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| Sunday, 24 February 2002 |
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Swift registration for new companies The Registrar of Companies will take steps to register new companies within a few hours, from March 1, under a directive issued by Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake. Minister Karunanayake said this will speed up company registration. A team from Munda Gas Philippines arrived in Sri Lanka last week to sign an agreement to provide LP Gas and auto gas. The company will produce the gas and sell it at a price of Rs 325 per cylinder. "They have been interested in the Sri Lankan market for sometime, but could not enter due to high licensing fees stipulated by the previous regime," said the Minister. "Since our government lays emphasis on open market competition, resulting in the consumer being the ultimate beneficiary and not on monopolies, we will encourage them," he said. Expressing his views on the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE), the Minister said the 24-hour operation is a success and as a result, the turnover has increased compared to the overhead costs which are negligible. "We are also planning to lease warehouse space of the CWE to the private sector and eight companies have already shown an interest in participating in this venture." The Ministry is planning to close 56 loss-making Sathosa outlets. The total number of Sathosa outlets will however be increased to 300 in the next 500 days. There will be 100 A grade outlets and 200 B grade outlets. "We are planning to make the A grade outlets one-stop-supermarkets with pharmacies, banks and airline counters," said the Minister. The old Colombo Commercial building overlooking the Beira Lake would also be taken over by the CWE and converted into a supermarket. It has a floor area of 9000 square feet. The government also plans to set up a duty free city on a 30-40 acre site between Colombo and Katunayake to attract Indians and Pakistanis who now travel to Singapore for duty free shopping. They will be permitted to deal in Indian and Pakistani rupees and any firm selling leading brands of consumer items will be encouraged to come, said Minister Karunanayake. The Customs will work 24 hours starting March 1 on a decision made at the Exporters Forum which was revived after a lapse of many years. This will greatly facilitate exporters, he added. Another step taken by the Ministry to boost exports is the holding of the Sri Lanka Expo exhibition every six months. Plans are under way to hold sectoral exhibitions every month to showcase products available in the country. Schemes will be introduced to give awards to inventors and importers. Gold Coin Singapore will be permitted by the government to import and mill wheat flour in the country and the operation is expected to start in June 2003, he added. Minister Karunanayake said that the government is planning to re-negotiate the Indo - Lanka Free Trade Agreement in April. "We will visit India from April 15-17 for discussions because the current agreement favours India." |
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