Business

SLIM Sri Lanka unveils Agribusiness Entrepreneurship programme

Published

2 years ago

2021/03/8

Sahan Weerasooriya

Creating an opportunity for agriculture businesses to identify skills and utilise them

by Sanath Nanayakkare

SLIM Sri Lanka has taken a new initiative towards its commitment to restarting SrI Lanka’s economy by uplifting skills in the agribusiness sector.

With this objective in mind, SLIM recently unveiled their new Certificate in Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (CABE) which generates a number of learning outcomes, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the certificate holders.

The talent pool emerging from the programme is expected to help boost agriculture’s contribution to the gross domestic product of the economy.

The course is designed to provide insights on market strategy, technical/practical skills and financial assistance available in the market for agripreneurs.

The collaborators for the course of sturdy are: Sri Lanka Agripreneurs Forum, SAPP, FSLGA, The Ceylon Chamber Academy, SAPP, EDB, SLT Mobitel, Keells, Samaposha, and Onesh Agri.

The learning outcomes of the course are:

1, Acquisition of entrepreneurial skills essential for starting and managing a successful, sustainable agribusiness ventures

2. Gaining marketing, accounting, supply chain management and finance skills to make sound business decisions

3. Understanding marketing as a philosophy, a business function, evolution and its key compositions

4. Applying the correct approaches to market segmentation, targeting and positioning in developing marketing strategies

To impart the knowledge on above areas, the course consists of 11 modules including Smart Agriculture and building an entrepreneurial business plan.

The course will have a blended learning approach with a combination of field training and online sessions

The content and presentations will be made in all three languages. The course fee is Rs. 35,000

This process driven course of study at grassroots level could help collaborative partners to identify and pick the right talent for their own organisations.

Further, the certificate holders with right talent will likely have local and overseas market opportunities with the EDB, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce – Academy and other collaborative partners.

Suresh de Mel, Export Development Board Chairman who was the chief guest of the event assured EDB’s fullest support to SLIM and other collaborative partners to make the course a fruitful one for the agribusiness sector in Sri Lanka and for potential agripreneurs in terms of creating marketing opportunities for them.

SLIM President Roshan Fernando said,” This course of study will provide the participants with a rich and rewarding experience in agri-sector marketing. This is the promise we give for transformation of our value added agriculture produces to be effectively marketed in Sri Lanka and overseas. SLIM will be building a competent pool of agri- business marketers as an outcome of this programme. I urge the agr-business leaders gathered here to pick the right talent from the pool when it’s ready, to nurture them and if possible help take them to graduation level, because in the future your organizations will benefit from their meaningful contribution”.

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Business

Share investors worried over Wealth and Heritage tax

Published

7 hours ago

2023/03/24

Thilina Walpola

By Hiran H Senewiratne

CSE trading kicked off on a positive note yesterday but the momentum could not be sustained for long owing to investor worries that the government is planning domestic debt restructuring involving the imposition of a wealth and heritage tax on citizens, market sources said.

Amid those developments both indices moved downwards. The All -Share Price Index went down by 131 points and S and P SL-20 declined by 46.8 points. Turnover stood at Rs 3.4 billion with four crossings. Those crossings were reported in Agalawattte Plantations, which crossed 45.3 million shares to the tune of Rs 1.5 billion, its shares traded at Rs 35, CTC 420,000 shares crossed for Rs 269 million and its shares traded at Rs 640, Cargills 100,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 24.5 million; its shares traded at Rs 245 and Hayleys 300,000 shares crossed for Rs 24 million; its shares traded at Rs 80.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, SLT Rs 234 million (two million shares traded), Hayleys RS 121 million (1.5 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 106 million (115,000 shares traded), Softlogic Capital Rs 69 million (5.6 million shares traded), CTC Rs 65.3 million (101,000 shares traded), Sampath Bank RS 54.7 million (one million shares traded) and Commercial Bank RS 52.5 million (801,000 shares traded).During the day 164 million share volumes changed hands in 20000 transactions.

Business

Brandix ‘RightToRead’ initiative gains momentum enriching Sri Lanka students and transforming learning

Published

7 hours ago

2023/03/24

Thilina Walpola

Inspired by the challenge to provide Sri Lankan children with better access to learning materials and the transformative power to read and comprehend English, Brandix launched the ‘RightToRead’ project in 2018 in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

Accordingly, Brandix introduced the ‘ReadToMe’ English learning tool, created by English Helper – India, to improve reading and comprehension skills of Sri Lankan students. Last Monday, Julie Chung, the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, visited Susamayawardhana Vidyalaya in Borella, to observe progress of the project and experience how children and educators in Sri Lanka engage with educational technology.

Brandix Lanka Limited, Director, Ajit Johnpillai, said: “Education is the most powerful tool to enrich communities and futures, and Brandix is committed to build a strong foundation for transformational learning for students across Sri Lanka. The progress we have made with RiteToRead over the past two years is promising, and the potential for change in the education sector harnessing such digital technologies is immeasurable. Brandix will continue its commitment to deliver Inspired Solutions for the people of Sri Lanka.”

Business

Dialog TV Boosts Resilience and Capacity with Norsat Satellite Earth Station

Published

7 hours ago

2023/03/24

Thilina Walpola

Hytera, a leading global provider of professional communications technologies and solutions, is proud to announce the successful deployment of a new backup satellite station for Dialog TV, Sri Lanka’s No.1 satellite Pay TV service provider. The project was fulfilled in 2022 by Hytera and its subsidiary specialized in Satellite Communications (SatCom), Norsat International Inc. The new station enhances the resilience and capacity of Dialog TV’s existing system and ensures continuity of service in the event of damage due to natural disasters.
Dialog TV provides coverage over the entirety of Sri Lanka through the Intelsat 38 Ku-band satellite. As the business expanded, it opted for a backup solution to support its existing satellite station and to strengthen the network’s disaster tolerance.
Hytera and Norsat provided an end-to-end satellite earth station solution that includes the installation, integration, and setup of satellite antennas, a transmission and receiving system, a new network management system (NMS), and a carrier monitoring system (CMS). The NMS makes routine work easier and simpler for on-duty staff, as equipment status, parameter monitoring and configuration, and remote control of the devices can be viewed and accomplished via a single interface. The CMS monitors the carrier spectrum status of satellite signals in real-time and ensures stable signal transmission and receiving.
“We are excited to have been able to work with Dialog TV on this important project,” said Kevin Sun, Sales Director for Hytera South Asia, “Our ability to seamlessly integrate our new equipment and software with Dialog TV’s existing systems has helped to ensure a stable and reliable service for their millions of customers across Sri Lanka.”