Lanka lacks risk taking entrepreneurs - Forum

The Sri Lanka-Malaysia Business Council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce hosted 'Entrepreneur 2.0', an event on 'Powering Employees to think like businessmen', at the JAIC Hilton recently.

During the panel discussion, it was noted that Sri Lanka currently experiences a dearth of entrepreneurs willing to take the risks associated with starting up new enterprises.

The panellists said that Sri Lankan society had promoted the skills of entrepreneurship to the extent of making the country an international trading hub, in an age as far back the third century AD.

However, business leaders believe that this status has slowly disintegrated with the colonisation of the island by European powers.

Laugfs Chairman, W.K.H. Wegapitiya said, "Sri Lanka has undergone three distinct entrepreneurship waves in recent history."

He said the first wave of entrepreneurship occurred between 1920 and 1957, with the increased demand for support services for European industries.

The rise and fall of the second wave of entrepreneurship took place from around 1965 until the economy was opened in the late 1970s. According to him, Sri Lanka is experiencing the third wave of entrepreneurs, the period to which entrepreneurs such as himself belong.