22 April 2024 04:37 am
Sri Lanka needs a national micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSME) policy backed by an innovative bureaucracy, according to Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.
He highlighted that the absence of such a policy and bureaucracy as a key bottlenecks for the development of this sector.
Pointing at various state-sponsored initiatives in Singapore and South Korea, he said government support for MSMEs in Sri Lanka remains very limited.
He lamented that the Export Development Board (EDB) has become the country’s biggest white elephant at present.
“EDB ideally should be playing a role similar to Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I am not talking about setting up another EDB. The innovative bureaucracy I am proposing will be a MSME-targeted government institute, it should be responsible and accountable,” he added.