Sri Lanka’s largest direct entrepreneur programme set to roll out
The Ministry of industry and Commerce along with the IDB is to launch the largest entrepreneurship development programme for the first time in the country’s SME history.
“We believe the total SMES here to be at around one million. Nanvamu Lanka is our effort to expand this base in a big way” said Minister of Industry, Commerce, Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons, Cooperative Development, Skills Development & Vocational Training in Colombo yesterday during a discussion with top ministry officials.
“IDB and NEDA are supporting SMES in many ways. The proposed Nanvamu Lanka will create more than 100,000 new entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. This is the largest entrepreneur creation program launched so far in Sri Lanka. The Enterprise Sri Lanka series pioneered by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe aims to move people away from government sector jobs to entrepreneurship.
“The Cabinet approved Nanvamu Lanka too will support this vision. We categorise 75 percent of all Sri Lankan enterprises as SMES, but its total is only 230,000. Nanvamu Lanka will enhance this number by 100,000 by instituting new SMES and directly supporting other SMES for the first time” said Minister Bathiudeen.
The State Trading Corporation (STC) under Minister Bathiudeen, with NEDA and IDB, is tasked to distribute SME material to new entrepreneurs under Nanvamu Lanka, which will also work on setting up new SMES on allocations based on districts.