Business
NCPC’s conference and awards ceremony is relevant to the environmental matter at hand

by Sanath Nanayakkare
National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC) Sri Lanka will hold its 2nd ‘International Conference at a time a huge number of environmental events draw the world’s attention to saving the planet Earth,
Several international speakers from renowned international organisations in the field, will share their insights at the conference titled, ‘Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy’, which will be held at the Waters Edge on 19th January 2022,
The audience of the forum will mainly comprise key personalities of the Sri Lankan corporate sector where more than 100 senior public sector officials, senior and middle-level managers will also take part.
NCPC Awards 2021 will also be held back-to- back with the 2nd International Conference on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy.
The event is recognised as the pioneer environmental awards programme in Sri Lanka which is reputed for its impartial and comprehensive evaluation process in selecting the winners under different awards categories.
The one-day international conference will have the thematic session in the morning where renowned scholar Dr Rene Van Berkel, Head of UNIDO operations in South Asian Region will make the keynote presentation.
Dr Malini Balakrishnan from The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), India Rajas Badra from Stenum Asia and Dr.Carl Vadenbo, Project Manager from Ecoinvent, will be among other main presenters at the conference.
NCPC was founded by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in 2002, on the request of the government of Sri Lanka.
Gamini Gunasekera, Chairman of NCPC told the media that Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE), as stakeholders will represent the entire industrial export sector at the international conference.
Dr. Anil Jasinghe said that the key strategy adopted by UNIDO and United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP) to promote resource efficiency and cleaner production to the developing world was setting up of the National Cleaner production Centres and continuously developing the capacity and technical knowhow of such centres to support national and local governments as well as industries and businesses.
The government of Sri Lanka, particularly the Ministry of Industries and the Ministry of Environment as the national focal points for UNIDO and UNEP respectively, worked collaboratively to set up one of the centres in Sri Lanka, among the 50 plus centres set up under the Global programme. In this context, this conference and awards ceremony will be highly relevant.”
NCPC also provides many technical services to companies to improve their environmental performance. Those services include cleaner production assessments, energy audits, water audits, chemicals and safety audits, carbon footprint, water footprint etc.
In addition to that, they support industries to develop financial appraisal reports for access of finance for environment-friendly investments.
National Cleaner Production Awards scheme is another tool that NCPC has initiated with the objective of promoting Cleaner Production practices in the country. The body is also working with advanced environmental management tools such as Life Cycle assessment which are new to Sri Lanka.
Under UNIDO-UNEP Global Cleaner Production programme, NCPCs all over the world promote Resource Efficiency and Cleaner Production for industries and businesses.
The upcoming event on 19th January 2022 is widely expected to create a positive impact on all stakeholders as they are highly likely to benefit from international knowledge and updates on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy.
Notably, NCPC supports industries to develop financial appraisal reports, empowering them with potential access to finance for green investments.
Business
Women led LPO services firm Velox Partners enters new office space in Colombo

Velox Partners, a tech-based legal process outsourcing (LPO) firm, expanded its presence into Colombo to augment its existing law firm. Velox commenced operations in January 2020 prior to the onset of the pandemic. Today, it has expanded its services across numerous verticals Commercial law, Litigation, Conveyancing and Company Secretarial Services, with Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) Services being the core. It is geared as a fully-fledged legal service provider servicing clients across United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Velox is female-led with over 90% being women comprising versatile and experienced lawyers. Their expertise bridges multiple disciplines of law with a local and global clientele. The two powerhouses leading the firm are its founding partners Lihini Fernando and Dakshika Perera whose collective experience spans over three decades.
Velox Partners saw Covid-19 restrictions and remote working as an opportunity to position the firm as a tech-based entity and launched its LPO arm. Providing back office legal services to law firms across continents was seen as a viable business model that is both functional and lucrative. Furthermore, the partners of Velox realized the potential of positioning Sri Lanka as a LPO Hub, where the LPO sector enables foreign remittance to the island nation to rebuild its economy. This also provided an opportunity particularly as LPO services can be offered remotely, without a physical office presence.
Velox has serviced clients in over 14 jurisdictions worldwide providing solutions on the ethos, ‘Beyond Legal’. Velox believes in combining business efficiency and tech enabled processes to differentiate itself from the conventional law firms.
Lawyers at Velox are solution providers guided by industry expertise. The team comprises professionals based in Australia, the United States of America, Singapore, and Sri Lanka which enables them to draw cross country perspectives in providing services. Velox is now poised to use their multiple years of experience across continents to provide smart legal solutions.
Business
Estonian TV crew gets a taste of Sri Lanka for the first time

Sri Lanka Tourism, under its Scandinavian market promotions hosted a Media FAM with 4 Media personnel from Kanal2 TV from Estonia. The tour started off on February 28 and ended on March 8. The purpose of hosting this tour was to receive more high-end tourist arrivals from Estonia, as well as the other Scandinavian markets including Lithuania and Latvia.
Subsequently, this tour was hosted in collaboration with the Sri Lanka embassy in Sweden which contributed to make this tour a success. The FAM Tour covered all the main tourist attractions in Sri Lanka, including wild life, Ayurveda, Boutique hotels, and also cultural attractions.
All these attractions were filmed and the destination will be promoted on air via Kanal2 TV, through the TV show ‘’ Kaugele Siit’’ (far from here). The first episode of this programme is scheduled to be telecast for 45 minutes. This travel programme has 420,000 followers as their audience. Kanal2 TV was also the official Media partner for the Winter Olympics 2018, a Sri Lanka Tourism press release said.
The release adds: ‘The visitors were quite impressed with the 8-day tour which they had, enjoying every moment of their tour. They were equally mesmerized with the warm hospitality which they received from the Sri Lankans, which they are mostly renowned for. They enjoyed the traditional Sri Lankan cuisine, and the variety of dishes which they tasted. Nevertheless, they had the opportunity of exploring every attraction of the paradise island to convey the message to their fellow Estonians, that Sri Lanka is a unique travel destination which has everything in store for the enthusiastic traveler.
‘They also had a cooking demonstration by courtesy of Siddhalepa Ayurveda Resorts & Spas Wadduwa, and also a Yoga treat at the same venue. Visiting the Turtle Hatchery at Kosgoda , the Elephant orphanage at Pinnawala, going through a safari at Eco park was also another amazing experience which they had during their stay.’
Business
The Academy of International Business signs Memorandum of Understanding with the University of the Pacific

Academy of International Business Sri Lanka (AIB) held its second graduation at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall with over fifty graduates successfully passing out. At the recent graduation, the business academy signed its MOU with the University of the Pacific.
The signing of the MOU is a major milestone for the business academy. The courses offered are DBA, MBA, and BBA top-up programs through AIB. Prof Liam, Rector – of the University of Pacific, expressed confidence that the program delivered by AIB will be very beneficial.
The event was graced by passed graduates, teachers, and lecturers, the ceremony was hosted by the chief guest and the regional director of ABE(UK) Dr Praveen Mahendran. “The ABE(UK) is one of the long-standing professional awarding bodies from the UK and AIB is proud to be associated with ABE and approved by the awarding body.
Hard work, competency and capability are the values that produce results, through the AIB and its programs these are achievable. Every student is encouraged to show their full potential”.
The distinguished guests were the Vice President of the BNI Pioneer Chapter, Dilan Fonseka. He emphasized, the importance of students gaining experience in entrepreneurial skills and business development by enrolling at BNI. AIB is a member of BNI, which creates multiple opportunities.
About the Academy of International Business: AIB is recognized for its management programs, digital marketing, marketing, and English language programs such as IELTS, and PTE. It’s widely popular among students in search of pursuing business and management courses.The Director of AIB Sri Lanka, Chrishankar Janathanan, expressed the institute’s commitment to providing the best quality education. It’s not only a center that is simply cornered to the education sector but also has focused its efforts on recruitment services and digital agency services.
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