The Ministry of Industries will provide the ‘Made in Sri Lanka’(MISL) franchise logo to micro and SME manufacturers who have over 80% local value addition, Minister of Industries Wimal Weerawansa said.
“The Ministry will help to take their products global through a newly launched e-commerce portal,” he asserted.
“We will also host a series of monthly ‘Trade Stalls’ in popular places like Arcade Colombo in a bid to give better exposure to local manufactures among the Colombo elit. “We want to launch a campaign among the high society to make them buy more Sri Lankan products,”
Weerawansa said that the Ministry through the Peoples Bank has initiated a special low-interest loan scheme for the SME sector and with minimum collateral. The Ministry will take the responsibility of appearing as the guarantor for them.”
He also disclosed talks are underway with the State Mortgage and Investment Bank to offer credit for the Micro sector for under RS. 500,000.
“We will also submit a Cabinet paper early next January to further offer debt moratoria for the SME sector and seek approval to further differ loans and leases for entrepreneurs.”
MSMEs have come to play an increasing and vital role in almost all the economies in the world and consequently, this sector is considered as the backbone of economies. In Sri Lanka, this sector accounts for about 75% of the total number of enterprises providing 45% of the employment and contributing 52% to the GDP. However, these percentages compared with those in developed and fast-developing countries are smaller indicating that our MSME sector should be subjected to development with a great speed and should be converted to a growth-oriented sector.
As such, this proposed project is meant to fill this gap through helping grass-root level scattered and isolated entrepreneurs to have a greater market and get their businesses modernized through integrating, especially with ITC developments.
Ministry Secretary Chulananda Perera said that they met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dinesh Gunawardane to explore the possibility of promoting local micro and SME manufacturers products through Sri Lankan embassy Commercial sections.
“The overall objective of setting up a Portal under the National Enterprise Development Authority’s (NEDA) Management is to improve the MSMEs operational efficiency, effectiveness of procedures, documentation flow and communication in national and international trade transactions through making ICT facilities available,” Chairman NEDA Anushka Gunasinghe said.
