Though Sri Lanka has 17 universities offering 728 educational subjects, little focus is towards entrepreneurial education, said State Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Prasanna Ranaweera at the Sri Lanka Industrial Exhibition 2023 concluded at BMICH on Sunday.
He said that out of the 728 educational qualifications offered by the local universities over 300 are dedicated towards languages and fine arts and culture. “This is not the right direction the local education sector should move. There should be more university level education systems to promote entrepreneurship which is the future of Sri Lanka.”
He requested Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, who was the Chief Guest at the event, to look at this huge mismatch and come up with a better higher education system that is focused on producing entrepreneurs. Ranaweera also said that though there is a USD 40 billion export demand Sri Lanka can only notch up around USD 12 billion annual exports. “This is not because of bad marketing techniques but due to low knowledge of global opportunities and low production.”
Minister Ranaweera said that the universities should do it to engage in more global research and advise us to introduce more export oriented products to Lanka’s export catalogue. He also said that there is huge potential to increase local exports to record USD 20 billion in the next 18 months.
“We believe that through entrepreneurs we can make Sri Lanka a self-reliant economy. To this end, the State Ministry of Rattan, Brass, Pottery, Furniture and Rural Industrial Promotion will work to create import substitutes and strengthen our manufacturing economy,” he said.
Minister of Plantation industries, Dr. Romesh Pathirana said that the local exporters have done a highly praiseworthy endeavor by exporting an all time record of USD 12.5 billion last year despite all odds.
“They should be commended as they had to face power cuts, lack of fuel, gas and raw material and also high interest rates.”
While pledging government support for industrials and exporters in the future as well, the Minister said they should aim to better this in 2023.
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