Online portal madeinsrilanka.org dedicated to SMEs launched

The first government-guaranteed online portal madeinsrilanka.org dedicated to the needs of micro, small and medium enterprises, which contributes 52% to the country’s GDP was launched last week.

Minister of Industries Wimal Weerawansa at the launch organised by the National Enterprise Development Authority said that it is functioning as an online trading portal where its objective is not to earn unnecessary profits but to provide an opportunity for consumers or businessmen to order local products of the best quality.

“Today a decision made two years ago by the then Chairman of the National Enterprise Development Authority, Anushka Gunasinghe, to build a platform for micro, small and medium scale producers to enable them to win over both local and international markets has become a reality. With the commitment of the current Chairman Sunil Jayaratne we have been able to launch this Internet Trade Portal madeinsrilanka.org.’ Although we have allocated billions of rupees to provide Samurdhi payments, there is little financial support to transform someone into a producer or an industrialist. Despite decades of providing Samurdhi, that number has not diminished.”

The youth who come out after the GCE (O-L) and GCE (A-L) examinations should be targeted, investing an amount equal to or less than the amount invested in Samurdhi, and contributions should be made to transform them into entrepreneurs or industrialists in any field.”

While many countries are far ahead of us in this regard, unfortunately, we have become a country that lags far behind many of those countries in the world and now we all have a responsibility to make sure that this becomes, just a matter of the past.’ Though such portals manned by the private sector charge high fees, madeinsrilanka.org online trade portal allows the consumer or businessman to order only good quality government-guaranteed products that are not aimed at making unnecessary profits.

Due to C-19 we see geopolitical changes with some of the supply chain lines being severely broken. Countries such as the United States and Australia are rejecting Chinese products. So, industrialists from China today are moving out and we need to acquire the ability to attract them by doing JV’s.”

Also prices of foreign products have increased by several times and hence new space has been created for quality local products. The strongest responsibility we have today is to empower our manufacturers and the industrialists to capture these spaces.”

The Minister disclosed that the Israeli Army Commander who met the current Ministry Secretary and former Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, Daya Ratnayake some time ago said that the biggest ‘tech threat’ to them is from Sri Lanka.

He had indicated that Israel globally exports its military, agricultural products and has a ‘technical support desk’ for supplies, maintenance and after sales services in each country. While the ‘desk’ assigned to every other country is busy, the ‘desk’ appointed for Sri Lanka is not busy!” The reason is that local people are very good at repairing it without the help of the original manufacturer, and our young generation has more than enough ability to do that. I remember during wartime heavy shipments or arms from Israel were severely damaged and a team of engineers from the University of Moratuwa was able to rebuild them during a short time. If those weapons had to be shipped to Israel and brought back, our history would have changed! This proves that our youth have ability, talent and intelligence in their genes.”