The Small and Medium Enterprise Board (SME Board) will be an important complement to the Enterprise Sri Lanka initiative that was launched recently with the aim of developing entrepreneurs and the SME sector of the country, said Minister of Finance and Media Mangala Samaraweera, at the launching of ‘Empower the Small and Medium Enterprise’ (SME) Board at the BMICH yesterday.
The Minister said that entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy and the growth of economy should be driven by private enterprise. The role of the State is to facilitate such entrepreneurs and provide them the required support to grow their business. This model of economic growth is far more sustainable than one led by debt fueled State led growth.
“In order to develop a growth model driven by private enterprise, the government needs to establish robust institutions, simplified procedures and affordable access to the factors of production, land, labour, and capital,” he said.
Samaraweera said access to factors of production can be challenging for SMEs. The 2018 budget has proposed a number of measures to liberalise factor markets including land and labour. These are being implemented with regular monitoring by the ministry.
The Minister said in addition the government will soon be introducing the SME guarantee fund which will be another avenue for SMEs to borrow without physical collateral. The next step for Sri Lankan entrepreneurs and the start-up economy is to graduate to the capital markets. The SME Board of the Colombo Stock Exchange can play a crucial role in enabling such young companies to take their first steps ino capital markets and raise equity funding to grow to the next level.The launch of the SME Board is a crucial step in the evolution and development of Sri Lanka’s capital markets. It will also play a major role in expanding access to finance in Sri Lanka, he said.
Enterprise Sri Lanka was launched by Colombo Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission with the objective of enhancing the access to capital for entrepreneurs and SMEs.