Page 34 - UDYAMA FINAL final for web

they try to cover their planned
works and projects anyhow within
each year without attending to the
Why should ? real problems and issues faced by
SMEs having a focus on them. So,
stakeholders a huge gap has been created bet-
ween the real problems of SMEs
and the services offered by the
emphasize on relevant bodies. In fact, SMEs
owners hold the opinion that such
government bodies often do not
SME sector have continuous follow-up after
giving a certain service for a par-
ticular SMEs owner.

Are SMEs benefited by
government bodies
optimally?

Another serious pitfall in this
regard is the wrong identification
of the recipients of the services
rendered by the relevant bodies.
The SMEs sector is not being provided by those particular This issue prevails specially in the
sufficiently treated not only by enterprises. Most importantly, areas of service such as law inter-
many authorities of the country their GDP contribution is around est loans schemes through banks
but also by the consumers who 52%. and other financial institutes, fin-
believe and are interested in the ancial aids for business initiation,
products offered by large-scale Hence, the SMEs sector is vital to training programmes, distribution
businesses. Job seekers also go expand the Sri Lankan economy of technical equipment and other
behind multinational conglomer- and further it is obvious that, ma- tangible resources free of charge
ates and do not think of serving jor portion of the Sri Lankan eco- and allocation of lands or spaces
and developing the SMEs sector nomy is based on the SMEs sec- in commercial or industrial zones
of the country. In the year 2015, tor. Therefore, it is required to /sites. There are many situations
Sri Lanka’s government intro- develop and implement more acti- explored by the media that the
duced a national policy frame- ons and policies in order to pro- benefits of these services offered
work for SMEs’ development. mote this sector. by government bodies go to nor-
The Ministry of Industry and mal people who do not really eng-
Commerce initiated this comm- What do SME owners age in SMEs or the ones who do
endable work and the purpose of think about supportive not have at least an intention to
it was to upgrade small-scale government bodies? engage in a business. Consequent-
enterprises up to medium scale ly, the allocations of the funds
enterprises, medium-scale enter- It is true that there are a large from the annual budget of the gov-
prises up to large-scale enterpris- number of government bodies ernment become mere wastes
es and large-scale enterprises up which have been established to because the recipients who are
to globally functioning business- support SMEs directly and indir- wrong or unqualified may utilize
es (Ministry of Industry and ectly. But, when SMEs face pro- the money or the tangible resourc-
Commerce, 2015). Government blems at their initiation or exist- es they receive from these bodies
identified the SMEs sector as the ence, the support given by such on consumption or other purposes
engine of economic growth of Sri bodies to overcome the problem and may not get any use from the
Lanka because more than 75% of and survive in the business is lac- training programmes while the
enterprises of the country repre- king. According to the owners of truly qualified people are continu-
sent SMEs, and 45% of the SMEs, these officials have their ously suffering from business
employment opportunities are own packages of services and related issues.

32 January 2021