Search Results for: Sri Lankan

The Philippines’ once formidable knitwear sector has been shrinking in size in the past two decades, but the Pacific archipelago’s inclusion in the European Union’s (EU) Generalized System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) preferential tariff scheme from January 1 is now filling remaining manufacturers with some hope for another heyday.…

A call by Sri Lanka’s newly elected government on the private sector to increase the salaries of all employees including garment sector workers by Sri Lankan Rupees LKR2,500 (USD18.79)  per month has yet be accepted by garment sector employers. Industry wages in Sri Lanka are influenced by a wages board of industry, trade union and government representatives, which is meeting to discuss the request, which came from Sri Lanka’s finance minister Ravi Karunanayake during the government’s interim budget on January 29, which followed its election on January 8

The secretary general of the country’s Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), Tuli Cooray has branded the government request “principally not right”.…

Projects are underway in India to install captive solar photovoltaic power systems in the country’s airports, exploiting innovative funding models and long term power purchase agreements. However, the country’s grid power operators are refusing to purchase any excess power.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which is owned by the Indian government, plans to generate 50 megawatts (MW) of electric power from solar plants at 30 airports by the end of 2015.…

GROWTH in Sri Lanka’s paints and coatings sector is slowing down after years of rapid growth following the end of the civil war in May 2009. Producers are now facing greater competition and introducing innovations to attract new consumers.

Ruwan Weerasinghe, the secretary of the Paint Manufacturers Association of Sri Lanka, and director of Lankem Ceylon, which sells the popular paint brand Robbialac, said his company registered a 20% year-on-year growth after the war.…

CAMBODIA’S “high cost of electricity  – the third highest in south-east Asia after Singapore and Myanmar – along with low skills are keeping the country away from producing  textiles”, the World Bank chief economist for the east Asia and the Pacific region, Sudhir Shetty has told WTiN.…

Sourcing trends in fast fashion in Europe and north America are in flux, being affected by the economic downturn, changes in consumer behaviour and growing awareness of industry practices, especially in the wake of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh last year.…

THE ASSOCIATION of Southeast Asian Nations – ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) has announced that the ASEAN framework for cross-border offerings of collective investment schemes (CIS) is now operational in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The regulatory system allows fund managers working from these member jurisdictions to offer locally constituted schemes, such as unit trust funds, to retail investors in other member jurisdictions, using a streamlined authorisation process.…

THE ETHICAL traits of Sharia-compliant, or Islamic, financing, such as not allowing interest or investments in gambling and tobacco, have made sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) and green funds an obvious extension for the sector. But with Islamic finance already being a niche market, compared to conventional financing, initiatives to diversify into SRIs have struggled over the past several years.…

Swiss stainless steel shapes maker Montanstahl AG’s first ever plant in Asia is likely to be set up in Sri Lanka, the company has told Steel First. “If the general conditions are satisfactory like industrial site, incentives, electricity supply, then we will invest,” Wolfgang Stumm, vice president who heads research and development in the family-owned business said. …

More than 600 dying and printing units in a small Indian town of Pali, in Rajasthan state, face closure over water pollution concerns associated with 34 million litres per day of industrial emissions being discharged from four water treatment plants into the nearby Bandi River.…