Rotary spruce stock market, a lot to be done

Tuesday, 22 July 2025 02:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The new Rotary Governor Sri Lanka and Maldives Banker Delvin Pereira

For the first time in history of Rotary in Sri Lanka, the foremost service organisation in the world was invited to ring the traditional “bell” to announce the partnership between Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and Rotary for the SME Growth in Sri Lanka. Rotary was tasked to find promising SMEs in the country to be included to the listing agenda of the Stock Market. The announcement spruced the days ASPI a to a record 18,838.39 points gaining 297.13 points (+1.60%) with the daily turnover crossing a commanding 9.5 billion. There is a combination of reasons for the movement of the ASPI abut we are proud to have been part of the mix said Rotary in a communique.

“We have dedicated the year to uplift the SMEs in a contextual basis as data reveals that almost 263,000 SME’s ceasing operations or on the verge of being wound up and this has impacts to children going to school, putting for on the table that is nutritious and maintaining basic hygiene and sanitation. Hence, it’s our duty as a service organisation to address this issue,” said the Rotary Governor Pereira.

“We are just only three weeks into the program and reached a cross section of SMEs in Galle and Kurunegala at two programs we did together with the Divisional Secretariat of the two areas. The ground reality is that they find it hard to reach policy makers to get support on policy, access to finance, lack of basic management skills and of course market connectivity,” he opined. “The Colombo Stock Exchange CEO Rajeeva Bandaranayake pointed out that by tying up with Rotary, if we can find a set of SMEs that can be moved to the CSE Listing process then we have achieved our end objective.”

“There is a lot of work being done,” said Governor Pereira. “With the strong membership of Rotary—comprising business leaders from each geographical area of the country—I am confident that we can make a difference. The response from the banking and private sector is very encouraging. We must be part of the reform agenda as ‘people of action’,” said the veteran banker. “If not, Sri Lanka will default in 2028. The time has come for us to ask what we can do for the country, not what the country can do for us,” he quipped in a moving address on the trading floor of the Stock Exchange following the ceremonial ringing of the bell.

The historic partnership between CSE and Rotary

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Rotary spruce stock market, a lot to be done

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