SAARC SME Forum on October 28

The Tamil Nadu Small Industries Association and Friedrich Naumann Stiftung Fur die Freiheit (FNF) Germany, is staging the 2010 SAARC conference on the theme Evolving a SME Policy for SAARC Countries.

Minister Rishad Bathuideen	FCCI President Kosala Wickramanayake	EDB and IDB Board Director Rohantha Athukorala

It has invited a high powered private/public sector delegation from Sri Lanka to share their learning's this year in India on October 28 and 29.

The chief guest will be Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathuideen who is driving the SME sector with industry led strategies focusing on developing Industrial estates in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan delegation picked by India includes Federation of Chamber of Commerce President Kosala Wickramanayake. The Sri Lankan SME scenario will be presented by EDB/IDB Board Director Rohantha Athukorala.

The objective of this year's conference is to Identify obstacles faced by SMEs in exporting within the SAARC region and to sensitise the stakeholders (Government and Policymakers) for the need for promoting SMEs at the regional level and to initiate discussion for a regional policy on SMEs given the low intra regional trade that is currently at play.

The other key speakers at the forum will be SME specialists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal including National Confederation of Small Industry in India DE Ramakrishnan, SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs, Pakistan Ayesha Zaheer and Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, Nepal CEO Gopal Tiwari.