The government hopes to create 100,000 entrepreneurs by 2020, with the launch of ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ and the ‘Gamperaliya’ accelerated rural development programmes.
Addressing a gathering at the BMICH, Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera spoke on the theme of reviving the country’s ancient trading culture, “Today we are here to revive those genetically inherent skills through Enterprise Sri Lanka”.
Under Enterprise Sri Lanka, the government will be offering 15 loan schemes under the categories of; interest subsidy loan schemes,donor funded refinance loan schemes and financial and non-financial support programmes.They will address each section of business sector and society from agrarian based loans to women and youth. The government he said will take on the payment of a significant proportion of the loans, with Rs 15 billion already being allocated for such payments.
All state banks and branches he further explained would set up a special desk and ‘relationship manager’ to handle Enterprise Sri Lanka loans.The Minister hoped that even private banks would soon join the venture.
The Gamperaliya programme in the meantime has had Rs 80 billion allocated for it and would work together with the President’s Grama Shakthi programme. Each electorate is to be given Rs 50 million for the next two years for the development of water tanks, anicuts, green parks, to set up free-wifi, rehabilitate small religious places, village roads, to provide sanitary facilities to schools and to develop village schools.
“Work will begin on July 1 in the Moneragala district with the building of toilets for 25,000 families who have no toilets in the district. Rs 500 million has been allocated for this”.
Public Enterprise and Kandy City Development Minister, Lakshman Kiriella who came out strongly against the banks said reports showed that most commercial banks had 50 percent of their loans given to people who had mortgaged their gold, “Only 10 percent had been given as agrarian loans. So the banks are basically making profit out of the interest from gold loans”, he said.
“We have to ask ourselves, are banks actually serving their intended purposes? Are they saving the people from loan sharks? I don’t think so. Banks need a new direction”, he said.
He hoped that the newly appointed relationship managers would help serve the people better with the new loans and fulfill the original purpose of the bank.
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