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Sri Lankan minister calls on SMEs to convert challenges into opportunities

Sri Lankan minister calls on SMEs to convert challenges into opportunities

Sri Lanka’s Industries Minister Wimal Weerawansa has reportedly called on Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) to convert challenges into opportunities through innovation and creativity to become trailblazers in local manufacturing.
Delivering the keynote address at the National SME Forum organised and conducted in Sinhala by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) titled ‘Accelerating economic growth through creation of a dynamic SME sector,’ the Minister has reportedly assured full support to local industries to reach new heights in business.
“SME manufacturers in Sri Lanka have the potential to make a huge difference in local production through innovation and creativity. It will be an easy task for us to turn these challenges into opportunities for development if we persist with a strong local mindset, instilled with a national economic vision, innovation, creativity and technology,” Weerawansa has been quoted as saying.
On the area of the Sri Lankan government pursuing economic advancement through export promotion and import substitution production strategy, Weerawansa has further noted that the Industries Ministry was doing its utmost to strengthen and lead the direction of the economy by uplifting local industries.
According to him, there’s a need to start thinking out of the box to broaden perspectives to face the changing global society.
“It is no secret that the primary challenge is the lack of capital. But instead of dwelling on it, we must adopt an alternative path and pursue a goal-oriented approach. This is where innovation and creativity come in handy for entrepreneurs and manufacturers. Thinking in a new way is no longer a choice, but a necessity,” Weerawansa has been quoted as saying.
He has further noted that capital, technology and innovation were three key ingredients which were intertwined in the development of local industries.
“In addition to innovative production strategies, we have to find answers to this attitudinal poverty. Spiritual capital, which has become a major tool in a society where knowledge is capital, came to us from Europe or the US — that too is a joke, like sustainable development. For centuries our people knew that economic development and environmental protection must go hand in hand and they also knew from experience that CSR was part of spiritual capital, before multinational corporations introduced it as a lucrative means of earning money — but sadly we did not use them in the right economic models,” Weerawansa has added.

OSL take:

Sri Lanka’s economy has shown great resilience through the years and is once again on the path to recovery after facing the impact of the global Covid 19 pandemic. All key economic sectors in the country are back in operation with several sectors showing positive returns even amidst the pandemic. The government of Sri Lanka has once again launched its development programme and is continuously improving on the country’s ease of doing business environment. Foreign businesses/investors could therefore explore business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka given that the country is fast becoming a business hub in the South Asian region. Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian ocean and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country have also further boosted the country’s business/investment opportunities.

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Article Code : VBS/AT/02072021/Z_5

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