News/Advertorial

Gradual decline in unsold tea

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

The unsold quantum of tea at the tea auctions is gradually declining and the crisis situation in the tea industry will be settled in the future Director General Sri Lanka Tea Board H. D. Hemaratna told the Daily News Business.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called for two different meetings with Government authorities and stake holders of the industry to discuss the issues.

The outcome of the meetings were not revealed until the time of going to press.

Hemaratna said the unsold quantum of tea stood at five per cent at the last auction and the prices have picked up compared to the prices of previous two auctions.

"It dropped to Rs.213 at the first auction of the third quarter and went up to Rs. 220 by the last auction and a definite improvement could be expected in three weeks Hemaratna hoped.

"The total tea production has dropped by 10 per cent in November this year compared to November 2007, but the overall production from January to November this year has increased by eight per cent which was 299,007,789 kgs," Hemarathna said.

The reported production amounted to 24,644,552 kgs as against 27,272,920 kg in November 2007 which was a decrease of 2,628,368 kg or 9.6 per cent.

This includes 78,942,094 kg High grown tea, 46,349,394 kgs Medium grown and 173,716,301 kgs of Low grown tea.

Emirates daily to Abidjan

The sweet taste of Emirates' success has taken on a new meaning after the airline introduced daily flights to Cote D'Ivoire, a leading producer of cocoa and a key ingredient behind one of the world's favourite treats, chocolate.

Just two years after Emirates whetted the appetite of travellers to Abidjan with a five times a week service, demand has called for operations to go daily, and now they have.

As before, flights to and from Abidjan, served by a 3-class Airbus A340-300, are making a quick stop in Accra, Ghana. Abidjan is one of the 15 destinations to which Emirates flies in Africa with most passengers flying in from Paris, Beirut, Accra, New York and Dubai.

The extra flights will be of particular benefit to passengers with connections to GCC countries, the wider Middle East and the Far East. Salem Obaidalla, of Emirates' said: "This represents a further push by Emirates into West Africa and brings new support to business, international trade and passenger travel, while strengthening the country's overall transport infrastructure.

India to train life skills through English

The training of English teachers in India will help towards resolving the problem of a lack of real local skills in this field. While on paper there are as many as 20,000 English language teachers, it has been established that many are not really skilled in the language.

Sri Lanka will therefore look at India to address this problem. In order to develop rapidly the necessary English skills, a new method of teaching has been devised. This method consists of first teaching young people to speak the language and once this is achieved, students are taught to read English texts and eventually to write in the English language.

Dr Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion addressed a workshop that was held at the National Institute of Education, Maharagama, to take forward the programme implemented by the Government to develop English as a Life Skill. The workshop is a three-day programme held from 15th-17th of December at the Institute.

Minister Amunugama discussed with the newly trained teacher trainers how their skills could best be utilized.

It was important that this group help develop more qualified teachers by imparting the knowledge they have acquired in India.

The Deputy Head of Mission of the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka Mr. Santhusht Jha said that he was confident that this initiative will bear fruit and that one trained person should lead to a thousand trained teachers.

The workshop is part of a process by which 2009 will be declared as the Year for English and IT. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's vision is to create a widespread capacity within the country in English and in IT skills to ensure that advanced economic sectors and FDI in advanced areas can be effectively developed and promoted.

Ceylinco Life presents '65-plus' free medical covers

Ceylinco life has presented another 414 loyal policyholders whose life policies had completed ten years or more, with '65-plus', the only critical illness insurance cover in Sri Lanka for people over the age of 65.

Presented as a 65th birthday gift, these policies which would be valid for the rest of the recipients' lives, provide free cover against 20 critical illnesses as a reward for their loyalty to Ceylinco life.

"Ceylinco Life launched this scheme to show its appreciation to valued policyholders for business relationships of more than a decade and Ceylinco life are proud that to date this scheme has benefited more than 1,400 of our loyal policyholders," Ceylinco Life Director Thushara Ranasinghe said.

"This scheme helps our former policyholders to meet their medical expenses at a time when the cost of medicare has risen and the state health system is unable to adequately cater to the needs of the ageing population," he said.

"Normally, health and life insurance policies do not extend beyond the age of 65 years but Ceylinco Life's policyholders need not worry as they are covered against 20 critical illnesses for their life-time, Ranasinghe," added.

The 65-plus scheme, which is the only one of its kind in the local insurance industry, is one of the elements of Ceylinco Life's 'Life Rewards,'a portfolio of special benefits that only the company's active policyholders are eligible to receive.

ComBank ratings stable

Fitch Ratings Lanka has said that People's Bank (Sri Lanka) (PB, 'A-(lka)' (Positive) and Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC (CB, 'AA+(lka)'(Stable) are exposed to counterparty default risk following the Supreme Court ruling on November 28, suspending payments due from Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) on hedging agreements entered into with these local banks.

Fitch believes that CB's ratings are not likely to be affected, as the bank's capital position is sufficient to absorb the potential losses (including payments due from PB) that may arise based on current global oil prices as estimated by management.

Acting as intermediaries, the banks structured these transactions with corresponding positions with offshore counterparties, earning a fee/commission; thus carrying only counterparty default risk. CB's exposure comprises payments due on a 70,000 barrel contract.

PB's exposure comprises payments due on a 100,000 barrel contract, including payments due to CB on a 50,000 barrel contract.

The payments due from state-owned PB to its counterparties have been halted, as the bank has sought legal advice on its obligations.

PB's 'A-(lka)' (A minus (lka)) rating was last affirmed with a Positive Outlook on October 6, 2008, contingent on a capital infusion from the Ministry of Finance, and on the implementation of other measures to meet the regulatory minimum capital adequacy ratios on a solo basis by end-2008. PB's potential loss, based on current global oil prices, could, in Fitch's opinion, result in compounding the delay in achieving the minimum capital adequacy ratios as initially expected.

SLIM President Chief Guest at Kent Ridge

Course participants

The first program of Kent Ridge Certificate in Customer Service was successfully completed recently with 100 per cent facing the final evaluation.

This competence based program was designed and conducted by a group of renowned academics and professionals in the country, Dr. Malitha Wijesundara, Dr. Saman Dasanayake, Savanthi Jayawickrama, G. Weerathunga, Samitha Perera, Dharshana Amarasinghe, Jagath Peiris and Janaka Kumarasinghe with the objective of "to groom successful customer service/ relations executives and thereby uplift the customer service levels in the country". In addition to individual participants, leading service oriented organisations in Sri Lanka such as Sri Lanka Insurance, NTB, Lanka Bell, Suntel, Union Assurance, IPM, Lanka Power, RTT and Crown Group had nominated participants for this programme.

The awards ceremony will be held on 3rd January 2009 and the Chief Guest will be President Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, R.M.P. Dayawansa. PhD Candidate in Clinical Psychology of Aliant International University USA Nilakshi Wanaguru will deliver the keynote address on "Stress Management and Relaxation."

Luxury housing scheme in Puttalam

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval for three new projects. Chairman/Director General Dhammika Perera signed the agreements on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the BOI Certificate of Registrations to the investors.

Kings Estate (Private) Limited signed the agreement to construct a luxury housing scheme in the Puttalam District.

The housing scheme is an initial investment of US $ 650,000 and will be comprised 35 luxury houses. These two-storeyed individual houses will be constructed in 4 modern elegant designs. Construction is expected to commence in April 2009.

The housing scheme is expected to be completed in 4 years and will be constructed in 2 phases. Director Keith Andrew Page signed the agreement on behalf Kings Estate (Private) Limited.

The BOI also signed the following agreements with Sanken International and CIC Agri Produce Marketing.

* Sanken International (Private) Limited signed an agreement to set up a regional Operating Headquarters. The venture is an initial investment of US $ 450,000. The Headquarters located in Colombo 7 will provide business planning and coordination services and financial planning and treasury management in relation to construction and property development to two of its subsidiaries.

The subsidiary located in Australia is engaged in property development while the Indian subsidiary is engaged in construction. Chairman Sanken Lanka Mahen Weerasekara and General Manager/Managing Director of Sanken Lanka Ranjith Gunatilleke signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

* An agreement to set up a project to cultivate banana for export was signed with CIC Agri Produce Marketing.

Agri Produce Marketing is an investment Rs. 55 million generating employment opportunities for 200. The Banana cultivation will be carried out in a 100 Acre land in Dambulla.

The venture will export fresh bananas to markets in Middle East, Japan and European countries. The Directors of the company Waruna Madawananrachchi and Jagath Bopage signed the agreement on behalf of the company.