Oil refining capacity boost
Sri Lanka’s government has taken initiatives to increase the refining capacity of oil in the country by 40 percent with an investment of USD 700 million, Transport and Mineral resources Minister A. H. M. Fowzie told state media.
Sri Lanka imports annually Rs 135 billion worth of oil and out of this only 60 percent is refined at Sapugaskanda oil refinery. The rest 40 per cent oil is imported as a refined product.
This has created an additional burden on the state coffers to the tune of Rs. 30 billion annually to import refined oil, he told the Sunday Observer.
The government has taken initiatives to enhance refining capacity at Sapugaskanda by another 40 per cent in order to meet the full refined oil needs of the country, he explained.
With the installation of a new plant foreign exchange could be saved and the Petroleum Corporation could be made a more viable and profitable state owned enterprise, minister pointed out.
The Chinese government had once offered financial assistance of USD 400 million to enhance refining capacity of Sapugaskanda. However this much needed project was not materialised and the then government set aside this proposal on the grounds that country had no funds to service this loan, he said.
HSBC opens call centre in Sri Lanka
Global banking giant HSBC formally launched a US$ 31m call centre in Sri Lanka as violence flared in the north of the island, officials said.
Sri Lanka beat contenders such as neighbouring India to secure HSBC’s 11th call centre, a company official told reporters, adding that they were not too worried about the deadly attacks in the area.
“We are not unduly worried about the situation here in Sri Lanka. HSBC has been around in this country for over 100 years,” said Alan Burton, managing director of HSBC Electronic Data Processing Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
The HSBC unit is currently the biggest call centre in Sri Lanka in terms of employment, with 1,326 staff. It has 1,666 seats with room to expand to 3,000 staffers.
‘The Sri Lankan unit is primarily a banking operation to service our operations in the United States and Britain,’ said Malcolm Wagget, the group’s chief operating officer for South Asia.
‘We don’t have plans to add more centres next year, because we have adequate capacity available in Sri Lanka and in India, where we have five such centres,’ he said.
For Sri Lanka, much of the outsourcing business is from Europe, Scandinavia and Australia.
Sri Lanka dispenses with minimum investment requirements for BPO operations, with three-year tax holidays thrown in as an added incentive.(AFX)
Sri Lanka’s government has taken initiatives to increase the refining capacity of oil in the country by 40 percent with an investment of USD 700 million, Transport and Mineral resources Minister A. H. M. Fowzie told state media.
Sri Lanka imports annually Rs 135 billion worth of oil and out of this only 60 percent is refined at Sapugaskanda oil refinery. The rest 40 per cent oil is imported as a refined product.
This has created an additional burden on the state coffers to the tune of Rs. 30 billion annually to import refined oil, he told the Sunday Observer.
The government has taken initiatives to enhance refining capacity at Sapugaskanda by another 40 per cent in order to meet the full refined oil needs of the country, he explained.
With the installation of a new plant foreign exchange could be saved and the Petroleum Corporation could be made a more viable and profitable state owned enterprise, minister pointed out.
The Chinese government had once offered financial assistance of USD 400 million to enhance refining capacity of Sapugaskanda. However this much needed project was not materialised and the then government set aside this proposal on the grounds that country had no funds to service this loan, he said.
HSBC opens call centre in Sri Lanka
Global banking giant HSBC formally launched a US$ 31m call centre in Sri Lanka as violence flared in the north of the island, officials said.
Sri Lanka beat contenders such as neighbouring India to secure HSBC’s 11th call centre, a company official told reporters, adding that they were not too worried about the deadly attacks in the area.
“We are not unduly worried about the situation here in Sri Lanka. HSBC has been around in this country for over 100 years,” said Alan Burton, managing director of HSBC Electronic Data Processing Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
The HSBC unit is currently the biggest call centre in Sri Lanka in terms of employment, with 1,326 staff. It has 1,666 seats with room to expand to 3,000 staffers.
‘The Sri Lankan unit is primarily a banking operation to service our operations in the United States and Britain,’ said Malcolm Wagget, the group’s chief operating officer for South Asia.
‘We don’t have plans to add more centres next year, because we have adequate capacity available in Sri Lanka and in India, where we have five such centres,’ he said.
For Sri Lanka, much of the outsourcing business is from Europe, Scandinavia and Australia.
Sri Lanka dispenses with minimum investment requirements for BPO operations, with three-year tax holidays thrown in as an added incentive.(AFX)