COSMI comes forward to revive Sri Lanka’s...
In an attempt to create a sustainable future in the industrial sector in Sri Lanka, the Confederation of Micro, Small and Medium Industries (COSMI) has come forward to make a difference.
Founded by a group of highly respected individuals from the Chamber Movement in Sri Lanka, the membership represents a cross-section of the industrial sector in the country.
At a recently held press conference to announce its launch, COSMI Founder President Nawaz Rajabdeen said that the main idea is to go to the grassroots level of micro to small and small to medium industries in order to revive and restructure them.
“According to government statistics, there are over 1.4 million micro and small industries but I feel there are over 2.5 million of them. Therefore, we have to extend our support, especially to the women entrepreneurs. This is very important because supporting micro and small industries will create more revenuebased programmes and unemployment will be looked after. The government must come forward to support it.
Every successive government that was elected addressed the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector but in reality, they didn’t do it. In 2010, our industries were going in the reverse process since large amounts of goods were imported to the country. We mainly wanted SMES in the North and East to be involved in particular. Therefore, we have identified members from the Trincomalee and Batticaloa chambers and now we are trying to bring in members from the Central and Southern provinces as well. I personally feel that we didn’t do much in 2010 in the North and East, although there are a large number of entrepreneurs because we have to look after them. This is why we came forward to see how best we could support. Every government that comes to power should support the MSME industry.”
He further said that the regional chambers can play a role in supporting the MSME sector.
“Another focus area is youth employment. Skill development is also not properly handled. Private-public partnership is very important because the public sector alone cannot do it and the private sector has to come forward to support. These are a few things we are planning in this operation. Every year we also plan to have an exhibition to showcase their products.
Manufactured items cannot be sold because we don’t have a market and through this exhibition we will help these people to sell their items at subsidised rates. This country doesn’t have an industrial policy like other countries such as China, India, Malaysia and Singapore. We also don’t have a database of industries. Recently I heard that the Jaffna District alone has 1200 unregistered woman entrepreneurs. COSMI is therefore planning to put up a directory of all industries,” he said.
Governing Council Chairman Deshabandu Macky Hashim said that successive governments elected over the past few decades have failed to address the core issues faced by industries.
“Due to lack of technology, lowcost financing and due to lack of support from the government, most of these industries have not been able to progress. The purpose of forming this confederation is to give a boost to the MSME industries. This body has been formed by likeminded members who have been in the industrial field for over decades. Our main purpose is to address the causes of failure in the small and medium industrial sector.
Governments, ministries and departments have statistics of these industrial sectors but those statistics and information haven’t been made use of. As a result, effective policies are not made and active programmes are not implemented. Therefore, through this confederation we will be able to meet the longstanding needs of this particular sector.”
Industrial MSME categories include manufacturing and processing in rubber and plastic, tea, rubber, leather, metal, fibre, gem and jewellery, coconut and coconut-based agri-business and agricultural products, recycling of paper, plastics, rubber and industrial waste among others.
In its business intervention strategy, COSMI will also give priority to align with Sustainable Development Goals, in addition to harnessing regional technology, developing a strong service sector to support industrial MSMES and establishing local and international affiliations to follow the success factors for SME competitiveness.
MSMES are now invited to register with COSMI for a nominal fee of Rs.2500 to obtain a wide range of benefits and support in their industrial and business activities.