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Producers of low grown teas, the worst hit by the crisis, had cut production by 30-35 per cent but large stocks were still in warehouses.

"The market strengthened as the sale progressed for low country teas," said Anil Cooke of Asia Siyaka Commodities.

"Many teas sold at prices significantly above the previous week for teas of similar quality."

He also said the volume of unsold teas had declined sharply.

"This time it was more disagreement on value rather than absence of demand," said Cooke. "There were a few really poor teas nobody wanted."

The market for low grown teas, produced mainly by small farmers in the island's south, crashed in October, plunging the trade into a crisis.

The government stepped in asking the tea board to buy to prop up demand.

Chaanaka Jayasekara of Bartleets Produce Marketing said prices of some varieties of tea were still not high enough to cover the cost of production.

"Low grown OP1s and BOP1s went up, for instance," he said. "There is demand. Teas are moving, except for the small leaf tippy types for which demand has really stalled."

(LBO)

"We have increased the capacity to reduce the over loading at the (existing) hospital" says Lal Chandrasena, general manager of Nawaloka Hospitals.

Tech Costs

He says the new complex would have the latest technology with 500 million rupees being spent on medical equipment.

Recovering the capital expenditure from investing in a high tech facility remains a challenge.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner costs about 100 million rupees says director Harshith Dharmadasa.

"An MRI scan in Sri Lanka is 12,500 rupees, the same scan in Singapore is over 1,000 dollars," says Dharmadasa.

"We cant recover the cost even in 12 years but we replace the scanner every 6 years. We are giving first world services at third world prices."

Dharmadasa says the costs have to be spread over other services such as room charges, consultation fees and tests.

The new facility would house a laboratory, emergency room, pharmacy, consultation rooms, maternity room, surgical room, delivery room and a medical intensive care unit and automated teller facilities.

A multistoried car park at a cost of 50 million rupees is also in the cards.

Jayantha Perera, the head of finance at Nawaloka says, the hospital is financed through 15 percent supplier credit, 30 percent internal funding and 55 percent bank borrowings.

Intense Competition

Nawaloka is expecting competition to hot up in the next two years with other private hospitals also beefing up capacity.

Already Nawalokas main competitors Durdans Hospital, Asiri group and Ceylinco Healthcare sector are expanding.

"We have to expand and we are prepared for competition," says Nawaloka Hospitals director Rienzie Wijetilleke.

"We have a distinctive advantage, we have a brand name."

He says the recent developments in medical and healthcare insurance is helping drive the private health sector.

"Health insurance schemes are growing and have helped the private hospitals as part of the expenses is paid by the insurance companies," says Wijetilleke.

Chandrasena says the group has no immediate plans to venture out of Colombo as recovering costs from a modern hospital is almost prohibitive.

He says a lack of medical expertise also makes rural expansion difficult.

"We don't have enough teaching hospitals in Sri Lanka," says Chandrasena.

"In areas where there are teaching hospitals there are private hospitals, Kandy is a good example of this."

Nawaloka says it is working on increasing patient flow. It is also tapping foreign markets.

"Maldivian traffic is entirely handled by us, we even go to the airport to pick them up," says Dharmadasa.

The hospital has 25 luxury rooms to targeted at foreign and high net worth patients.

However he says for medical tourism to really explode in Sri Lanka the island's security situation has to improve.

Nawaloka Hospitals will open their new complex on 17th November 2008.

(LBO)

Mahbub Jamil said Bangladesh is providing various facilities to foreign entrepreneurs.

He said the Sri Lankan entrepreneurs can come forward to invest in Bangladesh's industrial sector by availing the facilities.

He sought cooperation of the Sri Lankan Minister for setting up furniture industry in Sri Lanka by the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs.

He placed a proposal to the Sri Lankan Minister urging the Sri Lankan government to jointly work with Bangladesh for the development of tourism and aviation sectors of the two countries.

The Sri Lankan Minister also met Communications Adviser Major General (retd) Golam Qauder at his ministry and discussed matters of mutual interest.

(UNB)