FCCISL’s Enterprise Sri Lanka to bolster 100,000 SMEs

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Sri Lanka’s umbrella trade chamber -The Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) will soon launch a novel program tagged: “Enterprise Sri Lanka, aimed at providing support services to the 100,000-strong Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector.

Enterprise Sri Lanka will aim at offering a diverse array of services to the SME sector which will range from assistance in collections of payments due from state agencies, VAT refunds, tax and banking issues, matters related to ports, airports and customs and banking issues among a host of others, FCCISL President Kosala Wickremanayake told Daily News Business yesterday.

He said that the SME sector which accounts for over 70 per cent of the business operations in Sri Lanka will also see their restructure with the FCCISL setting up a one-stop-shop which will be established in Colombo in March and extended to the outstations via the Federation network with the passage of time.

The outstation network presence of the Federation is in Kandy, Matale, Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Trincomalee, Anuradhapura and Jaffna.

Some of the state agencies that the Federation plans to network will be the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka Ltd, Sri Lanka Customs, Sri Lanka Telecom, National Water Supply and Drainage Board, Ceylon Electricity Board, Sri Lanka Export Development Board, the Treasury, Central Environment Authority, state and private sector banks and also the Board of Investment. One of the key areas that Enterprise Sri Lanka will focus on will be SMEs who have performed contracts for state agencies and who are unable to recover their dues due to cash flow problems of some state agencies.

The service will also venture out to assist SMEs who have exportable products and who need export markets.

“We will be recruiting retired personnel from the relevant state agencies who have not only vast experience in handing all these multi- pronged issues and who also have the contacts in these agencies as well who could play the vital support services for the well-being, survival and continuity of the SMEs,” he said. Special attention will also be paid to the restructuring of business houses in the war-related disasters.

The Federation will also lobby with the Government to allow business houses to open local letters of credit where the SMEs will be paid at the appropriate time and where small-scale businesses will not encounter drawbacks in collecting their due payments.

There will also be lobbying by the Federation appealing to the Government to help them to offer ways of reducing their inbuilt costs.