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By Chamitha Kuruppu

The Ministry of Industrial Development yesterday assured local footwear manufacturers that quality Indian footwear components will be available wholesale in the country in the future.

Secretary of the Industrial Development Ministry Ranjit Fernando speaking at the footwear exhibition organised by the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) and India Footwear Components Manufacturers Association (IFCOMA) stressed the importance of having wholesale stores for footwear components in Sri Lanka.

The ministry is willing to give its fullest support to the IFCOMA who came up with the idea of having wholesale stores in Sri Lanka, the Secretary said. " We will take all the measures to secure the wholesale footwear market in Sri Lanka once it is established," he said.

The ministry also agreed to the request by the IFCOMA to obtain a venue to commence business. Indian footwear manufacturers were encouraged at the exhibition to take part and generate more business opportunities in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is less bureaucratic than India and has better workers who will be easier to work with than in India, Therefore business in Sri Lanka would be more beneficial than in your own country, the Secretary said.

He said that the government has reduced customs duties on imported footwear components by 15 percent. Meanwhile, the Secretary has instructed the local footwear industry not to concentrate only on the input but also to focus on output strategically. Though complaints were made by local footwear manufacturers pointing out the difficulties of reducing the cost of production as most of them have hardly focussed on the output, Fernando said.

Fernando said that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's intention is to make this region a Free Trade Zone and Sri Lanka has already taken the initiative to commence a Free Trade Agreement with India. " India is the best neighbour to have a connection with industrial, political or cultural affairs. This exhibition will strengthen it even more," he said.

"I am sure Sri Lanka in collaboration with India will manufacture high quality shoes in near future," he said.

Most of the Indian manufacturers who took part in the exhibition said they were keen to study the local footwear market and generate more business. " The footwear market in Sri Lanka is comparatively smaller than India and is in a growing stage but could be highly profitable in Sri Lanka," they said.

The buyer-seller meet cum exhibition is sponsored by the Sri Lanka-German Private Sector promotion Project. The foremost objective of the event is to promote local, small and medium scale footwear manufacturers.

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