Govt. to unveil ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship Strategy’

By Charumini de Silva

Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama last week said an ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship Strategy’ which has already received Cabinet approval, would be launched next month.

He said the introduction of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Strategy would have multiple windows of support to help enterprise innovation, matching grants to cover development to diversify our export products.

“Already the ‘Market Access Support Program’ has supported dozens of exporters improve their products and marketing and we are expanding this program this year,” he stressed.

Further, he said through ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ loan scheme exporters were supported to provide concessionary credit to expand facilities, invest in new technology and machinery and take on new projects.

However, the Minister acknowledged that there were a few bottlenecks in the ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ loan scheme, which he assured exporters would be taken up with Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and resolved soon.