Entrepreneur of the year contest launched

The single most sought-after event in the business and industrial circles in Sri Lanka - the choosing of the Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year conducted by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) is now on.

The launch of the event took place at Taj Samudra Hotel and at the press conference following the launch, Kosala Wickramanayake, President, FCCISL declared that the 14th Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year - 2008 will be held in December this year.

Wickramanayake said that the Entrepreneur Awards gathers importance and year by year getting stronger with wider acceptance as a unique national recognition of the entrepreneurial skills and achievements in Sri Lanka. The main purpose is to motivate entrepreneurs to reach the best level of excellence. Samantha Kumarasinghe, Chairman, Multichemi International (Pvt) Ltd, Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 the Platinum Award winner as the guest speaker said that it is undoubtedly the most prestigious award any Sri Lankan entrepreneur could achieve, to be the best among the outstanding entrepreneurs.

He said it would be more advantageous for the entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka to invent a unique product and create an export market, rather than import some products and have a great struggle to market it locally, competing with other similar products.

Kumarasinghe said that while accepting that the Entrepreneur of the Year Award to be the most prestigious and outstanding in Sri Lanka, the winning of the award must get wider awareness not only in this country but also in abroad, because the awareness that the entrepreneurial prowess is publicly recognized, could bring them more business and the excellence of quality and credibility of the product is publicly guaranteed.

He said that this kind of publicity is lacking in Sri Lanka but is a widely propagated attitude in other countries, as such award winners are given the widest publicity possible in those countries. He urged that a process should be created that such awareness campaign to be launched in Sri Lanka too so that the impetus of excellence created could be advantaged. He said that such accolades are not without suffering as there could be imitation of their products and in fact they had to seek the assistance of the CID on certain such issues.

This year too, in addition to the normal awards, the special categories - Woman Entrepreneur of the Year and the Young Entrepreneur of the Year would also be adjudged.

The classification of the awards would be: Provincial, Sectoral -Agribusiness, Industry, Services and Trading and Size - Micro and Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large. The total investment in Micro and Small has to be less than Rs. two million; medium between Rs. 2 Mn and 20 Mn; large between Rs. 20 Mn and 50 Mn and extra large would have to be more than Rs. 50 million.

Each category in the provincial competition would be awarded gold, silver and bronze and in the National Awards there would be platinum, gold, silver and bronze and total awards presented would be 25.

The applications could be obtained from the FCCISL Secretariat and the applications will be closed by 31 August, 2009.