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The Ministry of Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion is geared towards creating a conducive environment for industrialists to compete in the international market. Accordingly, the Ministry has been reorganised to play the role of a catalyst and help find solutions to obstacles faced by industrialists, said Secretary to the Ministry Ranjit Fernando. This has been effected on the advice of Minister of Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion Professor G.L. Peiris

He said: "Our country cannot produce mass scale and compete in the international market as our production cost is high. Therefore, we have to find niche markets and cater to the high end which fetches more foreign exchange."

Each industry has its own problems. The Ministry has identified 16 sectors using the JICA study on industrialisation and the USAID study on competitiveness, to be developed within the next five years. Each industry has a task force comprising public and private sector members.

The five-year development plans have been identified after a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and targets) analysis. The advantages of private - public sector partnerships are many. Among them are easy implementation and sharing and improving of knowledge. Mr Fernando said: "Twenty two corporations under the purview of the Ministry are engaged in commercial activities, but most are running at a loss. Therefore, we are in the process of studying each corporation to make them viable and close down the loss-making ventures."

Chairman Export Development Board (EDB) Ratna Sivaratnam said that exports from Sri Lanka are taking a dip due to high production costs. Under the new industrialisation strategy of the Government, the EDB has identified seven export-oriented projects with backward linkages to uplift the rural economy. The projects will not only earn foreign exchange, but improve the lifestyle and employment opportunities of the rural sector. (See separate story on export processing companies) He said the EDB will not spend more time or money on primary exports. "Instead, we will focus on new products and markets to earn foreign exchange while competing in niche markets."

Chairman Industrial Development Board (IDB) Dr Bandula Perera said the IDB will work as one team to facilitate and improve the small and medium industry (SMI) sector to compete internationally as SMIs are the livewire of the country, providing 90 per cent of jobs. The IDB has initiated several projects to transfer technology, improve productivity, revamp rice mills and projects for hearing impaired and persons who have lost jobs due to closures.Director of the Wasanthaya Programme D. Lamahewa said the Ministry is having a series of discussions with the National Institute of Education and the Education Department to include entrepreneurship development in the school curricula.

The main aim of Wasanthaya is creating an enabling environment for small and medium scale enterprises to flourish. The immediate objective is a well developed local market for business development services (BDS).

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