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Cultivating youth entrepreneurship through a Startup Eco System is the key to unlocking massive economic potential of Sri Lanka

Honored to have shared my thoughts on this topic at the ‘Start Up India International Summit’.

Sri Lanka is an island nation in the midst of the Indian Ocean whose strength and potential is vast mainly because of its geographical location in the region and the high literacy, skills qand talent we possess among all our age groups.

Sri Lanka has infact produced some great minds in all professions over the years and has produced startups which have set an example for other entrepreneurs in the region. Infact today, Sri Lanka’s economy is mainly driven by the SME’s and the private sector whose skills and innovative ideas have put Sri Lankan products in the international market.

In developed markets, about 90% of the businesses are SMEs which contribute to about 60% of the job market and 40% contribution to the GDP. However in Sri Lanka, SMEs account to about 75% of the businesses but only contribute to 40-45% of the job market. Hence, there is massive potential for growth with the right level of resources and support

Today, Sri Lanka has produced startups which have gained international fame. The products and brands by these businesses are exported world over and have been commended for its quality, leading to a greater demand in the international market. Further many have had the opportunity to open their outlets in leading countries, taking Sri Lanka’s worth to the international community. This is also mainly due to the end of terrorism in May 2009, and under the strong leadership of then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who gave the youth the opportunity and enouragement to blossom into entrepreneurs and showcase their talent.

Following the re-election of the Rajapaksa government last August I was sworn in as the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs and one pledge I made was to continue working hard for the youth sector and create an ecosystem where more youth could be encouraged to become entrepreneurs. Today, 5 months on, I have received so many proposals by the youth, from every part of the country and the ideas and talent for startups is truly remarkable. However due to financial constraints they are unable to move forward, especially now following the hardships faced amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

But considering the talent which Sri Lanka possesses and the strong commitment of this government and my Ministry, this weekend I was honored to be invited to address the inaugural session of the ‘Start Up India International Summit’ which brought some of the world’s leading minds on one platform virtually and enabled governments and international organizations to share their views to ignite the minds of young innovators and entrepreneurs. In the summit, I was given the opportunity to explain Sri Lanka’s dedication is continuing with a startup ecosystem under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Policy Manifesto Saubhagyaye Dakma – Vistas of Prosperity and Splendor and the role my Ministry is now playing in encouraging youth to get more involved to take Sri Lanka’s entrepreneurship ecosystem to greater heights.

In order to execute an action plan and not limit these ideas to words, my ministry has already launched an entrepreneur focused loan system worth more than Rs. 1 billion to promote innovative entrepreneurship, will provide tax benefits for corporates who help Startup Ecosystem to grow, has launched concepts such as “Q shop” – a simple Retail Franchise model startup eco
system launched in a 40ft customized container and we have even partnered with both state and private media houses creating entrepreneur based reality shows and highlighting entrepreneurs not only through traditional media but on social media platforms as well.

Further, under my Ministry we have already planned to launch a crowdsourcing
platform to draft a “crowdsourced policy” to launch a government backed eco-system to drive innovative entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. This will be established to ensure we capture the pulse of the entrepreneur in order to remain relevant and current with the emerging ideas.

From nurturing innovation to educating what innovative entrepreneurship is – to
connecting these new entrepreneurs and SMEs with investors, it will all be a part of our new policy. For any successful ecosystem, we must attract resources of all sorts, drawing in capital, partners, suppliers and customers to create cooperative networks and the right talent base. This is why, as explained during my inaugural address, I explained it is vital that we work together as members of BIMSTEC sharing our resources and our knowledge creating linkages for our entrepreneurs and networking them – generating both the supply and the demand.

It is only by supporting each other that we can grow our startups and SMEs and eventually the national economy. I truly believe that entrepreneurship is the best solution for the 20% unemployment among the 4Mn youth population of the country.

Sri Lanka is a lower middle-income country with a GDP per capita of 4,065 USD and a total population of 21.5 million people. Following 30 years of civil war that ended in 2009, Sri Lanka’s economy grew at an average 5.8% during the period of 2010 to 2015, although unfortunately there were some signs of a slowdown in the last few years.

Our economy is transitioning from a predominantly rural based economy towards a more urbanized economy oriented around manufacturing and services.

My Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs is now dedicated to take forward the startup ecosystem and will continue to interact with the youth sector. A lot needs to be done but we have already begun work. We hope to make a change soon.

Stay safe.

එස්.ඩබ්.ආර්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක ශ්‍රීමතාණන්ගේ 122 වන ජන්ම දින සැමරුම

එක්තරා පැළැන්තියකට පමණක් සීමාවී තිබු මෙරට දේශපාලනය ජන සතු කරමින් සඟ,වෙඳ,ගුරු,ගොවි කම්කරු පංච මහා බලවේගය හරහා ලාංකේය දේශපාලන භූමීයේ හැඩය වෙනස් මගකට යොමු කිරීමට ඩී.ඒ රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමන් සමග එක්ව ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය ගොඩ නැගු එස්.ඩබ්.ආර්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක ශ්‍රීමතාණන් මෙරට දේශපාලන භූමිකාවේ අද්වීතිය චරිතයක් ලෙස හදුන්වාදිය හැකිය. එතුමන්ගේ 122 වන ජන්ම දිනය වෙනුවෙන් මෙම සටහන තැබීමට ලැබීම භාග්‍යයක් කොට මා සළකනවා.1956 දී නිර්මාණය කරන්නට වු මෙරට දේශපාලනයේ පුංචි මිනිසුන්ගේ යුගය තුළ එතුමන් ස්වදේශීයත්වය අගයන්න ජනතාව නැඹුරු කරන්නට විය. එමෙන්ම ජනතා හඬට කන්දුන් ජනහිතකාමී පාලන තත්ත්‍රයක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට එස්.ඩබ්.ආර්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක ශ්‍රීමතාණන් නිරතුරු නායකත්වය ලබා දුන්නා. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ බණ්ඩාරනායක ප්‍රතිපත්ති ‍නිවැරදිව පිළිගන්නා හා එය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන පක්ෂයක සාමාජිකයෙකු ලෙස එතුමන්ගේ 122 වන ජන්ම දින සැමරුමේදී කිව හැක්කේ එතුමන්ගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති එදා වගේම අදටත් ගැලපෙන බවයි. ගෝලීය වසංගත තත්ත්වයක් ‍යටතේ ස්වදේශීයත්වය අගය කරන ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිපත්ති මත පිහිටා ක්‍රියාකිරීමට අපට අද බල කර ඇත්තේ ද එතුමන්ගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති වල සර්වකාලීන බව කියාපාමින්. තුන් කල් දැක්මක් සහිත විශිෂ්ට නායකයෙකු වු එස්.ඩබ්.ආර්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක ශ්‍රීමතාණන් එදත් අදත් හෙටත් ලාංකේය ජන හදවත් තුළ සදාකාලීකවම ජීවත්වන යුග පුරුෂයෙක්.

නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ
තරුණ හා ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍ය
2020.01.08.

ஸ்ரீமத் எஸ்.டப்ளிவ்.ஆர்.டீ.பண்டாரநாயக்க அவர்களின் 122ஆவது ஜனன தின நிகழ்வு

ஸ்ரீமத் எஸ்.டப்ளிவ்.ஆர்.டீ.பண்டாரநாயக்க அவர்களின் ஜனன தினத்தை முன்னிட்டு எமது தாய்நாட்டிற்கு வரலாற்று ரீதியான மாற்றத்திற்கான ஆரம்பத்தை பெற்றுக் கொடுத்த தலைவரான ஸ்ரீமத் எஸ்.டப்ளிவ்.ஆர்.டீ.பண்டாரநாயக்க அவர்களின் 122ஆவது ஜனன தினத்தில் அவரை நினைவுகூர்ந்து இந்த செய்தியை வழங்க கிடைத்தமையை ஒரு பாக்கியமாகக் கருதுகின்றேன். 1956ஆம் ஆண்டு பொதுமக்கள் யுகத்தின் நிறுவுனருடன் அந்த அரசியல் கலாசாரத்திற்கு பெரும் பலமாக திகழ்ந்து அமரத்துவமடைந்த டீ.ஏ.ராஜபக்ஷ அவர்களின் பேரன் என்ற வகையில், அத்திட்டத்தின் ஊடாக முன்னேறிய எனது அன்புக்குரிய தந்தையான மஹிந்த ராஜபக்ஷ அவர்களை ஸ்ரீலங்கா சுதந்திர கட்சியானது, பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர், அமைச்சர், பிரதமர், ஜனாதிபதி என்று உச்சத்தை அடையச் செய்தமையால், எனக்கும் அரசியலின் கையேடுகளை மீட்டிப்பார்க்கும் அதிஷ்டம் கிட்டியது. அவரது தத்துவ பார்வையின் அடிப்படையில் நிறுவப்பட்ட இடதுசாரி அரசியல் முகாமை பாதுகாப்பதற்கு நாம் அனைவரும் ஏக மனதுடன் உறுதிபூணுவது ஸ்ரீமத் எஸ்.டப்ளிவ்.ஆர்.டீ.பண்டாரநாயக்க அவர்களுக்கு செய்யும் உயரிய மரியாதையாகும்.

நாமல் ராஜபக்ஷ
இளைஞர் விவகார மற்றும் விளையாட்டுத்துறை அமைச்சர்
2021.01.08

Youth unemployment crisis in the country needs immediate and focused solutions, starting from Divisional Secretaries

Sri Lanka, compared to other countries in the South Asian region has a very high literacy rate as education is free and mandatory among all children. Even in some villages, where poverty persists, local state officials on ground ensure that children receive an education and are sent to school.

Sri Lanka has adult literacy rate of 93.2% (2017), which is above average by world and regional standards. Even with such a high literacy rate, Sri Lanka, is facing a staggering problem, that is the high levels of unemployment among youth. Today, Sri Lanka’s youth population number is estimated as 4.4 million out of the country’s 21.6 million population which is about 20% of the total population but youth unemployment is at 20.8% which is a high youth unemployment ratio in a developing country.

High unemployment in Sri Lanka has been attributed to unrealistic expectations, to queuing for public sector jobs, and to stringent job security regulations. For years, successive governments have been looking to solve this issue, but the stark reality is that Sri Lanka faces a shortage of skilled labor and jobs are scarce. Especially now, in the new COVID-19 world, the levels of unemployment will only widen, leading to several issues among our most vital social segment.

Following my appointment as the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs in August, I have been holding extensive discussions with the youth, from across the country. And the leading problem discussed in each district, is the high levels of unemployment, which results in many social and personal issues facing the youth. As a result, it was discussed that many of our youth then prefer to go overseas, in search of jobs, driving away Sri Lanka’s crucial workforce.

In order to provide some solution to this staggering problem, I held discussions with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa recently and proposed to establish atleast one industry in each AG division across the country so that, youth in that particular division will be provided jobs and will also be trained with the necessary skills. Presently industries are set up only in particular industrial zones, which leads to an influx of youth having to leave their homes and travel into the cities in search of employment. The practicality of this is now thin, with the world having to maintain strict health guidelines and social distance and working in environments with a minimum workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If corporate giants, including the leading industrialists can be encouraged to open up industries in different divisions, they can operate with the work force of that particular area, where they can be trained in a particular skill and this will also help Sri Lanka to manufacture more of its own products, which is the vision of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. This will enable to create more jobs among the men and women, and strengthen the GDP of that particular district. Further, the establishment of industries will also create many indirect jobs as well which will help alleviate poverty in the poorest of the poor districts.

Initially, I proposed that we identify the districts where the GDP is low and the rate of unemployment is high. Both the President and Prime Minister, reacted favorably and agreed to hold further discussions on the matter. The matter was also discussed with Minister of Industries, Wimal Weerawansa and Minister of tourism Prasanna Ranatunga and D.V. Chanaka who is the state minister of the development of export zones.

The government will look at discussing, to offer tax concessions to industries who look to get involved in this project and who agree to establish their factories in the AG divisions. Further discussions will also be held with the BOI and all stakeholders in the coming days. I have requested the President and Prime Minister and the concerned ministers to expedite discussions on this matter.

In my several articles before, I have mentioned the importance of the youth sector of any country. They are the backbone of the economy. I strongly believe the success of any government starts by addressing the issues of the youth and the education of the youth. While skilled labor is short in this country, as a responsible government we must now look at immediately providing a solution to this so that Sri Lanka can retain its workforce and strengthen its local markets as well. I will ensure that under my tenure as the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, a suitable solution is found to end the unemployment issue facing this country, and will work with all the ministries concerned.

Afterall, youth will decide what the future will look like for this nation and with right attitude, guidance and resources I am certain it can only be positive and bright.

Stay safe everyone.