Under Mahinda Chintana program:

One thousand handicraft villages

Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Minister Douglas Devananda said 1,000 traditional handicraft villages will be set up islandwide within a year.

The Minister was speaking at a ceremony to peoplize the cane products manufacturing village at Radawadunna and clay products manufacturing village at Webadamulla.

He said the traditional handicrafts villages would be set up under the Mahinda Chintana - Vision for the Future program.

The Minister said the Sri Lanka Industrial Development Board which functions under his Ministry selects the villages comprising of traditional industrialists. Industrialists then form co-operative societies through which technical know-how is transferred to them together with the new designs.

The Government allocated Rs three million for the establishment of the Radawadunna village and Rs 2.9 million for the Webadamulla village, Devananda said.

The Minister discussed the problems of industrialists and promised to provide machinery for the cane factory and required quantities of clay for the Webadamulla factory.

The Minister instructed the Divisional Secretary and Regional Director of the Industrial Development Board to submit a report detailing the requirements of these two villages.

Minister Devananda said he would discuss with Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Indigenous Medicine Deputy Minister Pandu Bandaranayake on the requirements of these two villages so as to streamline their functioning. A Social Security Pension Scheme was also launched by the Social Security Board for Webadamulla industrialists on this occasion.