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By Channa Kasturisinghe

The Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) will assist small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the Jaffna District to promote the palmyrah fibre industry, the Chairman Nihal Abeysekera told the Daily News yesterday.

He said that there was a growing demand for palmyrah fibre in the Southern part of the country to manufacture paint brushes and the entrepreneurs in the North could cater to the demand for raw material.

"At present fibre for the paint brush manufacturing industry is imported from India. If the Jaffna entrepreneur can provide the raw material in the form of palmyrah fibre it would be very cost-effective for manufacturers in the South," Abeysekara said.

He said however, that entrepreneurs need technological assistance and training to produce quality palmyrah fibre and the FCCISL will assist them.

"We went to Jaffna in January 2002 and met representatives of the business community there. We discussed the possible industries for development and identified that agro-based industries and foundry have much potential. Palmyrah is a very useful tree, which is unique to the North and it can be the source for several industries.

At present palmyrah fibre manufacturing is done in the area on a very small scale. Recently, an entrepreneur in the area developed a machine for palmyrah fibre processing. The Federation is expecting to provide technological assistance for entrepreneurs to develop such machines and to train youth how to produce best quality fibre," Abeysekera said.

He said the Federation would also assist entrepreneurs to set up a brush manufacturing plant in Jaffna under its sub contracting and partnership development program for the small and medium scale enterprise sector. The feasibility study on the setting up of the plant has already been concluded, he said.

Abeysekera also said that the UNIDO has already prepared the concept papers to set up a laboratory in Jaffna to facilitate agriculture, fisheries and milk industries in the North.

The FCCISL this week signed agreements with five chambers of commerce and industry in the Northern and Eastern provinces and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for a project to expand the Institutional Capacity and Competence Building Program for the chambers of commerce and industry in the North and East.

"This program is the first of its kind and the largest ever chamber development program implemented in Sri Lanka. It is the largest in terms of volume of funding, number of beneficiaries and geographical representation of beneficiaries of the project. It is also a very comprehensive institutional building program, which covers all aspects of institutional developments such as infrastructure development, human resource development and linkage building and network.

After the successful commencement of the peace process the FCCIS requested SIDA to consider expanding the project to the North and the East," Abeysekera said.

The five district chambers that signed the agreement are District Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Batticaloa, Ampara, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and the Yalpanam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abeysekera said.

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