Increasing SME competitiveness:

CORE Project organizes seminar

The USAID funded CORE Project, with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, will organize a two day workshop, to be held at the Ballroom, Hotel Ceylon Continental, on August 16 and 17 from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm The workshop is aimed at assisting the SME's to increase their quality and in turn competitiveness of their products and services relating to the dairy, fisheries, and horticulture sectors.

Since competitiveness is intimately linked with quality and market requirements, it would help these businesses understand the gaps in quality and help further improve their products and services.

Firms entering into global markets such as the United States, the European Union, Japan and the Middle East, have several quality requirements which are prerequisites in order to enter these markets. This two day workshop provided by the USAID/CORE project, is sponsoring internationally recognized experts to present information, for these sectors to identify with the standards required to expand on a global scale.

Industries in Sri Lanka, with the application and certification in compliance with international standards could easily gain the competitive edge needed to penetrate such markets.

In order to encourage the adoption of international standards and develop an understanding of international requirements in these sectors, experts will provide general presentations focusing on access on the first day and presentations on specific standards requirements, on the second day. Local experts will also work hand in hand with the international experts in areas of Sri Lanka Food Safety and Plant/Animal Health Standards.

Specific sessions will cover industry topics such as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other fisheries standards, Pasteurized Milk ordinance (PMO) and other dairy standards, ISO/22000/HACCP/GMP, Organic/GAP/EUREPGAP/Fair Trade, etc.

An introduction to SLS will also be covered for the benefit of those who are interested in beginning with locally applicable standards.