Lack of coordination hampers capacity building - UNIDO official

CAPACITY BUILDING: Effectiveness of capacity building programmes offered by UNIDO Sri Lanka for the promotion and growth of micro and small and medium scale enterprises suffers due to lack of coordination and lack of outreach and sustainability according to A. Fujino of UNIDO.

Although a number of capacity building programmes are conducted, be it in the micro credit financing ,small business development or technology acquisition by the Government and private sector or NGO's the availability of opportunities for skills training programmes are very much limited due to these two main constraints, he said.

Fujino said that focusing on the Southern province , which is one of the main disadvantaged provinces in the country ,the capacity building component aims at the creation of growth oriented MSMEs and expanding existing micro and small scale entrepreneurial endeavours to small and medium scale industrial enterprises.

He said that the need to create business and entrepreneurial opportunities in rural areas is more profound within the context of uneven development among provinces . Due to inadequate infrastructure development in rural areas and the poor performance of the agricultural sector ,the majority of industry is concentrated close to the main ports and the airport.

He said that over 40 per cent of GDP is generated by the Western Province where 85 per cent industry is located making Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara the wealthiest on a per capita basis.

He recommends that due to economic disparities that coincide with intra provincial disparities on human development in general ,specific measures are required to introduce an impetus for balanced economic development to reduce the gap between those areas with more resources and those without.

UNIDO intervenes into capacity building of FCCISL to improve business advisory services developing a business incubator taking Southern province as a pilot case.