Search Results for: Sri Lankan

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE, in Columbo
COCONUTS will be henceforth measured by weight as opposed to numbers of nuts at auctions in Sri Lanka, in a bid to improve productivity in sales and production. At a recent seminar, the country’s Coconut Development Authority stressed that weight sales would also attract desiccated coconut millers to auctions.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE, in Columbo
THE SRI Lanka government is to introduce legislation requiring confectionary manufacturers and importers to submit samples of products to its national analysis department to detect toxins that may be present. The regulation would force manufacturers to obtain a resulting ‘Certificate of Product Approval.’…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE, in Columbo
THE SRI Lankan government has announced that a domestic airport adjoining Columbo’s Bandaranaike International Airport will be opened next year. Minister of Tourism Gamini Lokuge said that the project would use part of a neighbouring Sri Lanka military air force base.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
SRI Lanka’s Gem and Jewellery Research and Training institute has carried out a gem deposit survey in a 100 acre reservoir, revealing potential for mining blue and yellow sapphires and geuda rough stones in its silt. The discovery means that a plan to remove silt deposits from the Hasalaka tank, Kandy district, may have additional benefits for public authorities seeking to increase its capacity.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
SRI Lanka’s National Inventor’s Commission and the country’s ODIRIS Engineering Company are commercialising a pedal power coconut scraper invented by a 14-year-old schoolboy Chatura Madhubashana, whose intermediate technology initiative had won a school district prize.…

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED Nations body established to settle claims made against Iraq because of its illegal occupation of Kuwait in 1991 has awarded a further US$315 million in compensation, bringing the total amount of money paid out under its authority to US$46.6 billion.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
NORWAY’S TGS Nopec and Sweden’s Petroscan AB are exploring the seas off Sri Lanka for submarine oil deposits, helping the island’s government. Initial results revealed evidence of petroleum and gas deposits in the Palk Straits, the Gulf of Mannar and south of the island.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE, in Columbo
THE BATA Shoe Company of Ceylon has turned around its financial performance, recording an operating profit of SL Rupees 12.4 million (US$130,000) at the end of the 2002-3 financial year, compared with a loss of SL Rupees 31.2 million (US$320,000) at the end of 2001-2.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
SRI Lanka’s National Inventor’s Commission and the country’s ODIRIS Engineering Company are commercialising a pedal power coconut scraper invented by a 14-year-old schoolboy Chatura Madhubashana, whose intermediate technology initiative had won a school district prize.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE, in Columbo
SRI Lankan finance company Sadaharitha Investment (Pvt) Limited, has introduced a new scheme – called Thurusetha – encouraging citizens and business to invest in planting mahogany on the island. The company claims that more than 1,000 investors have already signed up, leading to 40,000 trees being planted on more than one hundred and fifty acres in Ratnapura, Colombo and Kalutara districts.…