Business
4th PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards Sri Lanka showcases premier developers and projects

Organisers of the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards recently revealed the winners and commended awardees of the 4th Annual PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Sri Lanka).
Sri Lanka’s leading real estate awards programme made its highly awaited return this year with accolades for the premier development companies in the island nation. A leading name in high-quality, luxurious residential developments in key locations, Home Lands Skyline (Pvt) Ltd won the title of Best Developer, one of seven awards the company garnered this year. Kelsey Developments PLC, a pioneer behind gated community and lifestyle residential community concepts in the country, won Best Lifestyle Developer, a title presented for the first time this year.
Projects by Home Lands Skyline (Pvt) Ltd dominated the coveted Best of Sri Lanka awards. Canterbury Golf Resort Apartments was named Best Condo Development (Sri Lanka), in addition to Best Condo Development (Colombo Metropolitan Region). Canterbury Golf Villas garnered the Best Housing Development (Sri Lanka) title, as well as the Best Housing Development (Colombo) and Best Townhouse Architectural Design awards.
Central Park Ja-Ela by Kelsey Developments PLC won Best Housing Architectural Design, plus the Highly Commended award for Best Housing Development (Colombo). Kelsey Developments PLC also earned the Highly Commended award in the Best Condo Development (Colombo Metropolitan Region) category for Urban Gateway Kottawa.
Home Lands Skyline (Pvt) Ltd received the Special Recognition in ESG for promoting environmental consciousness and embracing sustainable initiatives like solar power use and waste segregation, as well as making generous contributions to the wider community.
Hari V. Krishnan, Chief Executive Officer of PropertyGuru Group, said: “Congratulations to the recipients of the 2021 PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Sri Lanka). Your well-designed homes, serene golf communities, and inspired lifestyle developments attest to the continuing maturation of a truly promising property market. The future of Sri Lankan real estate looks bright based on your amazing projects.”
Jules Kay, Managing Director of PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards and Events, said: “We’ve once again reached thousands of developers, agents and investors throughout the region with a dynamic combination of physical and virtual gala presentations. We’re delighted to see more entries returning from Sri Lanka as the property market recovers.”
The virtual awards presentation of the 4th PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Sri Lanka) premiered on AsiaPropertyAwards.com and the programme’s official live channels on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Highlights of the show will be broadcast on the History Channel.
The list of awardees of the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Sri Lanka) was determined by an independent panel of judges consisting of Dr. Nirmal De Silva, Awards Chairperson and Director and CEO, Paramount Realty; Emeritus Prof. Chitra Weddikkara, Managing Director, QServe Pte Ltd.; Nandike D. Samaranayake, Chartered Architect, AIA (SL); Natalie Pendigrast, Founder and Director, Pendi PVT Ltd; Nilesh De Silva, Chartered Architect and Director, Kahawita De Silva & Associates Pvt Ltd (KDS); Roshan Madawela, Founding Director and CEO, RIU Real-Estate Intelligence Unit; Stephanie Balendra, Director, Homes N Spaces Lanka Properties (Pvt) Ltd.; and William Vincent Asoka Tilakawardane, Fellow of the Institute of Project Managers (Sri Lanka).
Business
SL needs laser-like focus on IMF programme implementation: Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy

‘If it gets suspended, it would have pretty dramatic consequences’
by Sanath Nanayakkare
There are three most important priorities for Sri Lanka in the wake of the IMF Programme; implementation, implementation and implementation of the agreed upon benchmarks of the programme. Last thing we need to suddenly find is that we have gone off the track of the programme and it is suspended, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka said on Friday.
He said so while giving the keynote speech at a Central Bank hosted webinar titled “What is next for Sri Lanka in the wake of IMF Programme?”
Deshal De Mel, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Murtaza Jafferjee, Managing Director, JB Securities, Bingumal Thewarathanthri, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank were the panelists at the forum where the moderator was Shiran Fernando, Chief Economist at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce
The following are a few comments made by Dr.Coomaraswamy.
The IMF EFF has now been successfully negotiated. This is in some way the beginning. There is lot more to do. It’s time to start thinking about what happens next. A little under a year ago, there were acute shortages of the most essential good. There were long queues and one or two people passed away while in queue. Prices were skyrocketing and exchange rate was collapsing, inflation was spiking and the Central Bank had to push up interest rates. All this happened only a few months from where we are today. The fact that things have stabilized to a significant extent clearly is a very favourable outcome but actually there is no room for complacency because the stabilization has happened at a low-level equilibrium.
It has happened when the economy experienced a 7.6% contraction last year. It was better than what was anticipated by the IMF and the World Bank, but still it is a very sharp contraction. And we need to get to a situation where we have macro-economic stability with a growth rate of about 4%. There is a lot to be done for this. But this is a very commendable place to get to after all. The Paris Club comprising G7 countries has endorsed our efforts to restore debt sustainability. The non-Paris Club creditors such as India and China also have endorsed and supported our efforts too. So the largest countries and creditors are willing to support Sri Lanka to get back on track in terms of debt sustainability. So this is not a bad place to be.”
“IMF programme implementation has always been a weakness on our part. This time we have already done a lot as prior action but there is more as you would have seen from the documentation tabled in parliament including structural reforms and institutional reform. So we have to have laser-like focus on implementation and move forward with the programme. If the programme gets suspended, it would have pretty dramatic consequences. So we need to keep it on track. We can’t give up the absolutely compelling need for fiscal discipline. What is next for us is; discipline and making the needed economic policy and implementing what e have agreed to do. During our past IMF programmes, the issue was lack of implementation by the Sri Lankan authorities.
Earlier this week Dr. Chandranath Amarasekare, Executive Director at the CBSL arranged for the Irish authorities to brief Sri lankan authorities on the implementation unit set up in Ireland when the global financial crisis hit Ireland which led them to go into an IMF programme. Ireland was meticulous in the way they set up the implementation framework. They identified all the action that had to be taken and assigned parts of it to relevant government entities to implement them. Ireland is back on track now. We need to have the same degree of laser-like focus on implementing the benchmarks. We have to figure out what needs to be done and ascribe responsibility for each action and monitor
carefully how we are going about it. We have to make sue we are hitting all the targets and structural benchmarks as we go along. These are embedded in the IMF programme. Last thing we need is to suddenly find that we have gone off the track of the programme and the programme is suspended. That will constrain the inflows to the country and it will affect the confidence beginning to build up now. All that will get undermined if the programme gets suspended because we are not able to keep it on track. So the Implementation Unit will need a very good authority to reach out to any part of government and get things done. We need this Implementation Unit to be well-structured and running well. And it should have the authority of the President behind it,”he said.
Business
Exterminators PLC opens a training and R&D center

Exterminators PLC, Sri Lanka’s premier pest tech and environmental tech company, opened a 5,000 plus square foot training, research and development center to enhance the quality of service via in-depth innovation to create a circular economy inorder to meet the growing demand in environmentally sustainable public health pest management, agricultural pest management, livestock, plantation and landscape pest management, sanitation and disinfection services in Sri Lanka and emerging and developing markets. The facility includes simulated environments for training in pest management, termite management, mosquito management, sanitation and disinfection, health and safety for new recruits and continuous professional training and development for existing employees.
The company plans to provide training for international pest management professionals in emerging and developing countries as well as serve as a training facility for its strategic franchising partners in the region.
Business
SLT-MOBITEL ‘Hosting Cub’ for MSMEs enables critical infrastructure and value-added hosting services

Understanding the importance of supporting Micro, Small, And Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to drive growth and efficiencies, SLT-MOBITEL, the National ICT Solutions Provider is offering its Hosting Cub – Shared Web Hosting service catering to vital hosting requirements.
SLT-MOBITEL provides hosting facilities for MSMEs with affordable pricing, easy expansion of MSMEs cyber presence and other value-added offerings via its Shared Hosting and Virtual Private Server (VPS) solutions.
The Shared Hosting proposal is offered as the most economical option available for hosting. The overall cost of server maintenance is shared, also catering to low traffic websites that do not require higher bandwidth such as smaller websites and blogs.
The Share Hosting solution is available via four levels – Stellar, Stellar Plus, Stellar Pro and Stellar Business. The ‘Stellar’ package 1 GB VSAN Disk Space to balance storage usage, monthly 20 GB Bandwidth, 2 Mbps speed, 10 websites allowed, secure connection through SSL, FTP Accounts to manage file transfers, Unlimited email accounts, Unlimited MySQL Database to manage data, Unlimited Sub Domains, Hosting in SLT’s state-of-the-art Data Centre and WordPress supported. The pack is priced at only Rs 7500 per annum.
Similarly, the Stellar Plus presents an enhanced package with 2 GB VSAN Disk Space, monthly 40 GB Bandwidth, approval of 15 websites in addition to all the other value-additions. It is priced at Rs 12,000 per year. The Stellar Pro delivers 3 GB VSAN Disk Space, monthly 100 GB Bandwidth and 30 websites allowed while the Stellar Business provides 5 GB VSAN Disk Space, monthly 150GB Bandwidth and 40 websites. All other features are also enabled. The costs for Stellar Pro and Stellar Business are Rs 16,500 and Rs 25,500 respectively, per annum.
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