Sri Lanka aims to become leather items manufacturing hub

01 Jun '12

2 min read

The Government of Sri Lanka has initiated several steps to establish the country as a production hub for quality shoes and leather items.

Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Minister Douglas Devananda said that to upgrade these industries in lines with the Mahinda Chinthana vision for the future programme, the Government has introduced tax concession on import of machinery, equipment and raw materials.

Presenting the Minister's statement at a workshop, Ministry Secretary V Sivagnanasothy said the Government looks forward to contribution from the industrialists to strengthen the industry.

He said that in order to safeguard the domestic shoe industry, all shoe imports were subjected to a cess of LK Rs. 400 per pair.

Further, the Ceylon Industrial Development Board (IDB) and the Export Development Board (EDB) have jointly organized many exhibitions to boost the domestic shoe and leather items. More such exhibitions would be organized in future, he said.

He informed that in addition to the Common Service Centres, the Government has set up production centres in Vakarai, Batticaloa and Vathiry areas in the Jaffna district to achieve the goal of establishing Sri Lanka as manufacturing hub for shoes and leather items.

Moreover, the National Design Centre would develop innovative designs to help the domestic entrepreneurs, while efforts would also be made to enhance worker's skills in association with the Commonwealth Secretariat, he said.

The Secretary said that reducing production cost and use of most modern technology is a key for upgradation of the country's leather industry, which needs to be prioritized.

Industrialists should employ state-of-the-art technologies to improve the product quality to better compete with industry majors like China, Malaysia and India, he said.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India