Industry Ministry successfully enlists German push

Sri Lanka has successfully enlisted German support for 18000 marginalized rural entrepreneurs in the country. More importantly, the much needed support is expected to directly uplift purchasing agents in remote regions who are no less than the first point of product distribution for more than 1.4 million rural household 'economic units' across the country.

Sri Lanka's National Enterprise Development Agency (NEDA) under the Industry and Commerce Ministry has now been informed of prospective German support towards its regional entrepreneur uplifting initiative aimed at creating a bankable village entrepreneur.

"This is a powerful shot in the arm for 18000 marginalized entrepreneurs in geographically difficult regions in Sri Lanka.

The focus at present is mainly on micro and small scale entrepreneurs -the purchasing agents in rural areas - on whom our rural household producers largely depend on but who are marginalized from our banking infrastructure" said Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen in the aftermath of his successful discussions with Colombo's German Development Cooperation (GIZ, formerly GTZ) team held in Colombo last week. The GIZ team was led by GIZ Sri Lanka Country Director Dr. Friedrich Liehr.

The other members of the team were, German Embassy in Colombo First Secretary Andrea Grimm and GIZ Sri Lanka Senior Advisor German Muller. GIZ is currently mandated to support the German Government's objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and is also engaged in international education work around the globe.

"We have now successfully enlisted support for current and future entrepreneurs in far regions of Sri Lanka" said NEDA Director Lakshman Wijeyawardena.

"The micro and small scale purchasing agents and entrepreneurs in difficult geographic areas such as Nuwara Eliya and Moneragala Districts are playing a crucial role in the distribution but are on a continuous struggle to run their enterprises since banks do not accommodate them due to lack of collateral. We will also look into overcome this issue in addition to strengthening their capacity" Wijeyawardena said.

"Our initial support target is 18,000 rural entrepreneurs but we are ready to increase the numbers when more funds become available," he said.

The micro and small scale vendors play a vital role in Sri Lanka's rural supply chains.

The bulk of the household produce based on such government sponsored large scale programmes as 'Divi Neguma' where one million rural household units are boosted, are often first purchased by these micro and small vendors, thereby these vendors becoming the rural economies' entryway to the supply chain.

If these entrepreneurs continue to struggle and collapse, then the village economies could find themselves off-grid. Realizing the implications of such a scenario, Industry Ministry's NEDA began pushing to strengthen the rural micro and small vendor layer, and has now successfully enlisted German government support as part of its efforts.