Industrial projects worth Rs. 783 m to get off the ground

Anjana SAMARASINGHE

NEW PROJECTS: Under the Gamata Karmantha program Ministry of Industrial Development has approved new nine ventures with a total investment of Rs 783 million.

Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Industrial Development R.V.D. Piyatilake told Daily News all nine investments will provide 2250 direct job opportunities to the youth in the country.

Most of these new ventures are on garments, footwear, coir products and manufacturing rubber products. These projects will be located in Billiaththa, Dankotuwa, Bingiriya, Badegama, Panduwasnuwara, Pannala and Yatinuwara.

Plans are afoot to commence the construction work of five projects this month. Projects such as manufacturing coir products will be commenced soon, Piyatilake said.

Apart from this proposed projects now we are in the process of evaluating to commence ten new ventures to grant approval under the Gamata Karmantha program he said.

These project proposals are evaluated through special committee before the ventures qualify for concessions granted under the Gamata Karmantha program.

This committee will consist of the representatives from Department of Inland Revenue, Department of Customs, Industrial Development Board and Infrastructure Providers such as National Water Supply and Drainage Board.

Piyatilake said that they have approved 38 new ventures presently under the Gamata Karmantha program and 20 projects out of them have commenced construction work.

Ministry is targeting to approve nearly 50 new ventures under the program this year. However the Ministry is confident that they could approve nearly 75 ventures during this year.

Under the Gamata Karmantha program tax holidays and other concessions will be provided to the investors.