Banking Road Show in Matara
Tamara Nissanka
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Deva de Silva Picture by Saliya Rupasinghe.
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International Finance Corporation (IFC), together with six other
local banks will host the 'Banking Road Show' in Matara on June 6 and 7.
The event is aimed at providing small and medium enterprises with the
opportunity of confronting representatives from six banks and receiving
expertise knowledge, as well as financial aid to improve the capacity of
their enterprises. Consulting facilities, training programmes, technical
advisory, and skills in entrepreneurship development are among the
services that will be provided for SMEs.
The Banking Road Show is intended to assist the capacity for SMEs to
become a bankable proposition.
The programme is sponsored by the South Asia Enterprise Development
Facility (SEDF) of the IFC. Commercial Bank, DFCC Bank, Hatton National
Bank, Nations Trust Bank, NDB Bank, and Sampath Bank are the banks that
are partnering in the event.
The Export Development Board, Industrial Development Board and the
District Chambers of Commerce are collaborating institutions.
Financial Markets Specialist of IFC SEDF, Deva de Silva said 96 per
cent of the existing business organisations in Sri Lanka are SMEs.
However, according to him, the contribution by SMEs to the overall GDP
presently stands at 20 per cent.
De Silva added that insufficient financial funding is the largest
obstacle that counters the ability for SMEs to expand their capacity.
He highlighted that SMEs play a critical role in job creation. Also,
since most of the SMEs operate from rural settings, it results in the
decentralization of economic development.
Deva de Silva said similar road shows were previously tested in
Colombo and Hambantota, and that he foresees the participation of
average 1500 SMEs at the Road Show in Matara this year. |
