Sri Lankan student in UK dies in house fire in East Ham

Faizul Ihzan, aged 30 from Sainthamaruthu, Sri Lanka  died on Saturday  during a house fire in East Ham, UK which took place on Friday night (November 12). Firefighters found the body as they were tackling the blaze at the terraced house in Tilbury Road, shortly after 8pm.

His sister and her two children escaped from the fire and were taken to hospital by ambulance suffering from smoke inhalation, a spokesman for London Fire Brigade said.
More than 20 firefighters wearing breathing apparatus tackled the blaze at the family home.

Lanka’s BPO/IT sector can contribute 20% of GDP by 2020

Newly established BPO academy aims to train 1000 students by next year

By Azhar Razak

Sri Lanka’s Business Processing Outsourcing and Information Technology (BPO/IT) sector has the potential to contribute 20 percent to the country’s economic output by 2020 if emerging opportunities are harnessed properly, a top industry expert has said.

According to BPO Certification Institute, Executive Vice-President and Global Operations Head, Sanjeeva Shukla, Sri Lanka could maximise revenues by concentrating on the opportunities provided by the niche sub-segment of the BPO industry, Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) which includes functions such as Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) and Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO).

Apparel exporters concerned over EDRS halt

By Azhar Razak

Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association (SLEA), the trade association representing apparel exporting firms in the island, says the government’s failure to fully implement the promised Export Development Rewards Scheme (EDRS) for the sector has hampered relations between policy-makers and apparel exporting stakeholders. The newly-appointed SLEA chairman, Rohan Abeykoon, however, says he is confident the upcoming budget will help apparel exporters mitigate some of the immediate challenges since a comprehensive five-year industry strategy has been handed over to the government.

Budget targets need to be more realistic and credible – former banker

By Azhar Razak
Macro economic targets set in Sri Lanka’s forthcoming Budget 2011 will need to be more realistic and credible while government and opposition members, citizens, civil society and other stakeholders should be able to review, understand, monitor and critique budget estimates and fiscal performance thoroughly, a top economist has suggested.

Senior economist Dr Anila Dias Bandaranaike says that although fiscal targets in the Budget 2011, which is expected to be presented in parliament on November 22, needs to be set high, they should also be pragmatic with recurrent expenditure rationalised and curtailed.