International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has readily extended its support to women business and SME initiatives by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce thus boosting Ministry’s blueprints on Lankan SME development. Praising Minister Rishad Bathiudeen for his ‘holistic approach to Lankan entrepreneurship’, a high profile IFC official said that IFC is ready for a pioneering, four year-long intervention in Sri Lankan women business–and to directly partner with 15 Lankan firms to enlist more women in corporate decision making.
“Minister, your entrepreneurial thinking is holistic and practical. We shall collaborate in your projects” offered the Head of IFC’s Gender Secretariat Henriette Kolb on 26 October in Colombo. IFC’s high profile Henriette, who was a former member of Democratic Party nominee for President of US Hillary Clinton’s ‘International Council on Women’s Business Leadership’ and a former CEO of ‘Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’ was meeting Minister Bathiudeen on 26 October in Colombo. Minister Bathiudeen was joined by his senior advisor Himali Jinadasa and other top officials.
Minister Bathiudeen, briefing IFC’s Henriette, said: “Our Ministry is working on the National SME Policy where a bigger role for women entrepreneurs are envisaged. National Enterprise Development Authority (NEDA) and Industrial Development Board (IDB) under my Ministry are working to develop women’s entrepreneurship and NEDA is working on market access for women. IDB preparing to develop women owned businesses and planning training programs in rural areas in ten Districts at first, and all the other Districts in four years. My Ministry also started work to open a major project-150 women led apparel cottage factories, the first batch in Districts of Monaragala, Polonnaruwa, Ampara, and Mannar. There will be six month’s initial training by Sri Lanka Institute of Textile and Apparel (SLITA) under me with Juki (sewing) machines given to them to start the factories. National Design Centre under my Ministry gives the design training. When their industries finally start to become businesses, they will then be transformed to Cooperative Society Units with buy-back assurance from the government, An important aspect here is that the factories are linked to the buyers directly, eliminating the middlemen. This is a new enterprise model and we are encouraged that our pilot project has been successful! We will also start e-biz training next month (November) for entrepreneurs to take them online. We look forward to IFC’s support in our women entrepreneur initiatives at all levels including micro and SMEs.”
It is estimated that Sri Lanka has 1.09 Million Micro, SME and large enterprises, of which around 587,300 are registered while another 432,300 are not. 25% of all “registered” enterprises are owned by women (26.3% in micro scale, 8.3% in small scale, 6.1% of medium scale and 4.6% of large scale enterprises under women ownership). Meanwhile, if the unregistered 432,300 enterprises are also added, then the women’s stake in the country’s private sector economy is significantly higher than presently believed.
“Your entrepreneurial thinking is holistic and practical Minister. Unlike many other situations seen by IFC where the supported institution’s main activity is just entrepreneur training and more training, your approach is different and encouraging –in that you have thought about all aspects and not only teaching-a spectacular approach!” said IFC’s Henriette, and added: “We at IFC shall collaborate in your projects. We shall collaborate through the elements of ‘use of access to technology and finance’, ‘women entrepreneurship training’ and ‘market linkages’. At present we are particularly looking at ICT, tourism, apparel and retailer sectors here. There have been good work done here already but we are looking at companies for more than just starting an initiative-their concrete commitment to the work in areas of ‘expansion of women customers’, and ‘women’s corporate leadership and decision making’. We are trying to shape a new program in the next few months to work with Lankan companies and the government as to how to optimize sectors that are important to Sri Lanka’s growth. IFC is planning to partner with 15 Lankan firms to enhance their capacities to engage more women for inclusive growth, as part of our bigger global project to partner with 2000 women’s biz worldwide. In fact, IFC is gearing for a four year major intervention in Sri Lanka that focuses specifically on how private sector can help bridge the gender gap. With your help, and we want to focus together on such aspects as women’s access to finance including housing finance, and trade platforms where women’s expertise can be used much more to strengthen forex oriented industries so that the sectors become more meaningful to women. We already know of the barriers to Lankan women’s progress –for example take the tourism sector; the barriers are transport, lack of child care support, and industry perception of women in tourism in particular. IFC’S can, as a development organization, support breaking down these barriers in Lankan women’s business and SMEs.”
Minister Bathiudeen welcomed IFC’s support to Sri Lanka and to his Ministry’s initiatives in particular and revealed that SMEs are a key component in the government’s employment plans. “My Ministry’s support to women entrepreneurs is not only for business growth, but also to support new employment targets in government’s one-million jobs program; still our effort is to do it without being a burden to public funds or the country but by generating ‘self-employment’. This is the goal we are trying to win.’
During their 26 October meeting, both Minister Bathiudeen and Ms Henriette also delved into other aspects of Sri Lankan entrepreneurship.
Leader of All Ceylon Makkal Congress