Current exporter registration process discourages SMES entering international markets: think tank

The lengthy, inefficient and burdensome exporter registration process is discouraging Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) entering international markets, which has also become abusive, a study conducted by Colombo-based thinktank showed.

The latest policy note issued by Verité Research titled, ‘Reducing domestic barriers to export success; Simplifying and rationalising the exporter registration process is critical’ highlighted that Sri Lanka’s lengthy, inefficient and burdensome exporter registration process does more to hinder rather than help SMES that are more in need of government assistance to enter international markets, compared to larger firms.

The current registration process, which includes exporter registration with the Export Development Board (EDB), has been introduced with the good intention of identifying and supporting new exporters.

However, the policy note pointed out that its execution severely impedes the achievement of this goal. According to the study, a sole proprietor/ partnership has to go through a minimum of 10 steps and six different agencies for 1-3 weeks to register. In addition, the businesses, which exports products that require export permits/licenses are subject to an extended process adding further 2-4 weeks. The study identified that the mandatory registration with the EDB is unnecessary and often subject to abuse as it is mainly based on a site assessment of the business by a Grama Niladhari (GN), who is neither trained to carry out site assessments, nor is he/she given a clear set of criteria to assess the capacity of a business to export.