Hidden motives behind forced consolidation?asks Eran

Eran Wickramaratne

Opposition Member of Parliament, Eran Wickramaratne last week accused the Central Bank (CB) of forcing the banking and financial institutions in the country to go for mergers and absorptions through the process that the regulator had spelt out. Whilst pointing out that although the consolidation of the financial sector in principle is a good move and a long felt need, he however condemned that the guidelines that has been issued in facilitating the process were very illogical and that which raised suspicions whether the regulator had ‘ulterior motives’ in forcing the consolidation.

“When consolidating, the decision to merge and who to merge with should be left to the parties by shareholders, its directors and senior managers. They will make the decision based on a certain business and commercial rationality and not driven by any political objective. But from the Master Plan that had been published by the Central Bank it mentions, for example, that the expected outcome of the Central Bank is to have a ‘large development bank’ which means though not mentioned explicitly, was obvious that the Central Bank is forcing NDB and DFCC Bank to merge,” Wickramaratne, who was the former CEO of NDB Bank said.

TRC scraps Mobile Number Portability plans

Sri Lanka’s telecommunication watchdog, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC) has temporarily scrapped an earlier proposal to implement Mobile Number Portability (MNP), a facility which allows a mobile subscriber to change the operator without changing his/her number. According to TRC, Director-General Anusha Palpita, the proposal has been halted as the island did not proportionately have a positive balance in the number of post-paid mobile subscribers in comparison to the number of pre-paid subscribers.

“If the MNP is implemented, the main beneficiary of it and those demanding for it is the population of post-paid mobile subscribers. However, in Sri Lanka’s case, we have less than 10% of the total mobile subscriber population owning a post-paid mobile connection. Therefore, in my opinion implementation of MNP will not be cost-effective at the moment,” the Director-General explained.

Weliweriya: Dipped Products board fumes over prolonged plant closure

Dr Mahesha Ranasoma

The management of Dipped Products Plc (DPL), which owns the Venigros glove factory in Weliweriya today fumed at authorities for not taking relevant steps to reopen their plant despite test results of investigations conducted by three key independent government bodies confirming the plant exonerated for drinking water contamination.

Expressing grave concerns over the prolonged closure, DPL Managing Director, Dr. Mahesha Ranasoma said test results into pH of a well water sample measured in the area and released by the Water Board on 30th August, Government Analyst’s Department on 13th August and the Central Environment Authority on 29th August have collectively proved the factory was not responsible for low pH in the wells or is responsible for any other form of contamination of the wells.

James Packer plays his cards right at Commonwealth Business Forum

James Packer

Pitches  need for luxury gaming resorts such as his planned 
'Crown Sri Lanka' project  to woo high spending tourists

Australian businessman, James Douglas Packer last week indicated that catering to the needs of the rising middle class travelers from Asia, especially those from China and India will be vital to realize the true potential of the island’s tourism sector.

Hailing Sri Lanka a modern economy, growing strongly with a very professional approach to business and foreign investment, Packer, the son of the late media mogul, Kerry Packer, said the wealthy Chinese middle-class were no doubt attracted to luxury integrated resorts consisting of signature restaurants, quality entertainment, gaming, casinos and high-end retail meeting their travel needs under one roof.

Chairman of Crown Ltd James Packer (second from left) seems to be weighing on his prospects during a panel discussion which included Ministers Prof GL Peiris (third from left) and Nimal Siripala de Silva (extreme right). The session at the Commonwealth Business Forum was titled ‘Sri Lanka: 21st Century Business Destination’ chaired by BOI Chairman, Dr Lakshman Jayaweera (extreme left)

Ranil warns govt on remittance dependency

Ranil Wickremasinghe

Leader of the House and Minister of Irrigation and Water Resource Management, Nimal Siripala de Silva says that although Sri Lanka’s private sector has done very well in certain areas in the past, they lagged behind in areas such as social responsibility where they could play a wider role in helping the government reduce income inequality and human resource development.

Addressing corporate leaders at the Business Today Top 25 Awards ceremony held at the Colombo Hilton last week, the Minister noted that with the war being over, the island now faces a bigger challenge on how it could push the poor people, who are below the poverty line, to the middle income group.

Sri Lanka's big corporates lack export hunger - Hilmy

The head of international management consultancy firm, MTI Consulting, Hilmy Cader claims that one of the reasons why Sri Lanka does not perform well in its export industry is because the island’s big corporates lack hunger for exports. Addressing a forum  organized by the Exporters’ Association of Sri Lanka, Cader analyzing the top 40 CSE capitalized companies said that out of the top 40, only three companies have a significant dependence on International income whilst the others are not entirely dependent except for Carsons, Hayleys and Colombo Dockyard.