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| Sunday, 13 October 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Rs 10m fund to boost rural economy The Rural Economy Resuscitation Fund will revitalise and boost the rural economy, thereby accelerating the development of the country. The Rs 10 million fund will be managed by a Board of Trustees headed by Mr A.P. Ekanayake and comprising seven other members, said Minister of Rural Economy and Deputy Minister of Finance Bandula Gunawardena. All monies collected from projects under the Ministry of Rural Economy will be credited to the fund with the objective of making the fund self-sustainable within four years. The objectives of the fund are uplifting the rural economy by initiating and implementing projects to develop infrastructure of small and medium scale economic communities; development of entrepreneurship, human capital and human resources; introduction and implementation of projects for environmental development; provision of financial and non-financial assistance for self-employment projects; provision of fixed and working capital to implement projects; provision of capital credit facilities for projects; making the necessary technology available; implementation of programs for the alleviation of poverty; and implementing export promotion programs. The main activities of the Trust are uplifting the domestic market for rural people with reasonable prices, trade fairs for specific products, export processing villages and productivity-oriented activities and infrastructure building for rural people. The Ministry has taken several steps to revitalise the rural economy. Among them are establishing economic centres, Export Production Villages (EPV) and handicraft villages. The Minister said that they hope to establish 12 economic centres by the end of 2003. He said the economic centres at Meegoda and Embilipitiya will be completed this year while the centres at Bakamuna and Marandagahamula will get off the ground by the end of the year. Construction work has started in three EPVs while four more are scheduled to get off the ground before the end of the year. |
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