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.
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