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The Industrial Development Board (IDB) will work in partnership with all stakeholders to fulfil the objectives of the small and medium industrial sector, the government and staff.

"I will make sure that the IDB has a firm and clear objective and it is in line with the government's objective of achieving continuous growth and job opportunities for its people," said the new Chairman of IDB Dr Bandula Perera.

He assured that the IDB will not work in isolation. Instead it will work in partnership. The IDB has taken steps to establish five new factories in the Pallekele Industrial Zone, which will start operations in the near future.

The factories will manufacture matchboxes, garments, light and heavy engineering products and galvanising plants.

Dr Perera said that when he took over as the chairman, the structure was in good shape and there was a fine network of district offices as well as a semi-finished reorganisation process, but there was absolutely no financial control.

The efforts taken by the IDB to support and enhance small and medium enterprises were not focused. Therefore, they have not been able to reap the benefits. The corporate plan of IDB comes to an end this year but a new corporate plan is not in place, said Dr Perera.

"We have already started working and will put everything in place," he added. Speaking of the staff, Dr Perera said that people should be motivated and there should be a participatory management system to get the ideas of staff. He said that since the trade unions at the IDB are very constructive, there is no problem in getting the participation of the staff. Dr Perera said: "If we have the will, we can look after the people." He said that steps have been taken to enhance the staff medical insurance scheme while an annual medical check-up scheme has also been introduced. "We have taken steps to send the staff attached to the extension offices for re-orientation programmes and an English course. Plans are also under way to give computer training to staff.

"To have financial discipline within the organisation and to keep tab of the finances, I have requested each divisional head to give an estimate of the next month's expenses before the end of the month so that allocation can be done more smoothly," said Dr Perera.

He said that by restructuring security at the IDB, it has been able to save more than Rs 350,000 a month. "The debt amounts to about Rs. 12 million, but we will be able to recover only Rs 3 million while the rest is bad debt," he said.

Dr Perera said that the IDB has been able to help some industrialists who got into financial difficulties and whose property was to be auctioned by the banks. "We explained the viability of the project and got the banks to extend the loans."

Among the future plans of the IDB are strengthening the marketing section, providing modern technology to small and medium enterprises to make them competitive and helping them to sell their products locally and abroad and working in partnership with all stakeholders to achieve these objectives.

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