Thursday Apr 25, 2024
Thursday Apr 25, 2024
Thursday, 9 July 2020 02:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in furthering growth, innovation and prosperity in the Economy of Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, they are strongly restricted in accessing the capital that they require to grow and expand, as well as the expertise and knowledge that will help them weather the stormy waters that the current pandemic has brought in.
To help such SMEs, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in Sri Lanka joined with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce with the objective of creating a platform to bridge the gap by bringing in our expertise to assist the Sri Lankan SMEs. CIMA members are versatile and have wide experience as well as expertise in transforming businesses. This initiative will bring together volunteer CIMA Members who will provide brief one on one sessions to assist them in transforming their businesses during these challenging COVID-19 times.
Six areas of expertise are offered to the SMEs including financial review – liquidity / cash flow, new business opportunities and diversification, resourcefulness (repurposing of resources / new opportunities to utilise spare / excess capacity), leadership capability, new marketing trends using digitalisation, human capital and governance as well as managing risks and uncertainties. The CIMA members will also emphasise on utilising the tools available via the CIMA Business Recovery Toolkit and the related resources such as the CGMA Horizon Scanner, CIMA Strategic Scorecard and the CGMA Business Model Framework (https://insights.cgma.org/story/business-resilience-tools-for-preparing-to-reopen-businesses/)
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce CEO / Secretary General Manjula De Silva, FCMA, CGMA, emphasised, “SMEs are pivotal to the Sri Lankan economy. They had to operate amidst a challenging environment in the recent past due to the twin shocks of the Easter attacks last year and the COVID–19 pandemic this year. Their rapid recovery will play a major role in the post-COVID economic recovery path in Sri Lanka. Ceylon Chamber of Commerce is gearing itself to lend a helping hand to this vital sector through its newly established Centre for SMEs. We are delighted to find a likeminded partner in CIMA who has come forward to offer the services of a highly skilled and well experienced panel of mentors to assist SMEs who need some guidance to move forward in this difficult environment.”
On the launch of this initiative, Sri Lanka Country Manager of The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association), the unified voice of AICPA and CIMA, Zahara Ansary, ACMA, CGMA, commented, “In these challenging times, the concerns for SMEs have increased. However, there are also opportunities within the crisis. Keeping with CIMA’s vision of helping people and businesses succeed, this partnership with Ceylon Chamber of Commerce is aimed at sharpening the business management skills of Sri Lanka’s SME sector. In our discussions with key stakeholders, we understood that there is a huge knowledge gap on financial literacy among the SMEs, where CIMA could support in terms of coaching and mentoring the SMEs, entrepreneurs, business owners etc. Also, perhaps assisting them with strategic business skills in order for them to remodel their businesses, write business plans, capital / financial management, risk management and mitigation will also help. This is just the first step in that journey, with our intention being to be of assistance to the SMEs. I am extremely grateful to our CIMA experts for volunteering their time to help Sri Lanka’s businesses move forward.”
SMEs (with 10 or more employees, with annual turnover of Rs. 15 million or more and has been in existence for over 1 year) are encouraged to contact Yasura Samarakoon on 0777486 558 ([email protected]) at the Centre for SMEs, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce to utilise this assistance.
The panel includes:
