Prestigious awards for National Chamber

The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka was awarded a prestigious award by the World Chamber Congress at the 6th World Chamber Competition conducted from June 3 -5 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka was selected for this award among competitive Chambers from 31 countries which includes Chambers from the USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia.

C Lal De Alwis with the award

C Lal De Alwis the President of the National Chamber received the award from Rona Yircali Chairman of the ICC World Chamber Federation at the World Chamber award ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Chamber has been selected for implementing the "Most Successful Small Business Project" which led to develop the small businesses in the rural Sri Lanka. The National Chamber founded in 1948 aftermath of the independence serves a membership of 510 corporate, 3,500 small and medium entrepreneurs and 20 Associations which include regional Chambers, SME association and product associations.

A survey carried out by the NCCSL immediately after tsunami affected the country in 2004 found that the SME sector is handicapped with limited access to finances, limited market access for SMEs products and services, insufficient training and negative social perception by the society about the SME sector.

The survey also revealed that there are many opportunities such as availability of market for SME products and services with large corporate in the city, high potential for small business sector to become indirect exporters, market potential for SME products and services in rural Sri Lanka and the availability of rural labour at low cost for the Small Business sector to come up as viable businesses.

Through the survey the Chamber realized that by providing required facilities along with better marketing opportunities and the finances, the rural small business sector could be developed to make a significant contribution to the economy to bridge the regional disparities and the poverty gap to uplift the standards of living and to generate employment for rural youth.

The Chamber with this experience started its "Grow Your Business Project" which was subject to the World Chamber Competition and selected for the prestigious world Award.

The main component of the Grow Your Business Project was setting up a "Business Promotion Fund" to assist the small business sector to purchase machinery and equipment that are required for expanding their businesses. As a measure for sustainability the chamber introduced the following sub components to the project.

I.e. amending the Chamber constitution to empower the Chamber to provide a better service to the SME sector, linking the small businesses with Chamber corporate members for greater market access, entrepreneurship training for SMEs at their doorstep, formation of a dedicated SME unit in the Chamber, providing international exposure by sending them for overseas exhibitions and formation of the NCCSL Women's Wing to support women entrepreneurs in the country. The Chamber set up a business promotion fund with US$ 1.97 Mn fully sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Government and utilized the funds to develop the sector through "Grow Your Business" project.

The Chamber on two occasions visited a large number of women entrepreneurs in Batticaloa and Trincomalee to assist them in their business development.

The beneficiaries of the project have been involved in businesses such as clay based products, coconut oil, construction of metal crushers, confectionary, garments, table clothes, cushion covers, gem & Jewellery, hand woven lace, horticulture, floriculture and vegetables, leather based products, light engineering, milk based and fruit drinks, motor vehicle repairs, mushroom cultivation, ornamental fish, paper and plastic based products, printing, rice milling and spice grinding, seafood, soft toys, tourism, wooden toys and furniture.

As at 31st December 2008 Chamber has supported 609 entrepreneurs throughout the country including North and East with funds amounting to US$ 1.06 M and conducted several training programs in the regions for the small business enterprises.

Training covered accounting for SMEs, marketing strategy, time management, local laws, custom service excellence, entrepreneurship development, business development, project report writing and agro processing. Apart from the local training the Chamber under "Grow your Business Project" sent three entrepreneurs for training on "Setting up of Micro and Small Enterprises" to West Bengal, four entrepreneurs on "Small and Medium Enterprise Development" to Sweden and seven entrepreneurs on "Technique of Minimization of Post Harvest Losses" to Thailand. The post project survey revealed that the project has increased the employment opportunities for female workers by 74.4% and male workers by 57.9% with overall employment increases of 66%. A number of stake holders of the project have also become indirect exporters.