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| Monday, 31 January 2005 |
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SME sector would be engine of growth in Sri Lanka - PM by Channa Kasturisinghe The support of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) would be instrumental in the Government's efforts to promote the SME sector in Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse said. He was addressing the 46th Annual General Meeting of the NCCSL on Friday. The Premier said that the SME sector would be the engine of growth in this country and the leading Chambers of Commerce should join hands with the government in promoting the sector. "The tsunami dealt a severe blow to the sector especially the fisheries industry. The NCCSL's SME Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Project is an initiative which could help minimise the negative impact to the SME sector," the Prime Minster said. Minister of Advanced Technology and National Enterprises Development, Rohitha Bogollagama said the government has already assured Rs. 200 million to assist the SMEs affected due to the tsunami. "Our Ministry is also planning to carry out an islandwide survey with the assistance of the Institute of Policy Studies to assess the damage to the micro and medium scale industries. We have already taken steps to assist coir industrialists in the affected areas by helping them to obtain raw material from the Kurunegala District, the Minister said. The outgoing President of the NCCSL, Asoka D. Z Gunasekara said that the NCCSL has set up SME associations in 15 districts and some have shown remarkable success by establishing a marketing arm for the products of the SME. "We are thankful to the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka for providing funding to set up five Information Centres which are used to provide relevant and updated market and trade information. We have been able to get funding from NHO (Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry) and EFC to update their technology and management techniques," Gunasekara said. |
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