CPIT Further Pushing China-Sri Lanka Business Cooperation

In the mid-December, Dong Song-gen, Vice President of CCPIT led a .delegation to visit Sri Lanka. Dur-ing the visit, Mr. Dong met Mr. Kosala, President of Sri Lanka Industrial and Commerce Association and Mr. Peiris, Minister of Trade.     

Public-Sector Accounting and E-Governance in Developing Countries: Case of Sri Lanka

This article analyzes how new public financial management system should address the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector and the emerging accrual basis accounting with e-governance for greater e-transparency on public-sector accounting in Sri Lanka. Despite the setting up of e-framework in 1983, the Sri Lankan public-sector accountancy environment during the last two decades raises concerns about efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the e-framework. The findings provide evidence of the importance of the economy and efficiency in the usage of public funds to provide more convenient access to government accounting information for citizens in Sri Lanka.     

Doing business in…Sri Lanka

Having a well‐developed human resource base and a relatively well‐developed capital market infrastructure, Sri Lanka offers a liberal and dynamic investment environment. Over the years, macrostability has been achieved and considerable reforms have been implemented, contributing to a healthy economic growth. This article provides useful information on the business environment and is intended to help foreign businessmen and investors to develop a good grasp of essential background knowledge for being successful in Sri Lanka. It reviews the Sri Lankan political structure, climate, and economy. Sri Lanka's infrastructure, legal framework, and sociocultural set‐up, as well as market structure and potential, are also analyzed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A NOTE ON TRADE ELASTICITIES IN ASIAN COUNTRIES

This article estimates the price and income elasticities of import and export demands for India, Japan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand using annual time series data. Both price and income elasticities of import demand are found to be in the inelastic range for all five countries. Export demand is found to be price elastic for Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand and price inelastic for India and Sri Lanka. Export demand is found to be income elastic for Japan but not for the other four countries. The Marshall-Lerner-Robinson condition states that a devaluation improves the balance of trade position only if the sum of the absolute values of price elasticity of import demand and the price elasticity of export demand is greater than one. This condition is met for India, Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand but not for Sri Lanka.     

What Men and Women Really Want: Differences in Gender-Based Evaluations of Service Recovery Efforts

Under increasing domestic and global pressures, the survival of small agri-businesses in developing countries such as Sri Lanka is being challenged because of their poor strategic focus and weak coordination along the supply chain. The quality, efficiency, and versatility of production, processing, distribution, and marketing systems play a significant role in the competitiveness of agri-businesses. Improved competitiveness requires closer coordination along the supply chain so as to decrease transaction costs and create opportunities for differentiation. In Sri Lanka, the government has a greater role to play in developing an enabling environment for the chains to which small agri-businesses belong.     

An emerging Asian niche market for exports

The primary aim of this article is to explore the potential of the Australia‐Sri Lanka trade relationship. In achieving this, the business climates of both markets that are considered vital to effective trading are discussed in detail. Thus, the article analyzes, explores, and provides the rationale for tagging Sri Lanka as an emerging niche market for exports. This research article preserves its originality in providing vital analysis and trends in international business between the two countries, which is beneficial not only for potential exporters in the rest of the world, but also for the academics and economic policymakers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Value Chain Analysis Across Borders: The Case of Australian Red Lentils to Sri Lanka

This research examines the creation and distribution of consumer value in the most important supply chain of lentils between Australia and Sri Lanka. This adopts a value chain analysis approach applied to a case study, using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Intercept surveys of consumers in Sri Lanka revealed that quality, size, and price as the most important value-creating factors. A very strong communication and relationships triad exists among the trader, indenting agent, and processor, but the flow of information from consumer to producer is weak. Opportunities lie in improved genetics, better-informed growers, and continued production efficiencies.     

Third world strategies for regulating drug advertising and marketing

In the pharmaceutical area, third world countries have been particularly subjected to excessive pricing and manipulative marketing practices by multinational corporations. Sri Lanka has gained some experience in curbing abuses by establishing a State Pharmaceuticals Corporation. It has been able to achieve substantial price cuts for pharmaceuticals and to adapt to changing economic and political circumstances. The control of advertising and marketing practices remains a problem but has been tackled in Sri Lanka by an Act of 1980. Until similar laws are enacted greater attention should be given to the individual patient by doctors becoming more circumspect in prescribing drugs.

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Strategien der Länder der Dritten Welt zur Regulierung des Vertriebs und der Werbung von Arzneimitteln

Zusammenfassung Länder der Dritten Welt sind für multinationale Unternehmen auf dem Arzneimittelsektor ein bevorzugtes Objekt für Ausbeutung durch überhöhte Preise oder manipulatives Marketing. Der Autor, mit diesen Problemen an leitender Stelle persönlich vertraut, beschreibt Versuche in Sri Lanka, Mißbräuche ausländischer Unternehmen durch Errichtung einer staatlichen pharmazeutischen Gesellschaft (State Pharmaceuticals Corporation) zu bekämpfen.Das Unternehmen hat wesentliche Preisreduzierungen für Arzneimittel erreicht und sich an geänderte wirtschaftliche und politische Verhältnisse anpassen können. Werbung und Vertriebsmethoden werden neuerdings in Sri Lanka — wie in anderen Ländern der Dritten Welt — durch ein Gesetz von 1980 kontrolliert, das allerdings für homöopathische und ähnliche Produkte nicht gilt. In der Zukunft kommt es darauf an, den individuellen Patienten durch eine vorsichtigere Verschreibung von Arzneimitteln mehr Aufmerksamkeit zu widmen.

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D. C. Jayasuriya is Attorney-at-Law and Senior State Counsel. His address is 40/12, Swarnadisi Place off Koswatte Road, Nawala, Sri Lanka.     

Factors Affecting Ethical Management: Comparing a Developed and a Developing Economy

This paper compares a number of ethical management practices of firms in two different economies. The recent behaviour of firms, described in terms of industry, size, international involvement and ownership, in a developed, western economy (Australia) are contrasted with the behaviour of similar firms in an emerging, eastern economy (Sri Lanka). This paper extends an earlier empirical study by Batten, Hettihewa and Mellor (1997) on the relationship between key firm-specific variables and firm ethical management practices in Australia by drawing on similar survey data from Sri Lanka to facilitate an international comparison. The importance of this study is that it provides a valuable insight into the impact the level of economic development may have on ethical management behaviour and practice.     

茶·道

<正>茶,与古老的东方传统文化保持着千丝万缕的联系。我国何时开始饮茶,陆羽《茶经》卷下《六茶之饮》概为言之:"茶之为饮,发乎神农氏"。茶圣陆羽鉴于神农《食经》认为饮茶起于神     

欧盟观察（来自欧盟的最新动态）

欧盟绿色周：城市是解决世界环境问题的关键;报告与出版物;     

Economic Roots of Political Conflict: The Case of Sri Lanka

The escalation of political conflicts in many developing countries and their impact on economic development have been topical issues in recent development literature. The overwhelming emphasis on ‘ethnic conflicts’ in the literature has, however, precluded analysts from looking at political conflicts beyond their ethnic dimension, in the wider context of the development process. In particular, because of the preoccupation with ethnic roots as the prime source of these conflicts, reverse causation, running from economic policy to political conflict, has been virtually ignored in the debate. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap through an in‐depth case study of the ‘twin political conflict’ in Sri Lanka – the Tamil separatist war in the North and the Sinhala youth uprising in the South – with emphasis on its economic roots. The findings suggest that fundamental contradictions in the national development policy in the restrictive trade regime of Sri Lanka were at the heart of the country's twin political conflict.     

Responsibility Cost Control System in China: The Han Dan Experience

This study undertakes a longitudinal analysis of the ethical management practices of Sri Lankan companies by comparing the results from a survey conducted in 2003. During this period regulatory developments have taken place within Sri Lanka and internationally aimed at improving the level of corporate governance. Based upon this survey data we conclude that progress has been made in ensuring that ethical management practices are more homogenous and standard practice across companies. Internationalized companies remain the ones that are more aware of the environmental consequences of their actions, although few companies, unfortunately, recognize this as an issue of concern.     

中国茶叶在日本市场的价格竞争力研究

本文分析了中国茶叶在日本市场的价格走势,在此基础上利用LA-AIS模型对中国茶叶在日本市场的价格竞争力进行了实证分析。结果表明,在日本市场,除斯里兰卡外,中国茶叶的价格竞争力高于其他国家。中国茶叶在日本市场的策略重点是:不断改善产品质量以符合日本市场的准入要求。     

Dynamics of capital account and current account in Sri Lanka

This paper enquires the dynamics of current account and capital account in Sri Lanka for the period 2001:Q1 to 2016:Q1 and also examines the role of some policy variables such as exchange rate and interest rate in this dynamics. Estimated autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to cointegration followed by error correction representation of the ARDL model have found that current account is caused by capital account and exchange rate, where capital account causes to produce a deficit in current account. In the dynamic adjustment of current account due to exchange rate, an evidence of J-curve phenomenon is noticed. Capital account is neither caused by current account nor by exchange rate but interest rate has a positive impact on it. Robustness of these findings is testified by the vector autoregression model, Wald test of Granger causality followed by an impulse response analysis and a variance decomposition analysis. These analyses, in addition, establish a negative impact of interest rate on current account. With the best of knowledge this is the first study that reveals the dynamics of current and capital account of Sri Lanka. Such a dynamics is critical from the policy perspective. Policy makers should caution before capital account liberalization.     

Determinants of Speed of Adjustment (SOA) toward Optimum Capital Structure: Evidence from Listed Firms in Sri Lanka

This research article aims at examining the determinants of speed of adjustment (SOA) toward the optimum capital structure (OCS). Particularly, this study focuses the impact of firm-specific factors and corporate governance factors on the capital structure adjustment in the Sri Lankan context. The methodology utilizes the benefits of the partial (stock) adjustment model, namely, two-step panel framework using generalised method of moments (GMM) to determine the SOA to OCS. The results indicate that Sri Lankan firms are found to have an OCS and do rapidly adjust toward their target structures. Further this study reveals that profitability, size, tangibility, nondebt tax shields, and governance factors such as directors’ compensation and CEO duality significantly affect the SOA to OCS. The past studies in the emerging market context hardly go into corporate governance factors, leaving a large space for research in the area of capital structure. This study of the listed firms in Sri Lanka contributes to the literature, by examining the determinants of SOA to OCS decision.     

Effects of social demographic attributes,knowledge about credit cards and perceived lifestyle outcomes on credit card usage

The aim of this paper is to identify and assess the effects of credit card users' demographic and socio‐economic characteristics, knowledge about credit cards, and perceived lifestyle outcomes of the credit card usage on credit card usage practices. A sample of 177 individuals in Sri Lanka who possess Visa, MasterCard or American Express credit cards responded to the survey. The hypothesized relationships were examined by means of path analysis. The findings offer implications for research and practice.     

The influence of national culture and industry structure on grocery retail customer loyalty

This study examines, for the first time, the influence of national culture and industry structure on customer loyalty in grocery retailing. Grocery retailers have a long and continued history of international expansion and it is vital to understand how loyalty can be nurtured in different contexts. Thematic analysis of focus groups conducted in the culturally and structurally disparate countries of the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka provide unique insights. Key differences have been identified around consumer preferences and perceptions of loyalty programmes and the key drivers of different loyalty types. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Market Orientation in a Sample of Food and Beverage Processing Firms in the Western Province,Sri Lanka

This study empirically investigates the market orientation strategy of firms operating in the food and beverage industry in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. Market orientation was conceptualized through three sets of activities: intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness. Firms were grouped based on the level of market orientation and were compared. It was revealed that one group had a separate marketing division with specialized marketing personnel and a positive top management philosophy toward market orientation. Firms in this group showed a greater level of performance compared to firms in other groups.     

Social marketing to eliminate leprosy in Sri Lanka

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease which, if untreated, can lead to permanent and progressive nerve damage and thus to deformities of the limbs, eyes, and face. People with leprosy have long been ostracized by society. The clinical signs of leprosy include insensitive skin lesions and thickened peripheral nerves. Untreated infectious leprosy cases are the main source of infection, transmitting the disease through nasal secretions. People with low cell-mediated immunity are at risk of developing clinically active leprosy irrespective of gender, age, or social class. The World Health Organization (WHO) has, since 1982, recommended multiple drug therapy (MDT) against leprosy, an approach capable of curing the disease within 1 year and interrupting its transmission. According to WHO, leprosy is currently a public health problem in 55 countries and more than 20% of the estimated 1.15 million cases of leprosy worldwide remain undetected. Although Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to provide MDT to all registered leprosy patients, first making it available in 1984, the disease continues to be transmitted due to the large number of undetected cases in the country. An ongoing social marketing program was therefore launched in 1990 by the local health ministry and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development to eliminate leprosy from Sri Lanka. The program encourages people with suspicious skin lesions to seek diagnosis and care, teaches health care providers to recognize leprosy and refer cases for treatment, and helps the general public to understand that leprosy is just a normal disease. The socially marketed product is MDT, provided free-of-charge by the Novartis Foundation to all leprosy patients.