Proposals for development of small and medium sector presented

MEETING: A delegation from the Chamber of Small Industry lead by its President Aloy Jayawardene met Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Dr. Sarath Amunugama and presented to him proposals for the development of exports in the Small and Medium sector. The meeting was held at the Ministry on March 9.

Mr. Jayawardene informed Minister Amunugama that the Small Chamber was in existence for the past 43 years. "Although we call ourselves small, most of our members started small, today they have grown to Medium and Large Scale units.

A draft bill prepared by the Ministry of Industrial Development approved by the Cabinet is presently with the Legal Draftsman and within the next couple of months it should go through Parliament and the Chamber will then be known as the "SRI LANKA CHAMBER OF SMALL AND MEDIUM INDUSTRY".

Mr. Jayawardene was accompanied by Nandadasa Rajapakse, Chairman D. Samson Industries (Pvt.) Ltd. Lalith Kahatapitiya Chairman, KTK Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd. and Dharmasiri Alahakoon, Managing Director Country Style Foods (Pvt.) Ltd.

Referring to the discriminatory sales taxes, imposed on Sri Lanka Exports to India Mr. Jayawardene said our exports are at a disadvantage more as they have imposed high taxes on products coming from abroad.

We should not allow foreign manufactures to enter our territory and kill our local industries. Our industries who had a local market have realized its more profitable to import and sell than getting involved in manufacturing. Mr. Jayawardene suggested that we introduce a Non Tariff Barrier System on finished goods imports, to protect our local manufacturers.

The delegation further suggested that an Export Development Grant be introduced, in the region of 10% of the value of the exported goods. In the presentation made it detailed the incentive offered to exporters in India and Australia.

India has introduced this incentive, although they have most of their raw materials for their industrialists. If our exports are to be competitive with items from India and China, we have to offer this incentive said Mr. Jayawardene.

Mr. Jayawardene referred to his recent visit to Australia, visiting the Chambers of Industry and Commerce in the States of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.

Mr. Jayawardene has planned for a Ministerial Delegation to visit Queensland and Tasmania, with over 30,000 manufacturing units of Small and Medium scale, who are interested in Joint Ventures and Foreign Investment in Sri Lanka to make use of the FTA with India and Pakistan.

The Chamber is presently getting through their respective web to find the manufacturing units of the two States. Mr. Jayawardene said that the State of Queensland was interested to import skilled labour from Sri Lanka for their industries. Queensland along need over 50,000 skilled labour in the fields of electricians, plumbers, welders, carpenters.

According to the information had, Mr. Jayawardene said that the Government of Australia had a proposal to open up in developing countries training institutes to train skilled labour, using tools and instruments used in Australia by such skilled labour.

The Minister agreed to this proposal and requested Mr. Jayawardene to nursue these matters and any assistance from his Ministry could be extended. The Minister agreed to lead the delegation proposed by the Chamber with the Chairman BOI accompanying.

The Minister referring to the discussions and the series of deals signed between China and Sri Lanka when President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Beijing to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties, the Minister said that China has offered special tariff concessions to imports from Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Manufacturers and Exporters should make use of this opportunity to boost Sri Lankan exports.

Total imports to Sri Lanka from China is over one billion US Dollars whilst the exports to China is just 35 million US dollars.