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| Wednesday, 4 February 2004 |
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Help achieve peace and economic stability - Asoka de Z Gunasekera President, National Chamber of Commerce, Asoka de Z. Gunasekera called upon all political leaders to set aside their personal agendas and join together to achieve peace and economic stability. He was speaking at the Annual General Meeting held in Colombo recently. "The extremely conducive business environment that prevailed last year was used to foster economic growth, he said. The small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector is seen as a key player in our country's national development planning to ensure that the sector's products and business management remain internationally competitive. "The development of SMEs was one of our major concerns. Our Chamber set up a joint effort among entrepreneurs, non-profit organisations and the Chamber to develop its production technology, marketing and customer service skills, offering a range of services such as on-site analysis, skills development, knowledge sharing, technology assessment, project management and quality systems," he said. Several seminars and workshops were conducted to create awareness and enhance the competitiveness of SMEs. Our pilot project proposal to set up five information centres in the Districts with Internet facilities and also to set up a SME web portal was accepted by the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka. Three centres set up in Puttalam, Anuradhapura and Matara are functioning well. Two more will be set up before the end of February in Ratnapura and Nuwara Eliya. The Chamber hosted several important trade delegations that visited Sri Lanka and arranged one-to-one meetings with members. "We have initiated action to sign MoUs with several Chambers and Trade Associations," he said. The Committee is planning to organise an innovative Business Excellence Awards towards the end of 2004, ranging from outlandish hi-tech ideas to plain and simple practical solutions. NCCSL Conventions was formed as a fully owned subsidiary of the Chamber, to be its Professional Convention and Exhibition organising arm. Already they have organised several events, including INTRAD, and many more are lined up for this year. |
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