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MTD Walkers to raise turnover to Rs 5.8 m

MTD Walkers Group, a leading listed construction group is aspiring to increase its turnover to Rs 5.8 billion by the end of 2010/2011 and currently it has projects more than Rs 2.1 billion in hand and projects in pipeline reach over Rs 3.7 billion.

The company is negotiating with foreign construction companies to initiate joint ventures in construction and engineering services and company is also going for a capital investment to gear themselves in next year which would help to continue their financial and construction activities very well", a MTD Walkers Group spokesman said.

The projects in the pipeline are mainly focused on piling and construction fields and most of these projects are to be done with Government and private sector shortly. These projects will be an impetus to grow its business aggressively.

He said there are more opportunities in the civil engineering, construction and infrastructure development fields in the Northern and Eastern areas. The company is committed to team up with Government and assist its rebuilding efforts.

The company will plan to enhance and expand their performance aggressively in construction industry in next few years in keeping with rapid growth in the construction industry in Sri Lanka.

The group turnover reached to Rs 1961 million for the year ended March 31,2010, in comparison to Rs 1476 million in 2009.

The company hopes its group gross profits to surge to Rs 2 billion and net profits to increase to Rs 1.45 billion by the end of the 2010.

The share price of the MTD walkers PLC too has resonated the company's resilience, as the market price was Rs 422 as at March 31, 2010, compared to Rs 75 in 2009 indicating a 563 percent growth.

MTD walkers Group is largely owned by MTD Capital Group in Malaysia, and they have started operations in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, UAE, Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Philippines. (IH)

Seneca College students to Canada

The American College transferred the first batch of six students to Seneca College of Toronto, Canada, on September 1.

They will now continue the second year of their studies at Seneca College to obtain their Diploma in Tourism and Travel - Flight Services.

This batch consisting of Vihan Fernando, Himal Banneheka, Himasara Jayasinghe, Hasith Karunatilleke, Sawani Gabadage and Wathsala Arangala, commenced their study program in Canada on September 7 at Seneca College.

Canada Seneca College a world-recognized institution with programs being implemented in many countries, is identified as the "best government funded" educational institute in the world. It is also the largest college in Canada, with a history of more than 43 years in 'top class' education.

The American College of Higher Education, Dehiwela, has a history of more than 16 years of excellence in education in this country. It has transferred more than 1300 students to the USA in the 2+2 Degree program.

The American College of Higher Education is also be recognized by the prestigious 'Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)' of the USA thus becoming an 'Off Shore Campus' of Broward College which entitles the America College of Higher Education to issue American degrees in Sri Lanka.

The Diploma in Tourism and Travel - Flight Services is a very important and world recognized program of study. Airlines, hotels and the travel trade across the world look to Seneca College for recruitments of their diploma holders due to the excellent knowledge, skills and competencies that the students acquire in this program.

This study program covers a very wide spectrum of subjects which gives rise to varied job opportunities in a multitude of fields. Practical training is carried out at the Air Canada's training facility, where 'Fire and Water Rescue from Air Craft', etc are conducted.

The Seneca College courses of study are specially designed as 'Work Place Ready' and offers over 140 dynamic career focused programs offering degrees, diplomas and 'career specialized' Post Graduate programs. These programs are designed on the continuous inputs from Fortune 500 Companies, the very best organizations of the world.

With 'state-of-the-Art' facilities and technology, low student to Professor ratio, worldwide network of over 50 partnering universities, Seneca qualifications are recognized across the globe.

This also offers optional higher academic opportunities, such as degrees, should the student wish to do so.

LG launches Optimus

Android-powered smartphone:

LG Electronics of Korea, a global leader and technology innovator in mobile communications, recently launched the LG Optimus (LG GT 540), an Android powered handset designed for first-time smartphone users that require easy and convenient mobile access.

Its Get Smart, Get Started with the LG Optimus. Offering ease of use and powerful capabilities, the LG Optimus provides users with a wide variety of Android applications and automatic account synchronization with all Google Mobile Services. The LG Optimus also features enhanced social networking functions and advanced multimedia features to complement one's fast paced lifestyle.

Smartphones are increasingly getting more popular that conventional ones, but some are still holding back from jumping into the Smartphone bandwagon due to the learning curve involved.

With the simplicity and power of the LG Optimus, coupled with a great design and highly attractive and affordable price tag, LG hopes to see more users enjoy the benefits of Smartphones.

LG Optimus delivers optimal convenience, the benefits of smartphone usage in a simple-to-use Android powered handset. It comes pre-loaded with applications especially developed to help first time smartphone users ease into using their phones, enabling them to enjoy their units immediately, without having to master the complexities usually associated with smartphones. Some of these applications include Wapedia, Layar Reality Browser and Movie Finder.

The Social Networking Manager offers integrated access to social networking sites in a convenient platform that can manage multiple accounts. LG's dedicated Social Networking Client allows users to easily keep track of their Facebook and Twitter Accounts. Moreover, the Social Networking System widgets provide real-time status updates directly to the home screen without having to access any other applications. The handsets Multitasking feature allows users to view updates from friends and access the social media sites while simultaneously searching the phone's contact list.

The User Interface is customizable for maximum convenience. The LG Optimus can be customized to show anywhere from three to seven home screens displaying frequently used applications, news and weather, among other information, depending on user preference. Additionally the main menu can be personalized to include editable categories for faster, easier navigation.

With an automatically synchronized Google account, users need only to log-in once to enjoy YouTube, Gmail, Gtalk, Google Maps and more. With easy access to more than 50,000 downloadable applications and games from the Android market, users can easily customize and expand their LG Optimus experience.

The LG Optimus includes advance entertainment features and a powerful media player allows users to watch DivX and XVid videos directly without separate encoding and browsing multimedia files and is specially enjoyable with the 3D thumbnail gallery. The phones 3 MP camera supports geo-tagging, auto face tagging and face-to-face action technology to allow users to create and share multimedia content. It has a built in video editor with story board function so users can add music and text to videos directly on the phone.

Durdans adds new MRI and CT scanner

Durdans Hospital added a MRI and CT scanner to its newly established Radiology Department.

The Siemens Magnetom Avanto 1.5 Tesla 18 Channel MRI Scanner and the Siemens Somatom Definition AS 64-slice CT Scanner with a host of desirable features for the clinician as well as to the patient will enhance the service of Durdans Hospital.

According to Durdans Medical Services Department these two new medical equipment will make Durdans Department of Radiology one of the largest, most advanced and best equipped Radiology departments in the country.

Patients will now be able to enjoy absolute safety and maximum comfort with precision.

Commercial Bank teams up with United Motors

Attractive packages for leasing of Mitsubishi vehicles:

United Motors CEO/Executive Director Chanaka Yatawara and Commercial Bank Managing Director/CEO Amitha Gooneratne exchanging the agreement. United Motors Assistant General Manager (New Vehicle Sales) Manohara Dissanayake, General Manager (New Vehicle Sales) Gihan Pilapitiya, Commercial Bank Chief Operating Officer Ravi Dias, DGM - Corporate Banking Gamini Dharmasiri, DGM - Personal Banking Nimal Luxshman, AGM-Personal Banking Vimal Fernando and Leasing Head Nugent Kapuwatte look on.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently partnered with United Motors Lanka PLC to offer attractive leasing options for the entire range of Mitsubishi vehicles.

Among the vehicles offered through this special leasing promo are the Mitsubishi Montero, The latest Outlander, Lancer, The L 200 Sportero, L200 4 WD and 2WD Double Cab, and the Mitsubishi L 300 Van.

Among the commercial vehicles offered are the Mitsubishi L200 single cab and the range of Mitsubishi Fuso Canter trucks.

This special joint promo between Commercial Bank and United Motors offers customers special discounted prices on vehicles, attractive leasing rentals and special insurance covers with low premiums through Commercial Insurance Brokers, which is an associate of the Bank.

SDBL goes to Kilinochchi

SANASA Development Bank Ltd (SDBL) will open its 69th Customer Centre in Kilinochchi town as a fully fledged branch today. The branch will be opened by Namal Rajapaksa MP on the invitation of SDBL Chairman Dr P A Kiriwandeniya.

The Kilinochchi branch will be the forth branch of the bank in the Northern Province. The Vavuniya branch of SDBL was in existence for the last 7 years and with the end to the war, the Northern part of the country once again opened for business. SDBL opened its Nanattan branch in Mannar district during the latter part of 2009 and the Jaffna branch was opened in January 2010.

SDBL is one of the PFIs to the "Awakening North" credit program introduced by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the bank has successfully implemented this scheme by disbursing loans to the value of approximately Rs 100 million to date.

The bank had been able to implement this scheme mainly through "Group Credit Schemes." One of the most successful initiatives introduced by the bank was the "Group System", launched in their branches. Building at grass root level in a village, the bank formulated "SANASA Groups" comprising about six members each, which if collated under the branch network, totals about 7,000 groups comprising of 35,000 members.

The primary idea of this is to open accounts and mobilize savings, extending "Group Credit", where in if one person within the group takes a loan, its guaranteed by the other members of that group. This instills a sense of commitment and ownership among the members of the group and has also seen minimum defaults. This method will be applied in Kilinochchi area as well. The bank had already employed field offices and the branch staff during the last 3 months in order to organize the groups in Kilinochchi area.

Under the North Reawakening Program SDBL has granted loans to agriculture and related activities covering cultivation of paddy, vegetables, chilies, onions, bananas and under live stock development, poultry, cattle and to fisheries related activities, and the bank has also extended credit under this schemes to small and medium enterprises covering retail businesses, rice mills, bakeries, construction and to many other self-employment projects such as, carpentry, masonry, tailoring, brick making etc.