Upsurge of interest in Trinco for micro finance
Ganga Pradeepa in Trincomalee
SEVERAL MICRO finance projects to the tune of Rs. 7 million
involving 1300 businessmen will get underway in the Trincomalee district
shortly.
Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Trincomalee
District (CCITD) R. Rajarammohan said these projects based on micro
finance scale has been named 'Back to Business Programme'. This program
initiated by the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FFISL)
also won a global award.
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Chairman, CCITD,
R. Rajarammohan.
Picture by Ganga Pradeepa |
Already agreements to the tune of Rs. 4.4 million have been entered
into with the Asia Foundation for small business recapitalisation. This
will assist tsunami victims and other affected by the ethnic conflict.
"The salient feature of this project is participation of
representatives from the Southern Chambers namely Matara, Galle,
Hambantota and Kalutara. The participation of the Southern Chamber
evolves much interaction with the Trincomalee Chamber with a Sinhala
business woman being elected to the board of the Trincomalee Chamber,"
he added.
The Eastern chamber comprises all segments of the business society
ranging from construction, trading and to beauty culture. The members of
the Trincomalee chamber were trained at the Business College under the
USAID sponsor programme.
Meanwhile a unit namely 'National Chamber of Commerce' is also to be
set up to finance industries in Trincomalee.
The Trincomalee chamber provides finance assistance to purchase
machinery and other equipments and bears nearly 20% of the cost. 5,000
applications have already been received in this regard.
In addition to the micro finance activities, mega development
projects involving multi national companies such as Prima, IOC, Holcim
are also being currently conducted.
The government while developing the Trincomalee harbour has also laid
the foundation for a special export-processing zone (BoI) for the
region. New roads too would be built to link these developments.
The Sri Lanka Tourist Board too has acquired a land for mega tourism
development projects in the area.
In a bid to meet the future power sector demand, a coal power plant
is also being built. |
