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| Sunday, 6 February 2005 |
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More than Rs. 400m for industrial villages by Chanuka Mannapperuma A multi-faceted program is now under way to give a new lease of life to the families who were engaged in small and medium industries prior to the tsunami tragedy. The Small and Rural Industries Ministry plans to implement a separate program to re-settle the affected families and provide necessary financial assistance to re-start their ventures. The Ministry will directly assist in providing loan facilities from the Central Bank and other commercial banks. Also, a high level committee is to be set up to expedite the setting up of the SME Bank proposed in the recent budget. This committee will comprise Secretaries of the Industrial Ministry, Advanced Technology and National Enterprise Development and Small and Rural Development Ministry. The Ministry has already allocated Rs 200 million to provide kitchen utensils, furniture, household electrical appliances and other necessary equipment for the families who are being re-settled. "Arrangements have been made to obtain those equipment from industrial villages set up by the Ministry and will be distributed among the affected families through a voucher system to be introduced by Co-operative Societies in the respective areas," a Ministry spokesman added. The Ministry has allocated a further Rs.25 million for the 'Industrial Exhibition 2005' which will enable the local industrialists to gain international exposure for their products. Small and Rural Industries Minister K.D. Lalkantha said, recently they have also launched the second phase of 'Guru Peheyen Ran Peheyata' Industrial Village Project. He said, under the second phase management training, exchanges of technical expertise, cost reduction, sales development, management and export development target programmes will be implemented. "We hope to develop 1000 industrial villages across the country. This project will help to improve the economy of the country as well as create job opportunities" he noted. The budget has allocated Rs.400 million for this program for the current year while Rs.600 million allocated for 2006. Another Rs.1000 million has been allocated for 2007. |
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