Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Board of Investment (BOI) has achieved 1.8 billion U.S. dollars in investments by Thursday, the BOI said in its latest press release.

The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stands at 1.5 billion dollars, which is a 122 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022, while local investments stand at 258 million dollars, the BOI said.

This is due to large investments in the energy sector, and tourism and manufacturing are the sectors getting more investments, the BOI said.

COLOMBO, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Maldives government Saturday formally requested India to withdraw its military personnel from the Island nation, according to information from Male.

The request was made by the new President of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu, during his meeting with a representative of the Indian government.

"At the meeting, President Muizzu had formally requested Government of India to withdraw its military personnel from the Maldives," a statement issued by the office of the Maldives President said.

COLOMBO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Maldives will work to return Indian military personnel from its shores "as soon as possible," President-elect Mohamed Muizzu told Reuters on Sunday, insisting it was the top foreign policy priority for the tiny Indian Ocean island chain.

Muizzu won Maldives' presidential election last month, beating incumbent President Ibrahim Solih in a second-round runoff.

Solih had followed an "India first" policy but Muizzu in his election campaign promised to remove a small Indian military presence of some 75 personnel in Maldives.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s president said Sunday he will appoint a committee chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate allegations made in a British television report that the South Asian country’s intelligence was complicit in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people.

The attacks, which included simultaneous suicide bombings, targeted three churches and three tourist hotels. The dead included 42 foreigners from 14 countries.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Maldivians will return to the polls on Sept. 30 to vote in a runoff election between the top two candidates in the country’s presidential race after neither secured more than 50% in the first round, the elections commission said Sunday.

Main opposition candidate Mohamed Muiz managed a surprise lead with more than 46% of votes, while the incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was seen as the favorite, got only 39%.

COLOMBO, Aug 13 (NNN-XINHUA) – Sri Lankan President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, emphasised the necessity of implementing a well-structured strategy, aimed at attaining an annual export revenue of at least two billion U.S. dollars from the gem and jewellery industry, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said, today.

COLOMBO, Aug 6 (NNN-XINHUA) – About 90,000 people in four provinces of Sri Lanka had been affected by droughts, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said, today.

The DMC said, the four affected areas are Sabaragamuwa, Eastern, North Western and Northern provinces.

A total of 89,485 people from 27,885 families have been affected, and Jaffna in the Northern Province is the worst affected district, with 69,113 people from 21,714 families impacted, the DMC said.

COLOMBO, Aug 2 (NNN-XINHUA) – A woman died and 15 others were injured, when a passenger bus collided with a truck, in Thulhiriya town, north of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, today, the local police said.

The Colombo-bound bus departed from the city of Anuradhapura in North Central province. The police said, the injured were rushed to local hospitals.

In a separate accident, at least 18 were injured when a state-owned bus veered off the road and fell into a precipice, at Watawala, in central Sri Lanka, during the early hours of yesterday morning.

COLOMBO, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka has sufficient quantities of fuel, the country's Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera said on Sunday.

Talking to journalists here in the country's capital, Wijesekera said the country has 133,936 metric tons of diesel and 6,192 metric tons of super diesel as of Sunday morning.

Sri Lanka also has 35,402 metric tons of octane 92 and 5,367 metric tons of octane 95 petrol, as well as 30,173 metric tons of jet fuel in stock, the minister said.

COLOMBO, Jul 18 (NNN-XINHUA) – Over 3,000 people have visited the artificial beach, built in the Port City Colombo, in the first two days since its opening on Saturday, state media reported, today.

This is the first artificial beach built in Sri Lanka, and visitors can enter the beach free of charge, the state-owned Daily News reported.

Food stalls with local and foreign cuisine and facilities for swimming and water sports on the artificial beach are available, the Daily News reported.