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Colombo International Book Fair 2009:

Sampath-official banker again

Sampath Bank has been designated the official banker for the sixth consecutive year at Colombo International Book Fair 2009, to be held from September 19-25 at the BMICH.

Sampath Bank officials presenting the sponsorship cheque.

The Colombo International Book Fair has been gaining popularity among people in the island. This has been the most visited event by public and foreign delegates in the country. This year there will be 400 stalls with 40 foreign publishers and over 150 local exhibitors.

Sampath Bank hopes to offer the visiting public and the stall holders, both local and foreign, banking solutions. Whether it can be a cash emergency to purchase books or some change of currency, Sampath Bank will provide the best service at the Book Fair. There will be two ATM's located at the fair other than the specially set up bank counter.

The event would include one of the most visited attractions of last year Ketapath Pavura, this year too, which is sponsored by Sampath Bank. It is a wall built at the venue where participants could write poems and will be awarded with prizes for the best poems on a daily basis.

Sampath Bank is also the main sponsor of the Swarna Pusthaka awards ceremony, which would be held on September 18 coinciding with the Book fair. This award ceremony offers the largest prize money to be offered to the best novel of the year.

A special discount of 5% will be offered to all Sampath Card holders (Credit Card, Debit Card, SET, X-SET) for the transactions done at the exhibition. This discount will be offered by the bank (not by the book sellers / publishers) and will be credited to customers accounts when the billing is done.

Business loans from Youth Business Sri Lanka

Youth Business Sri Lanka, a youth assistance program at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, provided loans to the value of six hundred thousand rupees to eighteen youth from Badulla, Kegalle and Trincomalee to commence businesses recently.

Loan recipients from Badulla.

"The total commitment during this initial phase is one million rupees", a spokesman for the YBSL said. The YBSL program aims to support enterprising youth who have a viable business plan, aged between 18-35 years, but do not have collateral or supportive background, through a credit facility for business start up, supported with business mentoring.

The Mayor of Badulla, Upali Nissanka Gunasekara, said that it is a continuing problem for the youth, anywhere in Sri Lanka; to get financial assistance for their businesses due to procedural and collateral issues.

Youth assistance program like YBSL fulfill a valuable service in this regard not only by improving the livelihood of the youth and their families, but also by contributing to the development of regions such as Badulla which are considered less developed, he said.

The chief guest of the Kegalle event, Additional District Secretary of Kegalle D. Abeywickrame, said that as a firm believer of private-public sector partnership for development, this type of initiative from the Chambers are welcome and that it will receive the support of the Government.

The Chairman of the Trincomalee Urban Council, Gowri Muhundan, said that youth employment is the need of the hour in the context of post conflict Sri Lanka and this kind of credit support to youth to start businesses, would make them employment creators and thereby eliminate the factors that contributes to conflicts.

The specialty of the YBSL credit program is that loans are given based on the viability of the proposed business. In addition, the enterprising youth are linked to an experienced business person as a mentor. It is often cited that many small businesses started by youth fail because of the poor business decisions that are taken, mostly in managing finance, said YBSL National Program Manager Sujeewa Ratnakumara.

The YBSL's previous experience with the Hambantota Youth Business Program was that over 80 percent of the businesses succeeded because of the advice given by a mentor. Thus mentoring has become very significant, when youth try to tackle the modern day complexities of a business start up, and mentors provide this assistance voluntarily, he said. As per YBSL guidelines, the implementing chambers have arranged suitable mentors for the youth who are receiving loans under the YBSL program.

The credit assistance for the YBSL credit program is given by International Alert, an INGO working towards empowering youth and it supports the YBSL Secretariat.

Youth Business Sri Lanka is an accredited program of Youth Business International, a charity dedicated to supporting young entrepreneurs and is the leadership body for a network of youth business programs implemented in 38 countries. The YBSL program fits into the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce's overall development agenda relating to developing the regions and investing in youth.

Road safety for school children:

CEAT presents traffic aids to Kalutara school

CEAT Sri Lanka, Kalutara plant, Deputy General Manager, Amal Wijesinghe (third from left) presents signboards to the Principal of Kalutara Balika Vidyalaya Ms. G.K. Guneratne.

CEAT Sri Lanka presented traffic aids to a leading girls' school in Kalutara this week in a further demonstration of its commitment to promote road safety around schools.

The Traffic Committee of Kalutara Balika Vidyalaya was provided signboards, cones, hand-held boards, jackets and caps for use at its two main entrances, where school vans and cars drop and pick up children everyday.

"We believe it is our responsibility to ensure road safety around schools by promoting discipline, order and safety among motorists and pedestrians," said CEAT Sri Lanka, Managing Director, Randeep Narang.

He said CEAT also hopes to conduct a one-day workshop on traffic signs and road safety with the participation of 10 to 15 schools in the Kalutara district in the near future.

Union Assurance 'Bring your child to work' Day

Union Assurance PLC held its first 'Bring Your Child to Work' Day recently. This event was attended by 70 children of the staff drawn from the Head Office, the Motor Centre and the City Office.

The non working spouses of the participating employees were also invited to this event.

"The HR Division who conceptualized and organized the event had two objectives in mind," said the General Manager Human Resources, Brigadier Rohan Jayasinghe. These were to educate the children of the employees the importance of their father's/mother's job and thereby create a better bond between the parents and the children.

The children (from age six to 16 were eligible to attend) were categorized into two groups: under 12 and over 12.

Many events including a story telling session conducted by popular comedians Anton Jude and Priyantha Seneviratne, an art session conducted by Sybil Wettasinghe and an interactive seminar for the older children conducted by 'Brave World' enlivened the event.

All participants were presented with gifts. The highlight of the day was the visit to the parent's work station where the children truly enjoyed themselves.

Alpha enters health sector

Alpha Industries (Pvt) Ltd, manufacturers of security safes and light metal and wood-based office furniture entered the health sector with the launch of their hospital furniture range branded Alpha Health.

“Since we have modern manufacturing facilities for the manufacture of steel-based items with adequate production capacity, we researched the market as to what other fields we could venture into, using these resources. The health sector has many small time players but a clear void was noticed in superior branded Sri Lankan hospital furniture for which Alpha is now able to provide a range of items suitable for the small-scale medical centre right up to large and up market modern hospitals,” General Manager, Jeremy David said.

The Alpha health furniture category will initially have products turned out of steel, which are commonly used by most hospitals. “We plan to continue expanding our product portfolio to meet the demands of the health sector,” said David.

Hospital beds, adjustable beds, operation tables, examination beds, foot stools, normal stretchers, stretcher trolleys, dressing trolleys, food trolleys, linen trolleys, surgeon stools, bedside screens, wash basins, baby cradles and bed side lockers, are some of the products offered by Alpha Health.

Lumala awarded ISO 9001:2008

Lumala Senior Partner M.N.M. Miflal (left) receives The ISO 9001:2008 certification from B.A. Sumanasiri of S.G.S. Lanka Limited.

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Samsung Electronics with Sala Enterprises launched two mobile phones, the Samsung Jet and the Samsung Omnia at the Sala Enterprises flagship store at the State Trading Corporation complex at Nawam Mawatha. Picture shows some models displaying the phones at the launch. Pic. by Sudath Nishantha