Rotary District 3220 Sri Lanka & Maldives partners CSE to drive SME development and listing readiness

From left: Ajith Weerasinghe, CSE Chief Regulatory Officer Nilupa Perera, Aruni Malalasekara, Krish Rajendra, Rajeeva Bandaranaike, Delvin Pereira, Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, Vindhya Jayasekera, Nihal Bogalanda and CSE Chief Marketing Operations Officer Chandrakanth Jayasinghe

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), in collaboration with Rotary District 3220 Sri Lanka & Maldives, hosted a special Market Opening Ceremony to mark the launch of the “Rotary SME Development Strategy 2025/26”, a program aimed at enhancing the growth, visibility, and capital access of high-potential SMEs across Sri Lanka.

Held at the CSE Trading Floor, the event featured the formal signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) between Rotary District 3220 Sri Lanka & Maldives and CSE. The partnership will focus on identifying SMEs with strong growth potential and enabling their pathway to market readiness and potential listing on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

The ceremony was attended by key representatives of Rotary District 3220 Sri Lanka & Maldives and CSE, including Rotary Sri Lanka & Maldives Governor Delvin Pereira, SME Project Chairman  Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, Project Coach Dushan Soza, Krish Rajendra, Ajith Weerasinghe, Nihal Bogalanda, Aruni Malalasekara, and Imtiaz Ismail, all past District Governors of Rotary Sri Lanka & Maldives, as well as senior members of the CSE management team including CEO Rajeeva Bandaranaike and CEO Designate Vindhya Jayasekera.

In his remarks, Rajeeva Bandaranaike noted, “The CSE remains firmly committed to supporting and uplifting Sri Lanka’s SME sector by creating viable capital raising opportunities through the stock market. Already several companies have successfully leveraged this platform by listing on our Empower Board, with more companies currently progressing through various preparatory stages. Today, we take this commitment a step further by formalising our shared objective through the signing of a Letter of Intent between Rotary and CSE. This marks a purposeful step toward collaboration, and we look forward to working together to enable more SMEs to scale their operations, access funding, and ultimately navigate their path toward listing on the exchange.”

Addressing the critical necessity of this initiative and the imperative to uplift SMEs, Dr. Rohantha Athukorala stated, “SMEs and micro-enterprises account for more than 50% of Sri Lanka’s economic backbone, and at present, many of them are under severe strain. Over 263,000 SMEs have ceased operations. Recent data indicates that only 45% of Sri Lankans earn enough to cover their monthly expenses. Alarmingly, much of this remains outside the public consciousness. This affects children’s access to education, balanced nutrition and overall quality of life for a typical Sri Lankan family. This is precisely why Rotary has chosen to step in, not solely in the interest of economic development, but because this is fundamentally a humanitarian imperative.” 

Expressing his gratitude to everyone involved in launching this initiative, Delvin Pereira mentioned, “This is truly a significant moment that marks the beginning of a partnership we believe will create real economic and social value. Rotary in Sri Lanka is nearing a century of service, with its first club established in 1928. Over the years, Rotary has maintained a steadfast focus on impactful service. This year, we turn our attention to a new priority: SMEs. Economic and community development is one of Rotary’s global focus areas, and there is no better way to fulfil that mission than by uplifting our SMEs. This not only empowers the entrepreneur themselves but also their family, employees, and the wider community. The ripple effect of this support is profound. This is precisely why this initiative is so important, particularly given that only a small number of SMEs have yet accessed the capital market.”

Through this partnership, CSE will participate in a series of regional SME workshops with trade chambers across Kurunegala, Kandy, Jaffna, Galle and Colombo, Badulla, Puttalam, Anuradhapura and Ampara. These workshops, organised by the 73 Rotary Clubs across the country and supported by multiple banking partners, will offer capacity building to support internal growth, preparing SMEs for export through branding and scalability, and creating strategic demand generation networks with industry mentors, facilitators, and financial institutions. 

The upcoming events scheduled under this initiative, include:

• Rotary - ICTA SME Conclave on 22 July at BOI Auditorium
• Rotary - AMCHAM SME Conclave on 23 July at Cinnamon Lake
• Rotary - Trade Chambers SME Conclave on 26 July at Capital City Hotel, Badulla
• Rotary - National Chamber of Exporters (NCE) SME Conclave on 30 July at Jay Hotel, Jaffna

The LOI outlines a shared intent to collaborate on identifying such businesses, increasing their exposure to the capital market, and strengthening awareness of equity-based fundraising opportunities.

These efforts complement CSE’s broader strategy to promote inclusive capital market participation through educational programmes and regional issuer forums, with a particular focus on SMEs and emerging sectors. The Colombo Stock Exchange is proud to support this partnership and looks forward to continuing its mission of driving inclusive economic growth and expanding access to capital market opportunities across the country.