For the first time in Sri Lanka, the Industries Ministry and the Industrial Development Board (IDB) have jointly taken steps to hold a state-sponsored ‘National Industry Brand Excellence Awards’.
Applications were invited from small, medium and large-scale entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. The applications have been practically evaluated by three panels of qualified experts and 120 entrepreneurs with award-winning brands have been selected. The IDB said that the excellence awards will be given to those entrepreneurial brands.
Although there have been several awards ceremonies for brands in this country, no separate awards ceremony for industrial brands has been held so far. Therefore, there was an obstacle to take brands related to Sri Lankan manufacturing industries to foreign markets.
As a remedy to this issue, the Entrepreneurship Development Division of the IDB made all arrangements to hold National Industry Brand Excellence Awards ceremony for the first time for small, medium and large-scale entrepreneurs in the industrial production sector. Award-winning brands were selected covering 25 industry sectors and 125 sub-sectors. Also, steps have been taken to invite applications from across the country so that all the districts are represented.
Some 500 applications were received from small, medium and large-scale enterprises for the brand excellence awards, and the applications were evaluated by a panel of experts. A total of 350 suitable applications were selected for the brand awards. After that, the applicants were divided into small, medium and large-scale by three expert judges, and the final 120 award winners covering the nine provinces and 25 districts were selected by observing their brand-related practical presentations.
Accordingly, three categories were selected as small, medium and large-scale covering the 25 districts. Also, representing the nine provinces, 27 small, medium and large-scale entrepreneurs with brand excellence were also selected. Finally 120 brands have qualified to receive brand excellence awards, including nine representing the nine provinces and 10 special awards.
Industries Minister Ramesh Pathirana said that the competitiveness of any country’s industry depends on brands and therefore it is a must to evaluate and encourage those brands to achieve progress.
Industrial Development Board Chairman Saranga Alahapperuma said that the whole world came to know about our country because of our Ceylon Tea brand.
“Our industrialists are popular among consumers in the country due to their product brands. Also their products are getting good sales. Therefore, the brands of the products they produce are very important for the existence of the industrialists. Our Industrial Development Board is conducting an awards ceremony for industrialists’ product brands to take their products to the international market and strengthen the economy of our country. We hope to hold this brand awards ceremony every year,” he said.
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