Industrial Services Bureau (ISB) has organized a national level Experience Sharing Forum on Local Economic Development in Practice under the theme of Shaping Local Economy Through Lessons Learnt, on November 28, 2018 at the Centre for Banking Studies, Central Bank, Rajagiriya, Colombo.
Industrial Services Bureau (ISB) is a statutory body established under the North Western Provincial Council in mid 1990 with the focus of economic development through investment promotion and industrialization. ISB now function as the fully self-financing organization based in Kurunegala and providing their services throughout the country in different target groups and clients with highly diversified service portfolio.
The objective of this forum is to create an opportunity for various development agencies and individual experts to share their experience in four important themes of local economic development – Local Economic Development Through Regional Industrialization; Market System Approach for Local Economic Development; Role of Producer Organizations/Social Enterprises in Local Economic Development; and Sustainable Consumption and Production in Local Economic Development. K C Logeswaran, Governor, North Western Province will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest. Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, will deliver the keynote address as the guest of honour.
The forum will consist of four technical sessions and each session will consist of a paper presentation for about 30 - 45 minutes and a panel discussion for about 45 – 60 minutes. A group of nationally recognized experts in local economic development will join in panel discussions. The panel comprise with the representatives from Academia, Policy makers, Ministry Secretaries, INOs/NGOs, Development Agencies, Public and Private sector.
The first session of the programme will commence with the presentation on Local Economic Development through Regional Industrialization – A Case Study on Heraliyawela Industrial Park, Kurunegala (9.30 – 11.00 am) In this session, the impacts of Heraliyawela Industrial Park, Kurunegala, North Western Province on local economic development will be analyzed in order to explore the possibilities of replicating this model in less developed areas in the country as a source of SME development, regional industrialization and creating new employment opportunities.
Neelakanth Wanninayake, Executive Director/CEO, Industrial Services Bureau (ISB) is the presenter of this session. This will be followed by a panel discussion comprising of Dr. Aminda Perera, Senior Lecturer, Wayamba University, Lawrance Madapatha, Executive Director (Zones) BOI, Roy Jayasinghe, Consultant to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Chandrarathne Vithanage, Asst. Secretary General Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and an award winning local entrepreneur Nashad Nawaz, Managing Director Wayamba Print Pack.
The second session will focus on Market System Approach for Local Economic Development.
This session will focus on how far the value chain development approach is appropriate to address the market system development and identification of gaps in the implementation stage of both value chain analysis and value chain development.
The third session will address the thematic area on Developing Producer Organizations into Social Enterprises. Many development agencies are using various Producer Organization-led livelihood/enterprise development models as a mean of creating more income and employment generating opportunities for the members of PO, as sustainable way out of poverty. However, the efficacy of these models is questionable due to many failures, despite few success cases. Therefore, in this session, these PO-led models will be analyzed with few case studies, and seek the possibility of developing them successful social enterprises.
Finally the fourth session will focus on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) – (3.30 – 5.00 pm). Addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has become a must for all development agencies in planning in their interventions particularly in developing countries. Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) is the Goal No. 12 of SDG.
In analyzing of past development projects, the application of this SDG has been comparatively low. Sri Lanka has prepared a SCP policy document with the consultation of many relevant stakeholders.
The event would mainly focus on the practical experience gained by ISB during the last three decades while working with different bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors and development agencies.
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