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Ceylinco Life increases value

‘Pranama’ scholarships:

Ceylinco Life has increased the value of its Pranama scholarships and will award another 160 such scholarships in January 2010.

Talented students and young people who have excelled at the national level in several fields of endeavour over the past year will be recognized at the ninth round of the ‘Ceylinco Life Pranama’ scholarships, the company said.

These scholarships will be on offer to children of the company’s policyholders who obtained their policies on or before December 31, 2008 from all districts. The total value of the new scholarships that will be on offer is Rs. 3.58 million.

The value of Pranama scholarships offered for students who excelled at the Year five scholarship examination has been increased by 50 percent while students who excelled at the G.C.E. Ordinary Level will have their scholarships doubled.

The value of the scholarships for the students who achieved the best results in their districts at the G.C.E. Advanced Level has been increased by 75 percent while the value of the scholarships for Merit award winners has been increased by 40 percent.

Consequently, selected Year five scholarship winners will each receive Rs. 90,000, G.C.E. (O/L) winners Rs. 72,000, and students placed first in their districts at the G.C.E. Advanced Level Rs. 126,000.

The scholarships for national merit award recipients have been increased to Rs. 35,000.

Special cash awards of Rs 25,000 will be presented to each of the students who achieved the highest marks islandwide in mathematics, biology, commerce and arts at the GCE (A/L) examinations in 2008, irrespective of whether or not they are the children of policyholders. If, however, a policyholder’s child has achieved this distinction, he or she will qualify to receive both awards, the district-wise scholarship and the special cash award.

Ceylinco Life said it has commenced the collection of applications from eligible students across the island, and will close applications on November 30, for the next batch of annual scholarships to be presented at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel in January 2010.

Akzo Nobel launches high performance protective coatings

Global coating and chemical leader Akzo Nobel (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), launched its high performance protective coatings range in Sri Lanka.

“Akzo Nobel has been a player in decorative and auto-refinishing categories and we are now happy to bring a range of world-class high performance protective coatings to meet the growing needs in Sri Lanka for specialty coatings”, said the Managing Director/CEO of Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka (Pvt) Ltd Gerald de Saram (formerly CIC Paints (Pvt) Ltd), a member of CIC Group of Companies.

With the merger of ICI and Akzo Nobel in 2008, the local branch of Akzo Nobel now has access to unmatched and unparalleled technology, expertise and products and services to cater to a broad spectrum of coatings needs.

“High performing protective coatings offer superior asset protection against corrosion and longer aesthetic durability. Maintenance of coatings in large-scale structures can be costly, disruptive and operationally tedious.

High performance coatings could provide long design life, for fifteen years. Hence, apart from superior protection it offers, high performance coatings also offer greater cost efficiency and maintenance convenience”, said de Saram.

“With a per capita consumption of less than one litre per year, Sri Lankan paints and coatings market is considered relatively underdeveloped, in value and volume terms. Per capita consumption of paints is estimated to be seven to 10 times higher in the countries of comparable economic development. Our company would continue to stimulate the market growth through product and service innovation,” de Saram said.

Backed by the expertise gathered over 100 years in coating manufacturing and in related research and development, Akzo Nobel has a worldwide proven track record in formulating and providing high performance protective coating solutions for extremely challenging environments and applications.

The environment to which Akzo Nobel has developed coating solutions include marine, off shore and coastal, high altitude atmospheric, outer space, extreme temperature zones, urban and industrial atmospheres and other environments vulnerable to corrosion.

Some of the applications include marine constructions, infrastructure, aerospace and aviation, military, high technology, large sports arenas and stadia, airports and leisure facilities.

The post-conflict Sri Lanka will see a resurgent in building construction, large-scale tourist resort development, infrastructure development and growth in manufacturing and power generation. Such development would inevitably lead to increased demand for specialty coatings.

“We have been present in some of the specialty coating categories such as ship building for a number of years.

“We are happy to be of service to a much wider set of applications with products that would meet the most stringent international standards in terms of performance, safety and environmental sustainability,” said de Saram.

Akzo Nobel is now geared to provide coating solutions needed in high-rise building construction and other large-scale architectural structures, bridge and road building, marine constructions, power generation industry, telecommunication and power distribution industries and other industrial developments.

Each of these coating applications would pose unique challenges from the standpoints of corrosion protection, coating stability, surface characteristics, aesthetics, environmental sustainability, economy and longevity.

Suntel/AMCHAM annual Charity:

Golf Tournament 2009

The Annual Charity Golf Tournament will take place this year on September 26 at the Royal Colombo Golf Club. Over 175 golf enthusiasts will take part to contribute to a worthy cause.

This year’s tournament is in aid of the Castle Street Maternity Hospital. In the past, this annual tournament has raised approximately Rs. 3.8 million for a variety of worthy projects including the Young Entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka, the Jaipur Limb Foundation for the Disabled, the Castle Street Maternity Hospital, the Cancer Hospital in Maharagama, the Navodaya Special Education Residence School for Boys in Kandy, the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind, Ratmalana and more recently, the Halpotha Children’s Home in Hikkaduwa.

The annual tournament is held for the tenth consecutive year, with Suntel Ltd. the title sponsor since 2005.

Suntel Ltd. Managing Director Jeremy Huxtable said, “Suntel is proud to be the sponsor for this event for the fifth consecutive year, where we combine a loved sport with charitable causes.

As in the past, the proceeds of this event will be donated to worthy cause keeping in line with the corporate social responsibility values that both Suntel Ltd. and AMCHAM share”.

AMCHM Executive Director Chullante Jayasuriya said, “it is our pleasure again to stage the tournament that has been so successful in the previous years and we are again honoured to collaborate with Suntel Ltd.

New ballpoint pens to mark Book Fair 2009

Two ballpoint pens will be introduced to the local market to coincide with the Colombo International Book fair 2009 by Uni Lanka Distributors (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of the K.G. Group of companies.

The pens will be locally manufactured and the ink and the point will be imported from Germany.

The company will introduce two pens under the brand names “Pentec Jolly” and “Pentec Boss”, targeting the young and active age groups, said K.G. Group Operations Manager, D.T. Rejasekara.

SJ

The Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka invited Bharti Airtel to present its Sri Lankan success story at an Investment Roundtable conducted in New Delhi, in conjunction with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Here Bharti Airtel Executive Director, Syed Safawi presenting Airtel’s Sri Lankan success story to a gathering comprising Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Minister Navin Dissanayake, officials of the BOI and the Private Sector of Sri Lanka and the potential Indian Investor community.