Lankan heavyweights set up CPO Mill

The joint venture Crude Palm Oil (CPO) mill set up by Agalawatte Plantations Ltd., Elpitiya Plantations Limited and Namunukula Plantations Limited under the company AEN Palm Oil Processing (Pvt) Limited (AENP) commenced commercial production recently.
Agalawatte, Elpitiya and Namunukula Plantations are majority owned by Sri Lankan corporate heavyweights Mackwoods, Aitken Spence and Richard Pieris respectively.
The opening was a low key affair with all the shareholders, directors and senior management of all three companies attending the ceremony and seeing at first hand the operation of this state-of-the-art palm oil mill, which is only the second such facility in Sri Lanka in the last 30 years or more.

Present at the occasion were J M S Brito (Deputy Chairman/MD) and Dr Rohan M Fernando (Director) of Aitken Spence, Pravir Samarasinghe (Director/Chief Operating Officer) and Paul Rathnayake (Director) of Richard Pieris, Dr Chris Nonis (Chairman), Lalith Fonseka (Joint Managing Director) and Shiran Gunaratne (CEO-Agalawatte Plantations) of Mackwoods, and Dharshana Gunasinghe (CEO- AENP).

The total investment on the project has been around Rs 250 million and was set up with the help of expertise from Malaysia. All equipment was manufactured in Malaysia and the entire factory was designed by Ashwin Consultants, Malaysia. Local contractors for the project were Wijaya Engineering.
The mill is equipped with a steam turbine, where the steam required for the mill is generated by a steam boiler. The boiler uses palm fibre and shell as fuel, which are waste products from the process. High pressure steam is utilized to generate the power required for the factory. AENP will also be qualified to obtain carbon credits, which is a highly acclaimed certification for being environmentally friendly, as power generation in the factory is through the use of bio mass and agricultural waste.

Palm fruit from all three plantation companies will be processed in this mill and CPO exported overseas. Plans are also underway to expand production further and promote the growing of oil palm with smallholders in the area. Malaysia and Indonesia have a phenomenal smallholder base. This is an indication of the attractiveness of oil palm as a crop to smallholders. AENP with the strength of its shareholders has great plans to move into high quality value addition.

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Com Bank extends holiday banking to Akurana

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has extended iholiday banking facility to Akurana by opening its latest MiniCom Centre at Cargills Food City, at this important town.
This banking facility is linked to all other Commercial Bank branches, MiniCom Centres and Service Points at Arpico Supercentres through ComNet, permitting online real-time banking. It is also equipped with an ATM linked to all the other ATMs of Commercial Bank and over one million ATMs belonging to the Cirrus and Visa networks worldwide.

The Cargills Food City in which the Akurana Minicom is housed, is located at 289/3, Matale Road, Akurana.
Here, the Deputy General Manager – Operations of Commercial Bank Sanath Bandaranayake (Extreme right) addresses the gathering in the presence of the Manager of the MiniCom Centre Fathima Uvaise and other distinguished guests.

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Sampath Bank Pita Kotte acclaimed for excellence

Sampath Banks Pita Kotte branch has proved its excellence performance by exceeding their set targets within a minimal period in operation. The well-trained staff has always extended their friendly and speedy service and has gained an admirable response from their clientele in the area.
The branch offers an array of products which include ‘Pubudu’, ‘Triple S’, ‘X-Set’, ‘Double S’, ‘e’ Double S’ and much more. Further, the customers are also provided with facilities such as personal current accounts, pawning, foreign currencies and travellers’ cheques etc. In addition, the bank is promoting economical credit cards with value added features among potential clients.

Credit facilities at Sampath Bank are available at competitive rates and the account Sampath ‘Sanhinda’ for pensioners offers higher interest rates. Home loans ‘Sampath Sevana’, Leasing facilities are also among the services that the bank offers at attractive rates.

When it comes to money transferring, ‘Express Money’ and ‘Ez-Remit’ there are few exchange companies Sampath Bank has built up a strong relationship with to carryout transactions within minutes no matter where you are. Sampath Bank also has ‘Pay Easy’, a web based payment scheme where customers can just log in, and pay phone bills and other utility bills through the bank’s website.

Customers of the area are invited to visit Sampath Pita Kotte branch to experience a unique treatment by an energetic young team to its valuable and respected customers.

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Anton leads where it matters

St. Anthony’s Consolidated, established in 1963, is a brain child of A.Y.S. Gnanam and has been in existence for more than 4 decades. Today it is leading in the construction industry in Sri Lanka.
Its key brand “Anton” has been in the forefront of the construction industry with its range of products used in the building materials sphere. Anton’s pioneering product range comprises Anton PVC pipes, uPVC injection moulded fitting, square gutters with fittings, uPVC drainage fittings sewerage fittings with the unique “cleaning eye”, pressure moulded uPVC fittings and PVC doors and frames.

This complete product range positions Anton as a ‘one-stop’ supplier to the construction industry. Anton boasts of a state-of-the-art research and development unit which was responsible for the development of most of the products in-house.

“In fact, we are the pioneers in developing and introducing the product range to the Sri Lankan construction industry” said Marketing Manager at Anton, Priyantha Wanigeratne. “The success behind Anton products has been the quality and diversity of its product range coupled with its innovativeness” he added.

“The water related infrastructure products were a novel introduction to the industry in recent times and are appreciated immensely by our customers as they provide convenience, cost effectiveness and provides construction/fitting efficiency due to the variety of accessories available” Wanigeratne further added. Anton has been working closely with the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (SLIA) from its inception, and incorporates industry knowledge into their product development process in terms of suggestions and ideas. Anton has won many an award at SLIA during the past few years for its innovative new products.” The best product awards for Anton sewerage fittings and bio-septic tanks are rated high amongst Anton’s other achievements.

The latest additions to the Anton range are the sewerage filling bio-cell septic tanks together with “Dolphin” PVC doors and “Polar” heat insulation material.
Anton’s competitive advantage is that most of its products are manufactured in-house utilising local expertise and talent enabling them to be cost effective and ensure availability at any given time. Furthermore, since the production process has been awarded the ISO 9000 status, Anton’s customers are assured that they get a quality product for all their construction requirements.

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ICICI Bank introduces ICICI Bank Salary Account

ICICI Bank ’s Lankan branch introduced its “ICICI Bank Salary Accounts” to the top management and decision makers of over 75 leading corporates in Sri Lanka. The management session was conducted by Nalaka Hewamadduma on “Secrets of Higher Performance” to the key decision makers of top corporates such as Aitken Spence, Confifi Group, George Steuarts and many more in Colombo recently.

Senior Vice President and Head of Retail Liabilities, ICICI Bank (in Sri Lanka) Sachin Sikka,, said, “Taking on the experience of having served 5 Million salary account holders spread over 35,000 corporate relationships in India, ICICI Bank’s Sri Lanka branch recently launched this innovative product for corporates and their employees offering a complete product suite with convenience and host of benefits to both”.

Those corporates who wish to open salary accounts for their employees in ICICI Bank can have their salaries credited to the account at no cost, with the concept of ‘Single Debit – Multiple Credits’.
The concept of Drop Boxes was explained at the gathering in Colombo, which was attended by the leading corporates. Drop boxes would be installed at the premises of the selected company where the employees could drop in any non-cash banking service request and the same would be delivered at their doorstep within 24 hours at no cost.

Since commencing operations in Sri Lanka, the bank has been highly successful in attracting a growing number of customers through its unique retail and corporate products, including an exceptional ATM network totaling 800 islandwide, personal loans, and speedy remittance services. ICICI Bank’s international ATM-cum-Debit card is also accepted at any VISA enabled point of sale terminal in Sri Lanka as well as globally, to provide customers with the dual convenience of cash free transactions and greater security.

ICICI Bank a leading player in the retail banking market and services is India’s second largest bank and largest private sector bank with over 50 years presence in financial services and with assets of USD 67 billion as on December 31, 2006.

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Lankan undergradutes for internship at Microsoft Research Laboratory

Two Sri Lankan undergraduates will begin internships at the Microsoft Research Laboratory in India this month. This is the first such occasion that Sri Lankan university students get the opportunity of entering one of the four Microsoft global laboratories which are the breeding grounds for technologies that help define and redefine the computing experience for millions of people for decades to come.

The undergraduates will, over the next 6 – 12 months, be influenced by world-renowned scientists at Microsoft Research, which constitutes one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most highly respected software-research organisations in the world.

The undergraduates chosen by Microsoft to enjoy this rare opportunity are Rathnaweera Patabandhige Chandima Jayasri from the University of Moratuwa and Thanuja Priyadarshani from the University of Colombo School of Computing. The IT students were selected from a list of applicants, who were screened based on their research focus.

By granting these internships to Sri Lankans, Microsoft provides the country with critical exposure to world class research and development activity in IT. The experience gained at Microsoft Research will no doubt enable Chandima and Thanuja to share their learnings with colleagues back home, thereby contribute to the research capabilities in Sri Lanka.

Jinashri Samarakoon of Microsoft Sri Lanka said, “Microsoft is committed to support building a resilient IT industry within the country. We understand that as a global leader in the software industry, we can contribute much to the local industry by sharing our best practices, our ability to facilitate the bringing together of global experts and knowledge pools together.

This is what we strive to do in our CSR and education efforts and in fact in all our engagements with the industry.
Sending students to MSR is a result of a long term effort of Microsoft Sri Lanka and the universities working together and we are happy we are able to send our first interns this year. Research is key to innovation and therefore plays an important role in building a strong IT industry. Therefore, we hope the exposure to MSR will give our interns the future of the local IT industry, a strong building block to start their career, and enrich the local knowledge pool.”
Established in 1991, Microsoft Research conducts millions of dollars worth of research each year, making the software giant the biggest spender on IT research. Microsoft Research is a unique entity among corporate research laboratories, balancing an open academic model with an effective process for transferring its research to product-development teams.

It is an initiative that recognises the inherent value of the academic research community and the need for collaboration between academia and industry to advance state-of-the-art computer science. Microsoft Research focuses mainly on long-term (10-15 years out) computer-science research and vision that is not bound by product cycles. Essentially, the labs recognise that to create the foundation for future technology breakthroughs, it is necessary to maintain independence from product groups.

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SEC appoints two new directors

The SEC Sri Lanka announced the appointment of two industry and academic professionals to its Senior Management. The appointments are of Dr. P.M.C.Thilakarathne as the Director, Financial Services Academy and of Mr. Vajira Wijegunawardene as the Director, Capital Market Development.
Dr. Thilakarathne, a Senior Academic of the Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies at the University of Kelaniya counts twenty years experience in lecturing Corporate Finance and Financial Management modules at undergraduate and post graduate levels in local as well as foreign universities. He is a holder of a B.Com Honors Degree from the University of Kelaniya, an M.Com degree from the Business School, Panjab University India and a Ph.D. from the University of Aegean, Greece, specialising in International Finance with extensive expertise on risk management.

As an academic he has published several research papers in his discipline with his latest research interest being on ‘public sector performance evaluation’.
Further he has also worked in the capacity of a Management Consultant, being instrumental in winning the World Bank grant for Improving Relevance and Quality for Undergraduate Accounting Education in Sri Lanka. Prior to joining the SEC, Dr. Thilakarathne has also rendered his valuable services to the Mercahnt Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL), as a Director of its Main Board and the University of Kelaniya, as the Head of the Department of Accountancy of the Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies.

As Director Capital Market Development, Mr. Wijegunawardene will be responsible in carrying out the recommendations of the Capital Market Master Plan (Master Plan), which charts the future direction of the Sri Lankan Capital Market. The Master Plan aims to enhance the performance and development of the Sri Lankan Capital Market ensuring that it is well positioned to support the economy and the wealth creation among the urban and rural populace of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Wijegunawardene who has over 10 years of experience in the Asset Management industry as an Investment Analyst/ Fund Manager has specialist experience in the management of both fixed income and equity portfolios as well as the management of composite leveraged portfolios of gilt securities. He also possesses expertise as a financial analyst, analysing quoted company financial statements to aid investment decisions.
He was also responsible for the setting up of the operational technicalities of two fund management companies of his previous employment. His previous employers include Eagle NDB Fund Management, First Capital Asset Management and NatWealth.

At NatWealth, he held the overall responsibility of and heading the Asset Management Division, which managed the Mahapola Higher Education Scholarship Trust Fund. He holds a B.A. (Hons) Degree in Business Management & Administration from the University of Reading, UK.

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