'Buy a mask from Sri Lanka' - NDB continues to promote the home-grown industries
NDB recently hosted a special event at the Lighthouse hotel in Galle; with the aim to create awareness of the mask making industry in Sri Lanka amongst tourists. Several skilled craftsmen from the southern village of Ambalangoda, famed for its heritage of craftsmanshipwere present at the hotel displaying their skills to a captivated audience of tourists. The event attracted many touristsfrom the locality where they were able to witness the masks being crafted with utmost care and diligence.
The visitors were also encouraged to purchase masks and sculpturesat the event that featured a colourful range of hand crafted souvenirs, home décor and collectibles.This created a great opportunity for the craftsmen to gain direct access to the global consumers and entice them towards the products with a display of their skills and expert craftsmanship. Theprogramme concluded with a colourful cultural evening where tourists enjoyed a bout of traditional acts performed by low-country fire dancers clad in traditional masks and attire. A beautifully hand crafted mask was tokened to each tourist at the conclusion of the event.
Earlier this year, NDB took the initiative to revive the valued hand craft industry with an aim to regain interest within the market for such products, while providing the craftsman with wider market accessibility. In this direction, the Bank organised a workshop to educate them on the escalating economic boom and the rising opportunities arising with the resultant growth of tourism and export segments. The workshop focused on sharing the much needed business know-how, financial awareness as well as marketing and branding tips to the mask makers.
The programme held at the Lighthouse hotel in Galle intendedto further these efforts to revive the waning industry. The event enabled the craftsmen todisplay their mastery amidst the tourists and entice them towards purchasing productsbased on the authenticity of these unique, handcrafted masterpieces. The Bank's key aim in this exercise was to create a platform that enabled the tourists to personally experience these products and encourage them to purchase items; thus creating global awareness of the industry. The Bank believes that facilitating direct contact with global consumers would open doors for the local craftsmen to gain easy access to global markets in time to come.
Reviving the waning traditional industries in the country and creating better export opportunities for such entrepreneurs is a priority focus in NDB's agenda for SME development. NDB's initiative in the southern province to to uplift the mask making industry and the similar programme initiated in Minuwangoda recently to revive the local handloom industry are first steps of an island wide programme which aims to reinforce identified traditional industries; by widening market access and reawakening interest in such products within the marketplace in order to develop their export potential. NDB strongly believes that this can contribute immensely to the anticipated economic boom in the country while continuously improving the standards of local entrepreneurs.
NDB believes that SME's form the backbone of the growth of Sri Lanka's economic development. When servicing this priority sector, the bank's role focuses on the two key aspects of educating SME's on entrepreneurship and financial inclusion. Hence with the aim of educating the SMEs the Bank conducts comprehensive workshops regionally, while financial inclusion is distributed through livelihood development schemes and Micro Financing aimed at the lower end of this sector. Bank's recent introduction of a dedicated SME newsletter ' Siyasavi' which is published quarterly and distributed to all SME customers of the Bank further enables education and knowledge growth within the SMEs. NDB's wide experience with SMEs helps to develop customised solutions for the sector, enabling the growing enterprises to take on the emerging opportunities to coincide with the growth in the sector. The bank hopes to continue to invest in SMEswith a special focus on reviving identified local industries that have been deteriorating over the years due to the lack of financial backing and industry know-how.
NDB has been a pioneer in SME lending for over 30 years and the Bank's services are extended to empower the grass root level industrialists through livelihood development schemes such as 'DiviAruna'."DiviAruna - Awakening of lives" is a special loan scheme aimed at developing livelihoods for prospective entrepreneurs not with- in the mainstream of banking. The philosophy for introducing this scheme underlies the thinking that; in the economic resurgence that will generate many growth opportunities - where industries like fisheries, agriculture and infrastructure development are poised to take off, the improvised and marginalized individuals in the rural sector may lose out, if not given a helping hand at inception.
The Bank invites all SME's in the country to take advantage of NDB's expertise and commitment to assist them. As a fully-fledged financial organization, the bank bears the responsibility to contribute to the country's development process and hence pays special attention to SMEs. NDBacknowledges that developing SMEs will lead to definite economic growth and hence intend in extending support and being a stronghold to all SMEs irrespective of their size.
NDB is one of the fastest growing banks in the country with NDB Group having regional operations in Maldives and Bangladesh. The Bank offers a wide range of commercial banking services through its growing island-wide branch network, catering to an increasing customer base from all walks of life. Through the combined synergies of the diverse constituents of the NDB Group, its customers have access to a full range of banking and financial services; including project finance, corporate banking, SME lending, retail banking, investment banking, stock broking and wealth management solutions; making NDB a truly Universal Bank.