Bangladesh, Nepal and Lanka agree :

Focus on key products with high export potential

Charumini DE SILVA

Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka in cooperation with ESCAP have decided to focus on key products with high export potential to upgrade SME value chains.

Sri Lanka has focused on industrial rubber, electronic goods and Bangladesh has focused on plastic products while Nepal has focused on commercial crops such as coffee and ginger, United Nations, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Director, Ravi Ratnayake said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at conclusion of the two day sub-regional workshop on Creating an Enabling Environment for South Asian SMEs Effective Penetration in Regional Global Market.

He said Sri Lanka has the potential to compete with the other emerging economies in the region. The country needs a strategic industrial policy on a niche market, with strong commitment to witness the results within a targeted time frame.

Easy access to finance is another major factor.

Moratuwa University Engineering Faculty Dean, Prof. Ananda Jayawardane said that SMEs are very important to an economy since this sector contributes to 60 percent of the employment in a country and also contributes immensely to the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) of the country.

Therefore, SMEs are considered as one of the major strengths of an economy. The Government and the private sector should focus more on the SME sector such as capacity development, human resource development and financial support and technical development, which would help the SMEs could penetrate the up markets as it has tremendous scope to develop.

Sri Lanka has the finest natural rubber in the world and we are the number one solid tyre manufactures. The supply of rubber has increased compared to the past few years. During the rainy season there is a short of the supply in tapping and that affects the industry. Therefore, to compete on par with the other countries, it is essential to adopt and enhance the technology of tapping, increasing the lands to cultivate rubber, increase the number of central rubber collections islandwide, upgrading the productions, a quality certification for the products and marketing expertise to promote the products globally, he said.

Prof. Jayawardane said that electronic goods are a comparatively a young industry to Sri Lanka, but it has shown significant development during the past few years.

It has a high value addition in the international market. If Sri Lanka could contribute to one percent of the global electronic good production by 2020, it would mark a important mark in country’s economy. Foreign direct investments are vital, especially in technology transfers as joint ventures.