Combank expands footprint in Myanmar with microfinance firm
Sri Lanka’s parallel vehicle importers recently urged the government to provide ‘brand new’ status for vehicle imports with zero mileage by them in order to pursue government tenders.
Addressing a media briefing last Friday, the Vehicle Importers Association of Sri Lanka (VIASL), Chairman Ranjan Peiris appealed to the government to do away with the current monopoly enjoyed by franchise vehicle agents in bidding for government tenders. Peiris noted that when importing a vehicle to Sri Lanka, the brand new status was only given to the vehicles imported through these franchise dealers and even when a parallel vehicle importer imported a vehicle with a zero mileage, the vehicle cannot be registered as a brand new vehicle due to prevailing regulations.
The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has opened a microfinance company as its second subsidiary in Myanmar, two years after opening a representative office in Yangon that offers advisory services, banking, funds transfer and encashment services to Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi businesses operating in the country. Commercial Bank’s Chairman Dharma Dheerasinghe presided at the formal opening of CBC Myanmar Microfinance Company Ltd. in Nay Pyitaw on July 16, accompanied by Managing Director Jegan Durairatnam and members of the bank’s senior management.
Sri Lanka’s tea output fell 15 percent in June from a year earlier, the state-run Tea Board said on Friday.
Analysts attribute the fall to heavy rains and poor fertiliser application. However, production in the first half of the year has risen 1.3 percent from the same period last year. in Galle, Matara, Rathnapura and Nuwaraeliya and process them in seven factories operated in low grown regions in Galle, Rathnapura and Ginigathhena and sells processed black teas in the Colombo Tea Auction.