BIZ

New Coconut triangle in Hambantota

Published

2 years ago

November 21, 2023

editor

The Coconut Development Board has decided to establish a new coconut triangle by planting 100,000 coconut saplings in Hambantota district.

Accordingly, the establishment of this new coconut triangle centered on the areas of Ranna, Weerakatiya and Walasmulla is currently being carried out with arrangements being made to provide 05 coconut saplings per household to the farmers for planting coconut saplings in their home gardens.

The distribution of coconut saplings to the farmers for this new coconut triangle was done in the last two days under the participation of the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mahinda Amaraweera.

The total daily consumption of coconuts is around 4.5 million nuts, the daily production of coconuts is around 03 million nuts. For this reason, Minister Amaraweera, has instructed the National Coconut Development Board to implement a program to motivate the people to cultivate coconut cultivation in every home garden that has space.

In addition, steps have been taken to provide coconut saplings to the farmers of those seven villages in relation to the Youth Agri Entrepreneurship Village Program currently operating in 07 villages of Hambantota district.

In August, Minister of Industries – Ramesh Pathirana had said that the 2nd Coconut Triangle would be established in the North, centering around Jaffna, Mannar and Mullaitivu.

BIZ

Over 18,000MT of salt imported to address shortage

Published

2 hours ago

June 13, 2025

editor

Sri Lanka has imported 18,163 MT of salt between May 22 and June 07, according to Customs.

The total cost of these imports amounted to approximately Rs.1,291 million, with Rs.720 million paid as taxes.

The imports are part of efforts to address the ongoing salt shortage, with a total target of 30,000 MT to be brought into the country.

BIZ

CBSL advises banks to further assist affected SMEs

Published

15 hours ago

June 12, 2025

editor

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), with a view to facilitating sustainable revival of businesses that were adversely affected during the recent past has advised the licensed commercial banks and licensed specialised banks (hereinafter referred to as licensed banks) to provide further concessions to those SME borrowers who commenced discussions for business revival with the respective banks by 31.03.2025.

These relief measures are in line with Circular No. 04 of 2024 dated 19.12.2024 on Relief Measures to Assist the affected SMEs and the Addendum Circular No. 01 of 2025 dated 01.01.2025.

Accordingly, licensed banks have been advised to provide further concessions including interest reliefs and new lending to affected borrowers while the timeline given to the licensed banks in Circular No. 04 of 2024 to enter into reschedulement agreements with eligible SME borrowers has been extended from 15.06.2025 to 30.06.2025.

press_20250612_relief_measures_to_assist_the_affected_small_and_medium_enterprises_e Download

BIZ

Qantas to close budget airline Jetstar Asia

Published

2 days ago

June 11, 2025

editor

Singapore-based budget airline Jetstar Asia will close down at the end of July, its Australian owner Qantas has announced.

The low-cost carrier has struggled with rising supplier costs, high airport fees and increased competition from other airlines in the region.

Qantas says the closure will provide it with A$500m ($325.9m; £241.4m) to invest towards renewing its fleet of aircraft, adding that it will redeploy 13 planes for routes across Australia and New Zealand.

The closure of Jetstar Asia will not impact its Australia-based Jetstar Airways operations, nor those of Jetstar Japan, according to a statement from Qantas.

“We have seen some of Jetstar Asia’s supplier costs increase by up to 200 per cent, which has materially changed its cost base,” said Qantas Group Chief Executive Vanessa Hudson in the statement.

The discount airline, which has operated flights for over 20 years, is set to make a A$35m loss this financial year.

(BBC News)