Success at FCCISL SME machinery exhibition for second year

The SME Machinery exhibition organised by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL), held at the BMICH was a resounding success in its second consecetive year.

Speaking at the inauguration of the exhibition Minister of Industrial Development, Kumara Welgama, said the government was keen to develop the rural sector industries and urged the organisers of the SME Machinery Exhibition not to limit it to Colombo but also to hold the exhibition in the provinces for the benefit of the up and coming industrialists in rural areas.

The minister said such exhibitions if held in the provinces would help provincial industrialists.

He said the government was interested in the promotion of provincial industries and were taking steps to open industrial estates in the provinces in a bid to promote provincial industry. “They are hard at work to provide necessary infrastructure facilities to facilitate this rural industrial reawakening and upsurge.”

Nawaz Rajabdeen, President, FCCISL speaking at the event said they recognised the SME sector as the priority sector in Sri Lanka in terms of employment and income generation.

He said the sector which was the lifeblood of the rural economy and contributed to the nation’s economy was now expanding to transform an economic vision of rural industrial development into a reality.

Rajabdeen said the government had recognised the importance of the role played by the SME sector in economic growth and the need to integrate and absorb these enterprises into a wider economy and indicated that the SME Exhibition 2007 was one such attempt to assemble manufacturers of machinery, accessories, processes, service providers, research and development organizations useful for SMEs.

With more than 140 stalls exhibiting various industrial equipment and machinery and allied services in addition to the machinery and equipment ancillary equipment, processes, methods and new technology on preservation, value addition, and various other implements are also exhibited.