Op-ed/Special Reports

Sri Lanka’s trade and cultural links across the Indian Ocean from antiquity

Sunday October 8, 2023 4:55 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s maritime trade links along the Indian Ocean dates back to pre-historic times and has helped nurture “the personality of Sri Lanka and shaped its landscape and cultural scape since pre-historic times,” according to a top archaologist and researcher of the island.

“By the early 4th Century BCE, this island was primarily a production-distribution portal within the Rim and reached even to the Mediterranean and the Far East,” writes Sudarshan Seneviratne Executive Director General of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Sri Lanka Secretariat.

“The discovery of large quantities of Mediterranean, East African, South Asian and West Asian imported luxury ceramic ware and beads including coins and foreign notices (from the Mediterranean to the Far East) confirms the status of Sri Lanka as a major trading hub through long-distance trade linked to multiple lands.”

Sudarshana Seneviratne is a former Professor of Archaeology, University of Peradeniya was Director General, Central Cultural Fund.

Legends, chronicles and material evidence place Sri Lanka as a recipient culture located in the center of the Indian Ocean, he says.

The antiquity of this convergence dates to the pre-historic period when people, floral and faunal evidence indicate migration to Sri Lanka from the Indian sub-continent, South East Asia and East Africa.

“The commercial vortex connecting the Indian Ocean Rim had developed a complex system by the Middle Historic period (post 3rd Cent AC),” Seneviratne writes.

“This period witnessed intense commercial activities reaching out to India, South East and Far East and West Asia. There are notices that Buddhist monks and nuns accompanied merchants to their travel destinations.

Monasteries housing Sri Lankan monks were established during 3rd Century AC in Nagarjunakonda (Andhra) and the Gupta period in north India.

The Mahavamsa also records the existence of residences housing foreign merchants.

“The discovery of a Nestorian cross at the citadel of Anuradhapura is a testimony to the presence of West Asian traders residents at Anuradhapura.”

The full article released by Sri Lanka’s foreign Ministry is reproduced below

Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean in Antiquity

The island of Sri Lanka is also known in history by different names, including Tambapanni, Lanka, Taprobane, Serendib, Ceilo, Ceylon and eventually Sri Lanka or the ‘Resplendent Island”. Legends and historical annals note peopling of Sri Lanka associated with the ocean or those who traversed the ocean arriving at the shores of this island.

It was the Indian Ocean that nurtured the personality of Sri Lanka and shaped its landscape and cultural scape since pre-historic times. It is also the Indian Ocean, which binds us to the larger oceanic scape and the communities of the Indian Ocean rim with a common thread.

The ocean is also the greatest repository that gifted the line of communication and resources. The cultural timeline of our connectivity with the Indian Ocean goes back to pre-4000 BCE. The earliest common term known for this ocean is Samudra, as recited in the Rig Vedic hymns (C.1500 BCE).

It is also known to have a western and eastern ocean. The earliest texts mention oceanic seafaring luxury trade (‘From every side, O Soma, for our profit, pour thou forth four seas filled with a thousand-fold riches.” RV 9.33.6). The ocean craft in Sanskrit Vedic literature is known as Nau (neva in Sinhala). Seafaring provided connectivity to multiple kingdoms, cultures and civilizations that thrived over time and space during the pre-modern period of the Indian Ocean Rim. Sri Lanka was a prime recipient of this Indian oceanic connectivity.

Our relationship with the ocean is an interdependent factor which is mainly due to the centrality of our location in the Indian Ocean and the commonality shared by its resident communities.

Pic 01. Austronesian proto-historic maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean Pre 2000 BCE

Antiquity of Connectivity

Legends, chronicles and material evidence place Sri Lanka as a recipient culture located in the center of the Indian Ocean. The antiquity of this convergence dates to the pre-historic period when people, floral and faunal evidence indicate migration to Sri Lanka from the Indian sub-continent, South East Asia and East Africa.

Pre-historic Austronesian engagement connected east Africa via South Asia and beyond. Legend has it that the pre-historic community, the Naga, were a sea-faring community associated with trade and gems.

In the world of antiquity, Sri Lanka possessed a nautical history involving ships, navigation and seafaring by its island community dating to C. 1000 BCE. By the 4th Century BCE, even before the discovery of the monsoon by Hippalus, Sri Lanka was connected with South East Asia, East India and the Bay of Bengal, trading mainly on precious metals, elephants, spices and pearls. The Bay of Bengal formed a sub-region in the Indian Ocean having its own dynamic in the history of trade and commerce.

By the early 4th Century BCE, this island was primarily a production-distribution portal within the Rim and reached even to the Mediterranean and the Far East. The discovery of large quantities of Mediterranean, East African, South Asian and West Asian imported luxury ceramic ware and beads including coins and foreign notices (from the Mediterranean to the Far East) confirms the status of Sri Lanka as a major trading hub through long-distance trade linked to multiple lands.

Pic 02.

Ptolemy’s Sri Lankan Map created by Claudius Ptolemy in 139 AD. The Greeks called Sri Lanka Taprobana or Taprobane.

Trading portals were located at convenient coastal sites suitable for safe anchorage (dating to the 10th Cent. BCE). In addition to events documented in the Mahavamsa and Jataka narratives, the most accurate and extensive travel catalogues perhaps are found in the cartographic evidence of Ptolemy’s Taprobane and the Periplus Maris Erythraei, a diary of a ship captain travelling between the Red Sea and India. Both mention Sri Lanka as an important travel destination for commerce, its emporiums and traded items including place names of the island.

It is not a coincidence that during the same period (according to notices of Pliny) and the Mahavamsa emissaries of king Bhatikabhaya (1st Cent. AC), the first diplomatic mission (headed by traders), arrived in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius Caesar. A second delegation from Sri Lanka arrived in Rome during the time of Emperor Julian (Circa A.D. 375). The latter period coincides with the reign of Mahasena, the age of great agrarian production, the construction of mega reservoirs and monasteries (Jetavana) and the intense expansion of foreign trade with the establishment of cosmopolitan Port Cities.

Pic 03. Emissaries of king Bhatikabhaya (1st Cent. AC) to Rome

The commercial vortex connecting the Indian Ocean Rim had developed a complex system by the Middle Historic period (post 3rd Cent AC). This period witnessed intense commercial activities reaching out to India, South East and Far East and West Asia. There are notices that Buddhist monks and nuns accompanied merchants to their travel destinations. Monasteries housing Sri Lankan monks were established during 3rd Century AC in Nagarjunakonda (Andhra) and the Gupta period in north India.

While the Mahavamsa also records the existence of residences housing foreign merchants.

The discovery of a Nestorian cross at the citadel of Anuradhapura is a testimony to the presence of West Asian traders residents at Anuradhapura.

Pic 04: Site locations in east Africa and South Asia in the Indian Ocean connectivity chain, 1st Cent. BCE

Pic 05: Teppam (outrigger boat)

Connectivity and outreach were possible due to advanced nautical technology dating to the pre-Christian period. It was a qualitative development beyond the outrigger canoe or teppam. The advanced development of this vessel is depicted on coins and inscriptions as single-mast and double-mast vessels that traversed the Bay of Bengal and South Asia.

Interestingly enough, it was also the famous spice and gem trail that connected Sri Lanka with the Arab traders of West Asia. Merchants, from this period and region, made their way to Sri Lanka through three trade routes: the Indian to the North, the traders to the East, and the Arab to the West. It is from this vantage point that we need to understand the movement of communities to Sri Lanka, especially from West Asia in the Middle Historic period.

Markets

Sri Lanka stocks close down 0.60-pct, dragged by HNB and LOLC

Friday November 13, 2026 3:28 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Stock Exchange closed down on Friday, CSE data showed, with the benchmark All Share Price Index moving down 0.60 percent.

The ASPI was down 133.22 points at 22,024.18, while the more liquid S&P SL20 was down 1.06 percent, or 67.55 points, at 6,298.02.

The ASPI ended the week up 784.53 points from last Friday.

Positive contributors to the ASPI were Dialog Axiata (up 0.40 percent at 50.20 rupees), Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka (up 0.52 percent at 58.30 rupees), Aitken Spence (up 3.60 percent at 151.00 rupees), Ceylon Tobacco Company (up 1.05 percent at 1,828.50 rupees), and LOLC Finance (up 1.96 percent at 5.20 rupees).

Hatton National Bank (down 1.88 percent at 403.75 rupees), Richard Pieris and Company (down 6.21 percent at 27.20 rupees), LOLC Holdings (down 2.17 percent at 405.00 rupees), Sampath Bank (down 1.91 percent at 154.00 rupees), and Singer (Sri Lanka) (down 2.40 percent at 77.30 rupees) were top negative contributors.

Market turnover was 3.23 billion rupees. Capital goods led turnover with 869.21 million rupees. (Colombo/Nov13/2026)

Economy

Sri Lanka MP slams budget speech for omitting Tamil national question

Friday November 13, 2026 2:56 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – A Sri Lanka legislator has voiced strong disappointment that the President’s budget speech failed to make a single mention of the Tamil national question.

“It is very unfortunate that in His Excellency the President’s speech, there has not been a single word mentioned about the Tamil national question. Not a single word,” Shanakiyan Rasamanickam said.

“A budget speech generally, is a policy direction of the government for the next year. The budget speech is not only a statement of the country’s fiscal position or the economy’s position. It is the country’s, the government’s, plan, or what the government plans to do the following year. That’s a policy statement.”

Former presidents would at least mention the Tamil question even if it was not resolved, he said.

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his speech, in his policy statement, he would mention: “The Tamil national question must be resolved,” Rasamanickam said.

Former Presidents Maithripala Sirisena and Gotabaya Rajapaksa also mentioned that the national ethnic question must be resolved, he added.

“Every President, every country’s Head of State, in their policy statements, have acknowledged the fact that there is an unresolved national issue, the Tamil national question, that it needs to be resolved. Various governments have proposed various mechanisms; none of them have succeeded, but at least it was mentioned.”

This year’s budget made allocations for the Office of Missing Persons, and the Office of Reparations.

“But the domestic mechanism is a mechanism that the victim community has rejected. So you all are allocating money to a mechanism where the victim community is not going to be part of.”

Last year’s budget 1 billion was allocated to be spent on the Trincomalee and Jaffna airports.

“Where was that 1 billion for the Trincomalee and Jaffna airports spent last year?”

“The trajectory of this government, Honourable Deputy Speaker, is worrying to me. It’s really worrying to me. Because if the objective is to say that there is no Tamil national question, if the objective is to say that you all have resolved any ethnic issue that this country faced, then Honourable Deputy Speaker, then I think the Tamil people will teach this government a very, very, very harsh lesson in the future.” (Colombo/Nov13/2026)

Bonds & Forex

Sri Lanka sells extra Rs6.5bn Treasury bills after auction

Friday November 13, 2026 12:32 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has sold 6,500 million rupees of treasury bills offered on tap at an average rate of 9.95 percent, the public debt management office said, bringing the total of bills sold in the week to 85.562 billion rupees.

The issue offered 90 billion.

Total market subscription was 6.5 billion rupees.

The debt office sold a 12-month bill at 9.95 percent.

On Wednesday (11) the debt office raised 79 billion rupees of 3, 6 and 12 month bills after offering 90 billion.

The settlement date is November 13. (Colombo/Nov13/2026)

Construction and Real Estate

Access Engineering Sept quarter group net profit surges 200-pct to Rs4.75bn

Friday November 13, 2026 12:15 pm

ECONOMYNEXT — Sri Lanka’s Access Engineering PLC recorded a group net profit attributable to equity holders of Rs. 4.75 billion for the quarter ended September 30, surging 200 percent from Rs. 1.58 billion a year earlier, interim accounts showed.

Basic earnings per share rose to Rs. 4.08 for the September quarter, up from Rs. 1.58 previously.

Quarterly group revenue expanded 36 percent to Rs. 20.39 billion from Rs. 14.94 billion, underpinned by condominium property handovers — reflected in inventories dropping Rs. 7.69 billion since March to Rs. 35.71 billion — alongside strong automobile sales and steady civil engineering execution.

Cost of sales rose at a slower 27 percent to Rs. 14.34 billion, lifting gross profit by 64 percent to Rs. 6.05 billion and expanding gross margins to 29.7 percent from 24.7 percent.

Other income jumped 144 percent to Rs. 259.9 million, while administrative expenses rose 75 percent to Rs. 1.14 billion, leaving operating profit up 64 percent at Rs. 5.16 billion.

However, finance costs more than doubled, rising 107 percent to Rs. 1.18 billion on elevated group borrowings of Rs. 43.74 billion, partly offset by finance income climbing 302 percent to Rs. 42.2 million.

Share of results from equity-accounted investees rose 122 percent to Rs. 26.7 million, pushing pre-tax profit up 56 percent to Rs. 4.05 billion.

Income tax swung to a net reversal of Rs. 186.6 million from an expense of Rs. 804.1 million, boosted by deferred tax assets on unrelieved losses from a 100 percent enhanced capital allowance claimed by 60 percent-owned radiopharmaceutical subsidiary Access Medical Tracers (Private) Limited.

Total period profit rose 136 percent to Rs. 4.24 billion, with non-controlling interest declining 24 percent to Rs. 164.9 million following last year’s buyout of minority shareholders in Harbour Village (Private) Limited.

No separate exchange gain or loss was itemized in quarterly earnings, though foreign currency translation via associates recorded a Rs. 17.4 million loss in other comprehensive income, alongside USD 16.6 million in corporate guarantees.

Notes also flagged an expected Rs. 1.45 billion recovery from the terminated South Asia Commercial and Logistics Hub project, a Rs. 225 million post-quarter legal settlement already provided for, and a Supreme Court appeal over a 2011/12 PAYE tax ruling.

Group assets stood at Rs. 132.4 billion as of September 30, with net asset value per share at Rs. 46.70, as the Employees’ Provident Fund raised its stake to 5.69 percent.

Access Engineering shares closed at 80.00 rupees at the end of September and are currently trading around 85.80 rupees. (Colombo/Nov13/2026)

Economy

Sri Lanka private sector says timely implementation of Budget 2027 key

Friday November 13, 2026 11:43 am

ECONOMYNEXT – Private sector body, The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, said it was encouraged by the broad direction of Budget 2027, noting that it reinforces Sri Lanka’s commitment to economic transformation while maintaining policy continuity, macroeconomic stability, and fiscal discipline.

“This continuity is particularly important as the country seeks to transition from economic stabilisation to a more durable, investment-led growth trajectory.”

The chamber also noted several areas where the Budget could have placed greater emphasis to strengthen the country’s growth prospects.

“In particular, there is a need for a stronger focus on attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), accelerating factor market reforms, particularly in land and labour, and fast-tracking public procurement reforms to improve the efficiency and speed of project implementation.

“More targeted and actionable proposals could have been introduced to unlock the potential of sectors with significant growth opportunities, including tourism, agriculture, IT/BPO and logistics.”

The chamber said the budget contains positive measures aimed at enhancing competitiveness, and external sector resilience, while presenting opportunities for focus on sectors that can accelerate growth.

“A number of the key structural reforms identified in last year’s Budget have been carried forward and strengthened, providing greater certainty and predictability to businesses and investors.

“These include the continued implementation of the Trade National Single Window (TNSW), the phased removal of para-tariffs, the rollout of the Digital ID framework, efforts to expand market access through new Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), the strengthening of one-stop-shop investment facilitation mechanisms, progress on Customs reforms, the expansion of Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), enhanced financing support for SMEs, and reforms relating to the management of State-Owned Enterprises.”

The CCC said that more than 20 proposals submitted by it have been reflected in Budget 2027.

These include measures to strengthen investor facilitation through the establishment of a professionally managed investment promotion agency; continued efforts to improve trade facilitation and export competitiveness; the Government’s consideration of a successor programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF); accelerated progress on key legislative reforms; the expansion of digital government services; and the promotion of cashless payments and broader digital adoption. The Budget has also captured several priorities relating to energy security, including the accelerated deployment of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and investments in fuel storage infrastructure, initiatives to optimize underutilized agricultural land, measures to support the expansion of the digital economy and the IT/BPO sector, and tax reforms to support exporters, including the acceptance of newly VAT-registered exporters as eligible exporters.

“The inclusion of these priorities reflects the value of sustained public-private dialogue and demonstrates increasing alignment between national policy objectives and the needs of a competitive, export-oriented economy.

“The priority now must be effective and timely implementation to translate policy commitments into investment, competitiveness, exports and sustainable growth.” (Colombo/Nov13/2026)