Jul 11 (FT) The apparel industry yesterday expressed concern over the 30% tariff proposed by the US, its biggest market. US President Donald Trump on Monday announced a 30% reciprocal tariff on SL exports from 1 Aug. “As one of the country’s largest export earners, the sector relies heavily on access to the US market, and such a steep increase threatens to erode competitiveness, particularly when compared to regional peers,” Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) said. more..

Jul 11 (Island) In a world grappling with what many now call a polycrisis—a convergence of economic instability, geopolitical tension, and relentless technological disruption—the old paradigms of workforce management are no longer simply outdated; they are liabilities. For businesses in Sri Lanka and across the globe, survival and growth now depend on a new, more dynamic asset: a workforce that can pivot, adapt, and innovate on the fly. This urgent imperative was more..

Jul 11 (TM) Electricity Consumers' Association (ECA) has alleged that a power purchase agreement (PPA) between the CEB and Sahasdhanavi Limited (a fully-owned subsidiary of LTL Holdings Limited in the power and energy sector) in April of this year, could lead to an annual loss of Rs. 73 billion in public funds. In April, a PPA was signed between Sahasdhanavi and CEB for the development of a 350 megawatt (MW) more..

Jul 11 (DN) Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has approached the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with a proposal to host a six-match white-ball series, including three ODIs and three T20Is, in August. This initiative comes after India’s tour of Bangladesh was canceled. A senior official from SLC stated that discussions with the Indian Cricket Board are currently ongoing to arrange this series for mid-August. SLC President Shammi Silva plans to address this further at the upcoming more..

Jul 11 (Island) Sri Lanka Athletics is expecting its affiliates to submit reports of their annual activities by 10.00 am today to determine the eleligible clubs qualified to vote at the upcoming Annual General Meeting at which -a new president and office bearers are set to be elected. According to the new sports regulations, clubs that have not conducted their annual championships, coaching or technical official workshops, fielded athletes for major championships including the National Championship and more..

Jul 11 (EN) Ceylon Chamber of Commerce urged the govt to further discuss to reduce tariffs imposed on American citizens by their President, so as the close the gap with competitors. The new Trump tariff for India (originally set at 29%), a potential competitor is not yet known. The request to reduce tariffs on goods sold by Sri Lanka to US citizens comes as some businesses in SL lobby the government to charge very high tariffs. Last week, the former head of an organization called more..

Jul 11 (ST) National Youth Services Council spent Rs. 538.79 million to implement six programmes from January to August last year, though they were not related to the priority tasks, an audit inquiry has found. The six flagged programmes were: Smart Youth New Year Festival, the National Youth Vesak Festival, the National Youth Poson Zone, Tharuna Hamuwa, the 31st Night Youth Celebration and the Smart Youth Exhibitions and Musical Show. None of these programmes had been related to more..

Jul 11 (FT) Senior Economic Adviser to the President Duminda Hulangamuwa yesterday clarified that the newly proposed 30% tariff on SL exports to the US is not a flat rate, but an additional levy applied on top of existing import duties. Speaking to the media, he explained that the 30% tariff is layered on top of existing levies, which vary from 0% to 25% depending on the products' Harmonised System (HS) codes. more..

Jul 11 (NW) Opposition MP Dr. Harsha de Silva has called for urgent, bipartisan efforts to secure a more competitive trade deal with the United States, warning that the current 30% tariff on Sri Lankan exports is not sustainable and risks undermining the country’s key industries. In a statement on Thursday, Dr. de Silva welcomed the reduction in U.S. import tariffs on Sri Lankan goods from 44% to 30%, but questioned whether it was enough to keep SL competitive in the global market. more..

Jul 11 (PMD) Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake today (10) met with Dr. Chris Elias, President of Global Development at the Gates Foundation, for high-level discussions focused on key areas critical to SL’s development. The meeting, held at the Presidential Secretariat, explored collaborative efforts in agricultural modernisation, nutrition, digital public infrastructure and rural technological integration. Central to the discussions was the Inclusive Digital Agriculture Transformation more..

Jul 11 (Island) Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake has disclosed in Parliament that two retired police officers, Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne and SSP Shani Abeysekera, had been brought back to oversee investigations into the Easter Sunday carnage at the request of Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and the Catholic Church. Rathnayake said the two officers had been victimised by previous administrations. more..

Jul 11 (DM) A new report from a group of eminent economic thinkers has proposed the formulation of an independent growth commission to guide SL towards sustained economic recovery and transformation. The report, titled Sustaining transformative growth in SL 2025-2030, was convened by London-based ODI Global and the Colombo-based Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA). The authors argued that such a commission is vital for building a national consensus on more..

Jul 11 (FT) Seylan Bank’s Basel III-compliant Tier II listed debenture, raising up to Rs. 15 billion, was oversubscribed on the opening day on Wednesday having received strong market response, highlighting investor confidence in the bank’s resilient business model and long-term vision. The Basel III-compliant Tier II, Listed, Rated, Unsecured, Subordinated, Redeemable debentures with a Non-Viability Conversion is at a par value of Rs. 100 each for an initial issue of 50,000,000 debentures, more..

Jul 11 (FT) Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Ministry Secretary K.A. Vimalenthirarajah yesterday disclosed that a National Tariff Policy is in the works, which will help eliminate sectoral biases and position Sri Lanka more competitively in the global markets. “The idea is to move away from fragmented policymaking and adopt a more unified, standards-aligned approach which supports exports and attracts investments,” he told journalists. more..

Jul 11 (FT) A new report released recently by the Independent Growth Study Group presents a comprehensive roadmap for Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and long-term development, as the country looks to emerge from its deepest economic crisis in decades. Titled Sustaining Transformative Growth in Sri Lanka 2025-2030, the study was produced by a team of nine leading economists and development experts under the guidance of ODI Global and the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA). more..

Jul 11 (TM) Kusal Mendis smote another half century, Pathum Nissanka crashed a 16-ball 42, and SL made light work of a target of 155, strolling home at the end of the 19th over. It was the SL bowling that laid the groundwork though, with Dasun Shanaka plying shorter lengths to concede only 22 from his four overs, while Jeffrey Vandersay also kept a lid on the scoring. Bangladesh might wonder if they were not ambitious enough, more..

Jul 11 (Island) Minister Ananda Wijepala declared in Parliament on Wednesday that TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chanthirakanthan alias Pilleyan had had prior knowledge of the Easter Sunday terror strikes (2019). Pilleyan was in the Batticaloa prison at the time of the terror attacks. A narrative is apparently being created to support former aide to Pilleyan, Azad Moulana’s claim that Pilleyan and the military intelligence had links to Zahran Hashim and other NTJ terrorists. more..

Jul 11 (TM) Plastic waste is a growing issue worldwide. According to the UN Environment Programme, a truck-load of plastic waste enters the ocean every minute that we spend on this planet. Recent studies suggest that Sri Lanka generates about 938 metric tonnes (MT) of plastic waste every single day. The same study has revealed that about 300 MT of this gets collected daily by the local authorities, with a large majority of plastic waste being openly and illegally dumped. more..

Jul 11 (ST) I wish I were there. I wish the whole nation had taken a holiday to watch how highly placed public servants cringed before our highest courts of justice, having on previous occasions meted out what they considered their form of justice. These were people who did the bidding of their masters, a ragtag team of pompous asses who will bend at the knees of those who might very well use their positions and places among the wielders of power, never mind if they contaminated more..

Jul 11 (CT) Harini Amarasuriya was second only to Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) on the election platform. The public looked to her as the female alternative to AKD, the leader of the movement that spearheaded the NPP to power. Her 56% campaign (women comprised 56% SL’s voting population), galvanized the women folk for the support of the NPP and caught the eye of many a political pundit and the average voter more so. She led the women’s power to a dazzling display of authentic more..

Jul 11 (TM) Ongoing shortages of medical supplies are affecting patient care as the free healthcare system faces the dilemma of relying on patients to source required medical supplies. Previously, there existed a practice of healthcare professionals directing patients to purchase necessary medical supplies externally due to their unavailability within hospitals. This practice was especially present in the field of orthopaedic more..

Jul 11 (CT) Six years following the most devastating suicide bombing in Sri Lanka’s history, there is little to no doubt in the general Sri Lankan psyche that the whole incident was orchestrated – allegedly – for political gain. While it is true that every accused person is innocent until proven otherwise and it is the duty of the allegers to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the allegations are true, the only ground the pragmatic public can now stand on to even think that the accused more..

Jul 11 (TM) The IMF Executive Board recently completed its fourth review under the EFF with Sri Lanka, providing the country with immediate access to about US$ 350 million to support Sri Lanka’s economic policies and reforms. In doing so, the IMF observed that performance under the bailout programme has been generally strong with some implementation risks being addressed. “All quantitative targets for end-March 2025, except the stock of expenditure arrears, were met. more..

Jul 11 (CT) The promise of relief for Sri Lankan commuters has turned into a tale of unfulfilled expectations, as the much-anticipated bus fare reduction has fallen dramatically short of initial commitments. What began as a pledge for a 2.5% fare cut has culminated in a mere 0.55% reduction — a figure that has left passengers, operators, and policymakers grappling with questions about fairness, economic reality, and more..

Jul 11 (DM) Immigrant workers are our assets. And it’s important to use the adjective immigrant here and not migrant. This is because migration is for those who go abroad illegally and for birds who fly from country to country to escape adverse weather conditions. But to make these workers assets, much has to be done on their behalf. We only talk about the US dollars they contribute to the SL economy. But we all know that when they work abroad there is little support from SL authorities. more..

Jul 11 (DM) It’s important to approach hypothetical scenarios with careful consideration, especially when discussing sensitive historical events and their potential alternate outcomes. Predicting the exact trajectory of a conflict under different circumstances is inherently complex. However, we can analyse the potential impact of drone technology on a hypothetical prolonged conflict between SL armed forces and the LTTE, assuming the conflict continued past 2009 into the present day. more..

Jul 10 (FT) US President Donald Trump has settled for a 30% tariff on imports from SL, down from 44% proposed in April. He announced the move in a letter to President Anura Kumara Disanayake dated 9 July 2025. Analysts welcomed the move, which is lower than the tariff slapped on Laos and Myanmar (40%), Cambodia, Thailand (36%), Bangladesh (35%) and Indonesia (32%). However, others described it as higher than more..

Jul 10 (DM) Doctors in leading state hospitals are showing reluctance to prescribe medicines, surgical items to be purchased from private or third parties in light of the recent allegations made against Dr. Maheshi Wijeratne, a leading neurosurgeon. The specialist who is attached to the Sri J'pura General Hospital is embroiled in a legal battle over allegations of selling medical equipment valued at Rs. 50,000 to patients for Rs. 175,000 through a private company. more..

Jul 10 (FT) Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has crossed the 1.2 million mark in arrivals for 2025, with 48,300 tourists visiting the country in the first eight days of July. This brings the year-to-date (YTD) figure to 1,216,344 arrivals, a 15% year-on-year (YoY) increase. However, with an ambitious target of 3 million arrivals and $ 5 billion in revenue set for the year, the country must attract over 1.78 million tourists or nearly 60% of the full-year goal over the second half of 2025. more..

Jul 10 (TM) Mohamed Rifai Suhail, a 21-year-old student, has been held for nearly nine months under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, reportedly over a video posted by him on a social media platform in which the Israeli flag was shown being trampled. An aviation student from Mawanella, Suhail was initially detained by the Dehiwala Police in Oct 2024 near the Israeli Consular premises for not carrying his ID. more..

Jul 10 (DN) The Govt plans to provide internet access to all secondary schools in Sri Lanka by the end of 2026. PM and Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education Minister Harini Amarasuriya informed Parliament yesterday that it is expected to provide internet access to all secondary schools throughout the country by the end of 2026. She said that as a start up towards fulfilling this goal, Govt has introduced Rs.5,000 unlimited data packages to schools in the country. more..

Jul 10 (DM) Sri Lanka risks reversing the crucial energy reforms, unless it holds the line on the 2024 Electricity Act, the Advocata Institute cautioned yesterday, calling on the govt to reaffirm its commitment to overhauling the power sector. The Colombo-based think tank stressed the need to legally unbundle the CEB's core functions and push for a more competitive, transparent electricity market. “SL cannot afford to fall back into a monopoly-driven model at a time when more..