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Sampath wins NST awards for eRemittance

ANURADHA KODAGODA

Sampath Bank won the National Science and Technology awards 2008 conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for their new implementation of the Sampath eRemittance system.

Project Manager of Sampath Bank P.G. Pasan Manukith receiving the National Science and Technology award from Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake.

Speaking to the Daily News Business, project manager of Sampath Bank P.G. Pasan Manukith said this is a fully automated system launched by Sampath Bank in February 2006 for remitting money instantly to Sri Lanka from foreign countries and providing the beneficiaries with a wide range of options such as account credit and islandwide branch and ATM networks for obtaining cash at any time of the day.

“This award has categorised under various categories and Sampath Bank won the award under the category of ‘locally developed new technologies which have resulted in a successfully marketed products/services’,” he added.

“In Sri Lanka there are many remittance systems for sending money.

However we have identified several common problems in these systems for all the parties. For an example, most of these remittance systems are high cost, cannot immediately credit money to banks or accounts or credit cards.

“Therefore we introduced the eRemittance system to save foreign exchange on software, to provide a low cost fund transfer system to all Sri Lankan expatriates and to provide customised features for the Sri Lankan market,” Manager - Marketing of Sampath Bank Upul Nawarathne Bandara said.

“Through the eRemittance system we were enable to provide low cost, speedy, reliable, efficient and friendly service while delighting all the parties. The main business flexibilities and ostensibilities of the system can be identified as the system can be used by any agent in any foreign country without any modification, for any Sri Lankans.

By implementing this system, we could also garner national interest, since it is an in-house developed system and it would mark the Sri Lankan identity within overseas exchange houses,” he said.

The eRemittance system is activated in Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Canada, Doha, Europe, France, Greece, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Russia, Sweden, Spain, Singapore, UAE, UK, US and Yemen.

Leo Burnett, most awarded agency for 2008

Leo Burnett Solutions Inc., brought to a close an extremely rewarding and fulfilling year of recognition for its creativity and effective marketing communication solutions. Beginning with an overwhelming achievement of securing 16 metals at The Chillies, 2008 the Sri Lankan office of the internationally acclaimed advertising agency network Leo Burnett Worldwide, went on to achieve greater heights throughout the year at many leading international award festivals.

The highest honour for LBSI for the year was the winning of Sri Lanka’s first ever international Silver at AdFest 2008 held in Pattaya, Thailand in March. The agency created local advertising history by winning the country’s first ever Silver at a recognised International Advertising Awards festival.

This prestigious award was presented for “Harry Potter Magic Coffee Cup” created for ODEL to promote the final edition of the Harry Potter book. The agency won one of only eight Silvers awarded in the Outdoor Lotus category at AdFest 2008.

The win was also a very special one for ODEL, which is a brand that has consistently won awards both locally and internationally for its communications through its partnership with LBSI over the years.

The agency’s victorious streak abroad continued when it obtained a Bronze award at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards held in Macau in September. The “Harry Potter Magic Coffee Cup” idea was once again awarded, the Bronze in the Most Innovative Use of Media category.

The effectiveness of this simple execution was recognized at these awards highlighting both the creativity as well as the effectiveness of this communications idea.

Bumper cereal harvest last year

FAO’s latest estimates confirm that a new record high level of global cereal production was achieved in 2008, sufficient to cover the expected increase in utilization in 2008/09 and also allow for a moderate replenishment of world reserves.

Most of the increase in production this year has been among the developed countries, with that in the developing countries rising just marginally. In the developing group, outputs rose somewhat more among the Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries, especially in countries where agriculture production support was provided by governments.

International cereal prices have continued to fall over the past months. In the first two weeks of December, the prices for wheat and coarse grains averaged respectively 40 percent and 20 percent less than the December average last year.
 

Holcim presents awards

The winners of the second Holcim Awards for sustainable construction from Asia Pacific Region were presented with prizes valued at US$ 270,000 at a ceremony held in New Delhi.

Managing Director, Holcim Sri Lanka, Peter Spirig told the Daily News that most of the award winning projects in the region show future oriented and tangible approaches to urban development, efficiency and affordable housing.

Thirty eight applications were submitted this year for the competition compared to seven in the previous year apart from a Sri Lankan architect student at Briton University in UK, Semini Samarasinghe won the first place of Next Generation Award in Europe.

The second competition cycle will end with the Global Award ceremony which will be held in Switzerland in May 2009. Gold, Silver and Bronze prize winners from each region will automatically qualified for the Global Holcim Awards competition. A total of US$ 650,000 additional prize money is on offer for the Global Award.

The projects are evaluated by a global jury. Almost 5,000 projects from 90 countries entered the competition. A total of 52 projects from 27 countries received regional prizes in 2008. The ceremony in New Delhi featured a diverse and international group of project teams and demonstrated that sustainable construction is truly of global concern.

Rapid development in NE

RAMANI KANGARAARACHCHI

The Government’s ‘Randora’ National Infrastructure Development Programme gives an insight into the ambitious reconstruction projects planned up to 2017 for the North and East and the CCI is always prepared to offer cooperation for such development efforts, CEO Chamber of Construction Industry Dakshitha Talgodapitiya said.

Allocating Rs. 15 billion for the first budget of the Eastern Provincial Council and a further Rs. 3.5 billion for reconstruction and resettlement efforts in the North through its Budget for 2009 is an evident to this effort he said.

Various projects in the devasted but now liberated East is in progress. Dilapidated roads are now being renovated

Talgodapitiya pointed out that with the establishment of the democratic process in the Eastern Province and the impending liberation of the North from the clutches of terrorism, welfare of conflict-affected communities, internally displaced persons, returnees and depressed communities is the need of the hour.

Latest statistics published recently reveal that there are over 281,000 internally displaced persons alone in the North and East of Sri Lanka.

The Government as well as international donor and funding agencies have recognized this fact and have already provided and pledged further funding aimed at assisting the conflict-affected communities in the North and East through an all-inclusive package of assistance involving housing, community infrastructure development and livelihood development in addition to gender protection and conflict mitigation initiatives.

The World Bank funded North East housing reconstruction programme and the European Union’s allocation of funds for socio-economic measures to assist IDPs, are examples.

The Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka, being the accredited representative of the domestic construction industry and a non profit organization, is in a position to assist the Government, donor and other stakeholder agencies in implementing an accelerated programme of community infrastructure and livelihood development with in-house technical capacities and access to a membership base exceeding 300 corporate entities engaged in architectural and engineering services, quantity surveying, construction contracting and manufacture and supply of construction inputs among others.

The Chamber has also established strong linkages and working arrangements with both local and overseas Institutions specializing in Disaster Management in the built environment, gender protection and conflict mitigation initiatives he said.

The Chamber being the largest single provider of construction craftsman training in the country, operating four craftsman training centres in the districts of Kalutara, Galle, Matara and Hambantota could help the livelihood development of affected youth by providing construction training as a means of facilitating gainful employment in the shortest possible period of time while also serving a broader national requirement of mitigating the shortage of trained craftsmen in the country, he said.

He said what is required to do is beyond the limits of the present institutional and industry capacities, and it is urgently need to expand the limits and move on to the question of how to craft emergency solutions in order to make the development endeavours a reality empowering those who have lost their livelihood and provision of community infrastructure.

Rajarata University seminar concludes

Managing the Modern Complex Organisation; A Strategic Approach” seminar was successfully concluded at Rajarata University Mihintale, which was held from recently.

The professionalisms of both University of Kelaniya and Rajarata University represented this historical conference and symbolized their talents by presenting their research papers in front of a panel of high caliber public and private sector resource persons.

It is no doubt that the attendees have witnessed a real conference experience in that nature, first time in the history.

This conference was conducted under three strategic management themes; Strategic planning versus strategic thinking, the strategic planning process with special reference to environmental analysis and strategic planning process with reference to a company’s internal analysis.

The themes broadly covered ongoing strategic management processes that evaluates and controls the business; assessing of competitor strategies to meet challenges; effectiveness of new strategies, importance of new technology, economic, social, financial and political environment.

Gold for Arpico Privilege cardholders

Avanthie de Zoysa, Marketing Manager and Niransha Rodrigo, Marketing Executive of Richard Pieris Distributors.

Amongst the Arpico Privilege cardholders over 50,000 members who spent Rs. 10,000 and above, a month at Arpico Supercentres and Superstores from August 15 to November 15 automatically qualified to win exquisite sovereign gold pendants encrusted with glittering white stones. Five customers won from a lucky draw.

Customer Relationship Manager, Richard Pieris Distributors Ltd., Anil Senewiratne, who was present at the occasion said: “Our amazing offer stimulated a huge demand for the Privilege Card which was very encouraging.

We endeavour to create a shopping experience that is beyond our customer’s expectations and the Privilege Card is designed to reward loyal customers - this time with a fabulous gift of gold.”