Regional business leaders to visit Australia

A group of regional business leaders from economically marginalised parts of Sri Lanka are scheduled to visit Australia end of this month to promote economic development in order to address imminent social crises such as rural poverty and youth exclusion in Sri Lanka, amongst the business community of Sri Lankan origin in Australia.

This visit is facilitated by International Alert in collaboration with the University of Queensland and the Australia - Sri Lanka Council Inc. in Australia. The regional business leaders represent different geographical clusters in Sri Lanka and are Directors and senior representatives of the Business for Peace Alliance, (BPA).

Alert has a wealth of experience based on research and engagement with members of the business community in over 20 countries in context-sensitive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the role of the local private sector in promoting just and inclusive socio-economic development. As in other countries, in Sri Lanka Alert works closely with local business initiatives such as the BPA network of regional business Chambers of Commerce.

The BPA is committed to regional empowerment, the fostering of non-violent resolutions of community-level conflicts for a climate conducive to economic development and the promotion of better corporate social responsibility at regional level.

The regional business leaders will be accompanied by big corporate business and other resource persons.

Considering that 51% of Sri Lanka’s GDP is coming from Colombo and the balance 49% from the rest of the country, it is clear that greater attention should be paid to development of areas outside Colombo with active regional involvement.

The private sector can play an important role to address such regional and structural disparities and to strengthen recovery capacities in all parts of the country.

The purpose of the forthcoming visit to Australia by the regional business leaders is to network with the business community of Sri Lankan origin. It is hoped that Sri Lankan business people living in Australia will forge trade links with regional business people. In addition, several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of the business community in Sri Lanka will be presented as options for collaboration.

This includes the “Learn and Lead” scholarship scheme which is designed to provide education in leading private schools in big cities in Sri Lanka such as Kandy, Colombo, Galle and Jaffna, to bright under-privileged children from disadvantaged regions. Students from Anuradhapura, Trincomalee and Badulla will benefit from the scheme in its initial phase.

“The Youth Business Trust” is another such programme geared towards tackling the problems of rural youth unemployment. It is designed to develop entrepreneurial skills amongst youth from disadvantaged background through micro finance and mentoring by successful businessmen in their communities.