National Microfinance Study of Sri Lanka: Survey of Practices and ...

The success rate of this particular business development service is shown in that
71% of candidates completed business plans to start up and or expanded their
enterprises. Of the 78 candidates that had the intention to start up new enterprises
only 50% were able to access finance even though all of them had assets and
capital to an amount exceeding half of their required investment.
The highly successful CEFE programme is implemented throughout much of Sri
Lanka including in the North & East region with offices in Batticaloa,
Trincomalee and Jaffna. CEFE has recently introduced 9 new modular training
products for entrepreneurs and is in the process of translating these modules into
the Tamil Language.
A business diagnostic service has also been introduced where CEFE trainers
undertake interventions into enterprises that have managerial and financial
problems. The CEFE team study the enterprise and initiate a new ‘business plan’
after which they monitor the progress.
Apart from CEFE activities, there is little or no professional business and
enterprise development services currently available on a full-time basis in the
North & East. The Danish Refugee Council in Vavuniya and Mannar has started a
programme in November 2000 of capacity building for two NGOs and their
membership that, could perhaps be considered as enterprise development services.
On a part-time basis, consultancy and counselling services are undertaken through
INGOs and agencies hiring external consultants. These are for short periods of
time and are usually focussed on specific areas of enterprise development, such as
finance, marketing and production processes.
SEEDS Sarvodaya is in the process of planning an intervention in the North and
East that will provide a range of business training and other services. In early
2002 SEEDS intends initiating this programme in Batticaloa and from there
expanding into Trincomalee and the rest of the region by 2005.
The GoSL supplied services, such as extension services for the primary industries
of Agriculture and Livestock and Fisheries, are understaffed. Present funding is
unable to encompass the needs for rehabilitation of these industries, the supply of
intensive extension services, the retraining of farmers and fishermen and the
necessary research for the modernization and new technology that is required.
The provision of services by the private sector is targeted at high demand and
profitable service provision such as computer training and English language
training. This type of private sector business training is seen to be operating
throughout the region. Unfortunately, most of these valuable and necessary
business development services are out of the reach of the entrepreneurial poor,
particularly resettled and relocated populations.
Technology development and transfer has in the main been disregarded within the
region. The Industrial Development Board (IDB) with offices in the North and
East is understaffed and under-resourced and has attempted to undertake this role,
but, unfortunately, has proven largely inadequate to the task. For example in
Vavuniya 14 entrepreneurs have taken over the maintenance and upkeep of the
IDB initiated industrial park.