India just as Hong Kong profits from being a trade hub to China, HSBC Private Bank said after the war ended in May last year.

“We have great expectations for investments now that we are a peaceful land,” Poornachandran said. He did not reveal the names of Indian companies investing in Jaffna or the size of their investments.

Indian Investments

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who ended the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s struggle for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in May last year, is counting on Indian companies to take the lead in investing in Sri Lanka as he tries to improve people’s livelihood.

Sri Lanka lies 31 kilometers (19 miles) south east of India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy after China.

The LTTE held the Elephant Pass, a causeway connecting Jaffna peninsula to the Sri Lankan mainland, since 2000. The group also controlled the A-9 highway, linking Jaffna to the south, forcing the government to supply weapons and food to soldiers and civilians in the Jaffna city by air and sea.

The army captured the pass and road in early 2009 as it pushed the Tamil Tigers toward the northeastern coast before finally eliminating them.

Sri Lanka’s $41 billion economy may grow 6.5 percent in 2010, the fastest pace in three years, led by construction, higher farm output and tourism, the central bank estimates.

Poornachandran said government programs to rebuild transport networks and provide concessionary loans to promote exports has spurred cultivation and fishing around Jaffna and encouraged investments.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aVqDqa1X6hN8

Toyota Japan is reported to have won the bid for Sri Lanka’s first strategic semiconductor-related industry project to exploit a super-quality vein quartz deposit in Mahagama, Moneragala.
It is believed that Toyota Japan had placed a proposal for a total investment of Rs.18.4bn (US$ 160) in securing this bid. A fully-fledged semiconductor fabrication plant would accelerate Sri Lanka’s growth prospects into a global hub.
Meanwhile, Toyota’s Indian subsidiary – Toyota Bharat was also known to have placed a proposal, a Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources source told The Bottom Line.
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources had called for project proposals on December 9, 2009, from reputed manufacturers, as well as those having experience in mining and processing of Vein Quartz (Silica) to set up manufacturing plant(s) for value added high-tech products such as fused silica, poly-silicon for semiconductors, solar cells and micro chips. The deadline ended last January 25.
Speaking to The Bottom Line, outgoing Secretary to the Environment Ministry, M.A.R.D. Jayathilake said that the evaluation was still in progress and could not confirm that a conclusion was reached.
“Earlier, Mahaweli Authority posed a problem saying that the land belonged to it. But we managed to resolve by having one of its members on board the panel,” Jayathilake said.
Asked as to why there was no ‘opening’ of proposals in the presence of the bidders, he said that as this was not a formal call for tenders or Expressions of Interest (EoI), the process was not governed by government’s tender procedures and guidelines. He added that he could not comment on the number of proposals received, off hand.
“They were just proposals and so there are no financial commitments indicated or any deadlines involved as such. However, there’s no secrecy and we are fully transparent.”
Jayathileke added that although there had been a previous cabinet memorandum to develop the quartz deposit, only one party had responded then, and as such there was no clear cabinet decision reached.
“A cabinet paper was submitted over six years ago. However, the then Minister Champika Ranawaka wanted to go for fresh proposals as the requirements have changed,” he said.
The Bottom Line learns, however, that the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau had previously called for proposals by advertisement dated November 20, 2008.
When inquired on the potential Sri Lanka would have in the semiconductor industry, an industry expert said on grounds of anonymity that, if the country was to become a commercial and knowledge hub, the government should opt for a high-yielding project plan.
“Under the normal extraction and disintegration process only a powder can be obtained between the range of 15 and 18% of the raw vein quartz input whereas for higher returns we should target the manufacture of micro-powder which has a return of over 25% of the raw material,” he said.
It is learnt that Toyota Japan’s proposal anticipates achieving value addition levels of up to 1,700% and purity levels of 99.99999% essential for the manufacture of high-quality semi conductors.
Although a certain interested party had requested Toyota Japan to consider two other silica mines, one in the Matale District and another in the Ratnapura District, Toyota has reportedly turned down the alternate sites due to their small magnitude of half an acre, and had ruled out that the two sites were feasible. It is learnt that the party in question had also submitted a proposal with a mere Rs.200 :lol::lol::lol::lol:as the total investment.
The Mahagama Vein Quartz deposit is located east of Embilipitiya and in close proximity to the Burusita Weva in the Udawalawe area within the Moneragala District and is about 270km from Colombo, about 75km from Hambantota and about 153km from the Port of Galle.
At present, only one company based in Kandy claims to be ‘the sole legitimate quartz processing industry in Sri Lanka’ with ‘the industrial infrastructure to practice a systematic and professionally managed operation.’ The company purports to export nearly 6,000 tonnes of processed quartz to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other markets. Sri Lanka is recognised as a rich source of quartz and the company estimates the country to contain over 20 million tonnes of quartz deposits.
Despite the global financial crisis, the semiconductor industry grew from US$ 249 bn in 2008 to US$ 260 bn by 2009 and is dominated by USA, South Korea, Japan and the European Union. (SF)

TBL (http://www.thebottomline.lk/2010/04/28/news43.html)

:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

SRI LANKA WOOS MALAYSIAN INVESTORS WITH INCENTIVES
KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 (NNN-BERNAMA) -- Potential Malaysian investors have been told that they are allowed 100 per cent ownership of projects when investing in Sri Lanka besides being allowed to repatriate home all of their after-tax profits under incentives provided to attract investments to the country.

In outlining some of the incentives, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner (Ambassador) to Malaysia, D.D. Ranasinghe, said here Tuesday that potential areas for investment included infrastructure development such as roads, airports, harbours and power supply as well as insurance, telecommunications, sea and air connectivity.

Sri Lanka was fast-tracking these areas to woo increased investments and accelerate the country's socio-economic development, he told a press conference.

He said Malaysia had emerged as the top investor in Sri Lanka with investments in diverse sectors, especially in the small-and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

In order to further enhance Malaysian investments, he said the Sri Lankan High Commission here, together with the Global Organization for People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), would host an investment conference in Colombo to showcase the business opportunities available in Sri Lanka for Malaysia's private sector.http://namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=122241

MASPRO a top Japanese brand into TV receiving Equipment/TV antennas, satellite receiver/communication devices has entered the local market investing USD 10 million with the objective of offering its branded quality products with Japanese technology to make TV reception clear to Sri Lankan viewers.

The company plans to make Sri Lanka the launching pad to export the products to South Asian countries, Middle East and Africa whilst having the production base in Sri Lanka.
Resurgence of peace after few decades, confidence in the government of Sri Lanka, Free Trade Agreement with Indian and the reliability and trust on the local partner in Sri Lanka, Nippon Maruchi Lanka Ltd., has reasoned Sri Lanka to be selected as the first county in the MASPRO Global Expansion programme. MASPRO is a leading Japanese company with more than half a century of experience in the trade.
MASPRO is making customers satisfied through their advanced technology in many countries where TV reception is not clear all the time. It has the capability of TV system design development and installation.
MASPRO Denkoh Corporation, Japan President Yoshimasu Hashiyama said that the company’s intention was not to bring finished goods from Japan but to design and develop in Sri Lanka, from the parts processing to the final assembly, and complete the product in Sri Lanka generating employment opportunities for Sri Lankan people.
Sri Lankan joint venture partner Nippon Maruchi Lanka, is a wholly locally owned Sri Lankan company formed in 1988. The Company’s name signifies ‘Japanese Technology to the World through Sri Lanka’. The company had adopted a strategy of trading first with Japan by manufacturing electronic components for leading Japanese brands. There is much in evidence that the company got it right, since it became one of the Sri Lankan finest electronic component manufacturing companies using higher technology. The factory is situated at the Homagama Industrial Park.
The newly established joint venture MASPRO Lanka will be a total solutions provider in television reception and broadcasting. The Japanese collaboration will develop local human resource capabilities spanning from research and development to production, which will contribute to improve the level of technology in Sri Lanka. The initial product ranges include VHF and UHF antennas and boosters and will also service the customers by installing them.
MASPRO Lanka Managing Director Shelton Fernando said: “The company will use its past production experience and capacity, Japanese technology and local knowledge to give a value added product to the local market at an affordable price. The sales and technical teams have already covered the Western Province, North Western Province and Southern Province. The company expect to own a 50 percent market share soon also by covering the North and East”.
The MASPRO Lanka Ltd is headed by the Managing Director Shelton Fernando assisted by local Director Sarath Kalubowila, in addition to the Japanese directorate.


FT (http://www.ft.lk/2010/11/14/top-japanese-firm-invests-10-m-to-set-up-electronics-venture/)

Plans to invest Rs. 10 b in the next 5 to 8 years to expand operations in Sri Lanka which currently provides highest sales revenue per capita in Asia

Nestlé Lanka PLC, the Swiss-based multinational company which has been operating in Sri Lanka for well over 100 years, announced that it would be investing Rs. 10 billion to improve operations here within the period of five to eight years.
http://www.ft.lk/wp-content/uploads/file/hamper-DSC_0252.jpg
Managing Director Alois Holfbauer –


“There is renewed focus on Sri Lanka due to the new-found stability in the country. As a result, Sri Lanka has become a land of opportunities and therefore Nestlé has renewed its focus on Sri Lanka. We will be expanding our presence in the country with new investments worth Rs. 10 billion in the next five to eight years,” Nestle Lanka Plc Managing Director Alois Holfbauer told the Daily FT.

He said that Nestlé has been in the country for the past 105 years and in terms of its revenue in sales, Sri Lanka stood tall in the region with highest sales revenue per capita.
“In the Asian region, our highest sales turnover is generated from Malaysia, followed by The Philippines. But despite the size of the market, our highest sales turnover per capita for a country per se in the Asian region is generated from Sri Lanka. This is mainly due to fact that we offer different varieties of products in the country and 90% of the products we sell in Sri Lanka are made within the country using local ingredients,” he noted.
Holfbauer asserted that Nestlé has a strong presence in the country and ensured over 1,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities.
In terms of the management team, 99% of the company’s staff consists of locals, who have received a great deal of overseas experience by working in other countries.
With the new opportunities emerging in Sri Lanka, the company is now focusing on expanding its activities here, especially aiming at the northern and eastern areas of the island.
It has already commissioned its own fresh milk chilling centres in Kilinochchi, Oddusudan and will soon open one in Jaffna as well.
“We have heavily invested in setting up local fresh milk collection centres in the north and eastern areas. This is mainly due to the fact that our products are made based on fresh milk and if we cannot have the correct supplies for our production process, then we have to import milk. On the other hand, our thinking goes in line with the Government’s initiative of making the country self-sufficient in fresh milk and we want to support that cause,” Holfbauer pointed out.
Commenting on the development of diary faming, especially in the north and east areas, the Managing Director said that the first step in setting up proper dairy farming in the north and east was to provide farmers with proper training.
“This is the most important way of developing the dairy farming industry in these areas. Because of the long term conflict that raged in these areas, the farmers did not have any opportunity to work with cows. They are used to getting milk with zero input – cows were allowed to go around feeding and in the evening farmers used to milk them. With that method, you would end of getting only one or two litres of milk from a cow, which is not the way forward in dairy farming. Furthermore, there should be quality feed for cows,” he explained.
According to Nestlé, the C03 grass type which can be easily grown in Sri Lanka is best suited for cows. “The third point is that the quality of Sri Lankan milk cows is not the best. What you need to do is alleviate the quality of the cows by means of artificial insemination. The Government is aware of this process and there should be a joint effort in finding solution for these areas,” Holfbauer noted.
Milk is the highest sourced of Nestlé products. “We also produce coconut milk powder, which is less used is Sri Lanka but heavily used by 40 other countries in the world and we are the biggest buyer of coconuts for industrial use,” Holfbauer revealed.

FT (http://www.ft.lk/2010/11/26/nestle-to-nourish-new-focus-to-enrich-sri-lanka/)

June 07, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka has received 236 million US dollars in foreign direct investments in the first quarter of 2011, up 160 percent from a year earlier, led by tourism, the state investment promotion agency said.

The Board of Investment said Sri Lanka was on track to get one billion dollars this year.
"The strong performance was helped by investments in the dynamic tourism sector which accounted for 132 million US dollars," chairman and director general of the BOI, Jayampathi Bandaranayake said in a statement.

He said the agency expected a billion dollars in FDI in 2011. The agency said fresh deals valued at 882 million US dollars were signed up in the first quarter up from 302 million US dollars a year earlier.

Though the number of deals fell to 29 from 42, the average value increased to 30 million US dollars from 18 million dollars a year earlier.

In 2010 Sri Lanka received gross FDI of 516 million US dollars including shareholder loans, down from 601 million US dollars a year earlier, according to Central Bank data.

The BOI said it wanted to increase FDI to 2.5 billion US dollars by 2015 which will be around 4.0 percent of gross domestic product from the current level of about 2.0 percent.

Hong Kong based Shangri-La group which bought land in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo and Hambantota in the South were the top contributor in the first quarter.
Utilities brought the next highest investments of 62 million dollars led by telecoms. Seven million dollars flowed in to the apparel sector.

Investments smaller than 3 million dollars would no longer get tax breaks but can get BOI support, the agency said.

In the quarter exports by BOI companies increased to 1.64 billion US dollars from 1.3 billion dollars a year earlier, with apparel sector revenues up 27 percent to 994 million dollars from 781 million dollars a year earlier.

Indian firm upbeat of winning Lankan infrastructure projectsThursday, 18 August 2011 - 6:30 PM SL Time
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MUMBAI (Reuters): Unity Infraprojects Ltd. has emerged as the lowest bidder for projects worth 15.50 billion rupees and expects awarding of most these contracts within a month, while the civil engineering firm is conducting viability studies on projects in Sri Lanka, a top official said on Tuesday.

Out of the 1,550 crore rupees (15.50 billion rupees), other than a 590 crore rupees (5.9 billion rupees contract), everything should materialise in a month s time, its Chief Financial Officer Madhav Nadkarni told Reuters over the telephone.
These projects include a 4.27-billion-rupee government contract and 3-4 projects worth 5.33 billion rupees from water, transportation and building segments, he added.
About 80 percent (of the total bids) is from the building segment and the remaining will be from water and roads, Nadkarni said, but declined to give details of the projects.
The awarding of the 5.9 billion rupees contract, another government project, would happen by September-end or first week of October, he said.
These would add to Unity s present order book of 34.78 billion rupees, while the firm is targeting an order book of 45 billion rupees in FY12, he said.
Earlier in June, he said the firm was expecting fresh orders worth 40 billion rupees this year.
Nearly in the first six months, we should be able to achieve 40 percent of what we targeted (for FY12), Nadkarni said.
The company, which has a gross debt of about 8.70 billion rupees, expects to keep it at current levels or marginally higher by the end of the year, he said.
Unity Infraprojects has posted a flat net profit for April-June quarter.
In Sri Lanka and Gulf, as well as South Africa, we are looking at opportunities, we are looking at certain projects which had been short-listed and viability study and other things are in process, Nadkarni said.
There are a lot of opportunities in Sri Lankan infrastructure space, and the company should be in a position to announce a concrete deal by next quarter or so , he said.
In an interview with Reuters in June, Nadkarni had stated that the firm was scouting for contracts in the Middle East, South Africa and Libya.
Indian infrastructure builders including Larsen & Toubro and Lanco Infratech have been winning projects overseas as they diversify from a domestic market beset by fierce competition and regulatory uncertainty.
Unity Infraprojects has also bid for two National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) projects and is awaiting the results


http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2011/8/69891.html

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Australian gambling tycoon James Packer may be lining up a bet on Sri Lanka, scouting the Indian Ocean island for potential investments as he seeks to build a global casino empire.

Packer, who owns half of casino operator Crown Ltd, met with Sri Lankan ministers this week to discuss hotel and entertainment investment options, according to officials who met with him.

"They have not finalised the area and the amount they are going to invest. The government has asked them to come up with a proposal," Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene, Sri Lanka's Minister of Investment Promotion, told Reuters on Wednesday. "The government proposed (for) them to invest in a large city hotel in Colombo and go to (the eastern city of) Trincomalee to look into possible investment opportunities."

Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera said Packer had expressed an interest in "integrated tourism", which typically includes hotels, casinos and other entertainment.

A Crown spokesman said the company would not comment about potential investments in Sri Lanka.

Analysts said Packer's interest in Sri Lanka was unexpected.

"I would have thought their focus would be more with Southeast Asia rather than somewhere like Sri Lanka," said one Australian-based gaming analyst, who declined to be identified.

However, Sri Lanka offered some potential for an early mover.

"It's probably not a bad move in some ways," said Akshay Chopra, a portfolio manager at Karara Capital, who visited the country in December. "The Sri Lankan government is making a lot of changes, you've got China investing a lot of money in Sri Lanka, building a lot of infrastructure and you're close to India and a big gaming market there."

Packer is ranked Australia's third-richest person with a fortune of $6 billion, according to Forbes. Last year, he cashed out of his family's publishing and broadcasting assets for about $1 billion to concentrate on his gambling business, which span casinos in Australia, Macau, Britain and the United States.

Packer's Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd plans to build a $1 billion casino in the Philippines in partnership with Philippines' wealthiest man, Henry Sy.

Sri Lanka expects its economy to grow at 7 percent or more this year, fuelled by major infrastructure projects, and is targeting about $1.5 billion in foreign direct investment after missing its $2 billion target in 2012.

The country has allowed casino gambling off and on since at least the 1980s and currently has about nine properties including the Bellagio Colombo, operated by India's Delta Corp and unrelated to the Bellagio Las Vegas operated by MGM Resorts.

Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/packer-srilanka-casino-idUSL4N0BR3WJ20130227)