Economic
The Colombo stock market yesterday ended its nine-day winning streak amidst robust activity as investors took profit.
Says rebuilding current economic structure will be of no use as it will crumble again
“What is the plan for reform? Frankly, I have no plan for it. What reforms when we don’t have an economy”– Prez Wickremesinghe
Says govt.’s future programme will be branded as ‘The Next 25 Years’
Asks whether private sector is ready for new economic model that will be introduced
Says SL needs to be “highly competitive” to race with regional peers such as China, Japan, Korea and India
Says both govt. and private sector have failed to create an enabling environment for talent to remain in country
By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
Sri Lanka has no plans whatsoever for reforms going forward, President Ranil Wickremesinghe told a room full of the country’s top private sector business leaders yesterday but instead would be thinking bigger and bolder in terms of its growth agenda.
While the buzzword in recent months, particularly since the collapse of the economy, has been the need for urgent reforms, the country’s leadership affirmed there would be none going forward.
“What is the plan for reform? Frankly, I have no plan for it. What reforms when we don’t have an economy,” Wickremesinghe told the inaugural session of Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2022, themed ‘Resetting from turmoil to opportunity’.
The annual event, which was kicked off yesterday, is organise by the country’s premier business chamber, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
“The government will not have plans for reform. What we want to do is to build a new economy. But is the private sector ready for it? Can you handle the pain,” Wickremesinghe asked the business leaders present in the audience, who appeared shocked for a moment.
According to him, the current economy, where the extent of its fragility is being fully felt by the people, is not worth reforming, as it is unavoidable that sooner or later the model will crumble gain. Since the present circumstances are not in favour of the local economy, rebuilding the same structure would only result in a downfall, possibly even at a faster phase, Wickremesinghe pointed out. He said going forward, being competitive alone would not help the crisis-hit nation. According to him, Sri Lanka needs to be “highly competitive” and only then the country can even think about competing with regional peers such as China, Japan, Korea and India.
As Sri Lanka is at the moment witnessing a flight of talent or as Wickremesinghe put it, “youth voting with their feet”, he said that this translates to the fact that both the government and private sector have not succeeded in creating an enabling environment for the local human resource pool to remain in the country. “So, stop pointing fingers at each other. We have to make sure we go ahead. So, our programme for the future will be called ‘The Next 25 years,” said Wickremesinghe.
Daily Mirror
Daily arrival average increases to 2,302
Russia and India rank as top two source markets for SL tourism
United Kingdom regains position as third largest tourist traffic generator for SL
Arrivals for January 1-December 7 period total 644,186
Influx contributed by arrival of luxury cruise Azamara
Sri Lanka crossed the billion dollar milestone in earnings from tourism in October when the country earned US$ 75.6 million from the trade, which is providing a glimmer of hope for the country’s economy beset by acute shortages of foreign currency since the middle of last year.
Says wants to make it clear that based on Sept. and Oct. data, exporters are not keeping money abroad
Points out 25% export proceeds not converted due to dollars being utilised for local purchases
JAAF reiterates that its members strictly abide by CBSL laws on repatriating export income
Total arrivals for first 11 months ending in November reach 628,017
Daily arrival average improves to 1,991
Tourist arrivals maintained above 12,000 for five consecutive weeks
Russian Federation and India rank as top two source markets for Sri Lanka tourism
Germany replaces UK as third largest tourist traffic generator for November
A feeder vessel docks at Jaye Container Terminal of Port of Colombo for operation (Photo: Rashmika Pathirana, Sri Lanka Ports Authority)
ශ්රී ලංකා ටෙලිකොම් ආයතනයේ සියයට 49 දශම 5ක කොටස් ප්රමාණයක් විදේශ ආයෝජකයින් සදහා විකිණීමට සුදානම් වන්නේ ඩොලර් මිලියන 500ක මුදලකට බව ශ්රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ නියෝජනය කරන ටෙලිකොම් වෘත්තීය සමිතියේ සභාපති හේමන්ත නෙත්තිකුමාර මහතා කියයි.
මුදල් අමාත්යාංශය විසින් ගෙන ආ රජයේ ණය ගැනීමේ සීමාව ඉහළ දැමීමේ යෝජනාවේ ප්රතිඵලයක් ලෙස මුදල් ප්රතිපත්ති දැඩි කිරීම සහ මුදල් මුද්රණය සීමා කර තිබියදීත් සංචිත මුදල් පදනම දැනට පවතින රුපියල් ට්රිලියන 3.84 සිට ට්රිලියන 4.5 දක්වා ඉහළ දැමීමට මහබැංකුවට යෝජනා කර ඇති බවට අනාවරණය විය.
Fitch Ratings - Hong Kong: Fitch Ratings has downgraded Sri Lanka's Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'CC', from 'CCC', and has affirmed the Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR at 'RD' (Restricted Default). Fitch typically does not assign Outlooks to ratings of 'CCC+' or below.
SL ships $ 1.09 b worth merchandise in October; down by over 8.18%
Maintains over $ 1 b in exports for fifth consecutive month
Services exports for 10 months estimated at $ 1.61 b
The Colombo stock market remained bearish with net foreign inflows year to date crossing the Rs. 20 billion mark yesterday, whilst indices began the fresh week positively.
ජාත්යන්තර මූල්ය අරමුදලේ සහාය ලබාගැනීම වෛද්යවරයකු හමුවට යෑම හා සමාන බවත් ඒ නිසා එමගින් ලබා දෙන විසඳුම් ඇතැම් විට අප්රසන්න විය හැකි බවත් හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති ඉන්ද්රජිත් කුමාරස්වාමි මහතා පවසා ඇත.
The Colombo stock market yesterday saw a sharp pick up in trading in terms of turnover and volume with indices staying positive.
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