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The outgoing President of the National Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka (NCCSL), Chandra Embuldeniya expressed faith in the Government's peace initiative and said the country would soon reap the benefits in the form of economic development.

Embuldeniya who stepped down as the President of the NCCSL to make way for Asoka Gunasekara said that the Chamber took the initiative in promoting business activities in the North and East in an effort to support the Government's peace process.

"We provided the impetus to the peace process by taking the initiative in the very early stages of the peace process to promote business activities in the North and East. We pioneered business delegations to visit Jaffna, which resulted in more than 150 businessmen either starting activities or exploring the climate to commence activities in the North. Our mission in Jaffna was greatly assisted due to the support given by the two leading chambers in Jaffna the Jaffna, District Chamber of Commerce and Yalpanam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

We also pioneered the formation of the Vavuniya District Chamber of Commerce and the Trincomalee District Chamber of Commerce," Embuldeniya said. He said the NCCSL focused special attention on the country's Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) and took several measures to promote the sector.

"We are happy that the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector benefited from our participation in the SME Development Task Force activities. We were able to help conduct public hearings to identify the SME problems in Kandy, Trincomalee, Matara and Colombo. We have also taken steps in strengthening SME activities by forming the first Federation of SME organisations in Sri Lanka. This is made up of 20 district associations," Embuldeniya said. He said the Chamber's efforts to promote our exports and draw investments into the country was highlighted by the successful conclusion of the INTRAD 2002 Exhibition and Investor Forum, held in September. He said the Chamber also took a keen interest in the protection of the environment and organised several activities towards achieving that goal.

"The NCCSL took the initiative to broaden the environmental activities conducted by the Environment Cell by combining social responsibility with environmental conservation and founding the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) which will be linked with its world body. The NCCSL provides the secretarial services to the BCSD in Sri Lanka. Under the activities of the BCSD we will support sustainable development and support activities to fulfil environmental and social responsibility criteria while pursuing our economic objectives. Among the activities that we have undertaken are helping to reduce global warming and reducing carbon emissions.

"I am glad that our Secretariat has gained strength and experience to support the mission of the Chamber and to stand up as the `Nations Voice for Business'," Embuldeniya said.

He said the Chamber played an important role to influence the policy direction of the Government in shipping, fiscal measures and taxation, SME and industrial development, commerce, environment, tertiary education and vocational training, power and energy, employment and labour matters.

"In promoting BIMSTEC, the regional economic bloc formed by five countries, we played a leading role with the Chamber acting as the focal point in Sri Lanka's business activities.

Our efforts in education reforms have given us some tangible results. We conducted cluster meetings in cashew and cinnamon to fulfil the needs of the University Grants Commission's standing committee on agriculture education and highlighted the demand-driven research priorities of the private sector.

As a result of these efforts the standing committee has now appointed Ruhuna and Wayamba universities to conduct and coordinate research in these two clusters. We firmly believe that agriculture and industry have to be spearheaded by a strong Research and Development base to facilitate development and introduce turnkey solutions and upgrade technology," Embuldeniya said. He said the Chamber will take action during the coming year to set up the envisaged Institute of Fashion with the assistance of the Indian Apparel Buying Agents Association. - (C.K.)

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