First global entrepreneur education meet elevates Sri Lanka to prestigious UNESCO-APEID Chair

Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen (third from left) addresses the closure of pioneering UNESCO-APEID meeting in South Asia on 12 October at JAIC Hilton Colombo, joined by MIT Club Germany VP Prof Dr Richard C Geibel (far left), NEDA Chairman-Director General Dakshitha Bogollagama (second from left), UNESCO Bangkok Office Educational Innovation and Skills Development Section Chief Libing Wang (fourth from left), UNESCO Bangkok Focal Point in Sri Lanka Himali Jinadasa (second from right), and UNESCO Bangkok Program Officer APEIF-EISD Lay-Cheng Tan (far right) 

A pioneering Entrepreneurship Education (EE) series by UNESCO, which successfully concluded in Colombo on 12 October, has elevated Sri Lanka as the new Chair of prestigious UNESCO-APEID EE series, making it the first South Asian country to clinch this Chair. More importantly, a landmark international declaration – seen also as a historic first for Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province – made in Trincomalee on 9 October by delegates from 21 countries, has now become a key initiative in global Entrepreneur Education (EE) reforms.

“I commend all the participants for announcing and commencing work on the ‘Trincomalee Declaration on Entrepreneurship Education’. The UNESCO-APEID meeting was held for the first time in South Asia. I thank UNESCO Bangkok for bringing this series to Sri Lanka. As the Minister-in-charge of Lankan entrepreneurship and SMEs, my focus is to promote these sectors and reduce the burden on public funds” said Sri Lankan Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen. 

Minister Bathiudeen, joined by UNESCO Bangkok Office Educational Innovation and Skills Development Section Chief Libing Wang, was addressing a press briefing at JAIC Hilton, Colombo on the successful completion of the seventh UNESCO-APEID meeting on Entrepreneurship Education, which began on 9 October in Trincomalee and concluded in Colombo JAIC on the same day.  SME and entrepreneurial development experts from 21 countries from Government, education institutions, academia, private sector organisations, and students themselves, were among the participants at the three day multi-stakeholder sessions, themed “Leveraging Multi-Stakeholder Engagement to Nurture Future Entrepreneurs.”  

The milestone event was hosted by the National Enterprise Development Agency (NEDA) and convened by UNESCO Bangkok. Sri Lanka earns the honour of being the first South Asian country to host the UNESCO-APEID global series. As a result of the successful completion of this three day meeting, Sri Lanka has been elevated to the UNESCO-APIED Chair until Hong Kong or Brunei takes over next year. Sri Lanka will now be spearheading the facilitation of a multi-stakeholder education reform initiative through NEDA under the Industry and Commerce Ministry, until Hong Kong or Brunei takes over next year. 

The Sri Lankan meetings resulted in the first International Declaration on EE at multiple levels, which focuses on secondary, tertiary and at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). Called the ‘Trincomalee Declaration on Entrepreneurship Education’ it will address the importance of entrepreneurship education and integrate it to a wide array of secondary, tertiary and TVET level institutions in Asia- Pacific. Interestingly, this ‘Trincomalee Declaration’ is also the first declaration of global scope ever to emerge from the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. 

Entrepreneur experts from 21 countries at the opening session of the seventh UNESCO-APEID meeting on Entrepreneurship Education (first UNESCO-APEID EE meeting to be held in South Asia) on 9 October at the Navy Auditorium in Trincomalee

Launching the UNESCO-APEID event at Navy Auditorium in Trincomalee on 9 October was Eastern Province Governor Rohitha Bogollagama. “Entrepreneurship is the subject through which we can link education and industry” said Governor Bogollagama, and added: “Education and human capital are needed for a student to grow to be an entrepreneur. Lots of Lankan entrepreneurs were not the best of students and they languished in (traditional) academics - but turned out to be the best entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and in the world despite this.” 

UNESCO Bangkok Focal Point in Colombo Himali Jinadasa thanked Minister Bathiudeen and his Ministry for their support on 12 October. “The previous (sixth) session, held in October 2017 in Manila, was themed “Designing a Relevant and Innovative Entrepreneurship Education: Towards Mutual Recognition of Qualifications in ASEAN, East and South Asia.”  The first and the second sessions in this series were held in Hangzhou, China (2012 and 2013) and the series continued to Kuala Lumpur (December 2013), Bangkok (two sessions in 2015), Jakarta and Bandung (September 2016), sixth session in Manila (October 2017), leading to this seventh session in Trincomalee. In addition to reforming secondary, tertiary and TVET curricula, we also look forward to new entrepreneurial educational innovations from the Trincomalee Declaration” said Jinadasa.  

NEDA Chairman-Director General Dakshitha Bogollagama stressed the inadequacy of the present University education system in Sri Lanka to meet the needs of the country’s youth to become entrepreneurs. “For example, in 2015/2016, only 19% of 184605 Lankan students who sat the A Levels qualified and were admitted to undergraduate courses of higher educational institutions established under the Universities Act, according to the University Grants Commission. Therefore, entrepreneurship has a greater role to play in resolving unemployment in Sri Lanka. A successful entrepreneurship mind-set amongst youth could only be created by introducing entrepreneurship mind-set from secondary, tertiary and TVET educational levels. We shall optimise the Trincomalee initiative with new technology, to provide a NEDA-hosted software platform as a global link to follow up on the areas discussed, along with new idea generation, thus enhancing cooperation and driving entrepreneurship education amongst the 21 partner countries. The implementation of the Trincomalee Declaration shall create the pathway to integrate entrepreneurial education and skills development to secondary, tertiary and TVET curricula,” said NEDA Chairman Bogollagama. 

NEDA is Sri Lanka’s apex entrepreneur development agency under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and aims to develop Lankan economy by encouraging, promoting, and facilitating budding Lankan start-ups, entrepreneurs and SMEs. The first draft of the Trincomalee Declaration is expected to be made available within the coming weeks, and NEDA Sri Lanka is to activate it towards the domestic stakeholders.