Finance Ministry to hold third forum on Ease of Doing Business today

Thursday, 16 July 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Ministry of Finance will be holding the third forum of the “Ease of Doing Business” today at 2 p.m. on the fourth floor auditorium of MILODA, Academy of Financial Studies, Sir Razik Fareed Mawatha, Colombo 1.

The objective of this forum will be to identify and address the procedural and regulatory issues in doing business just as in the two previous forums conducted by the Finance Ministry on the 14 May and 18 June. This forum will also provide the private sector with a platform to interact with relevant Government institutions and seek responses to their queries.

The second forum which was held on the 18 June was a success, where the audience showed active participation and interacted efficiently to resolve matters of concern towards improving the ease of doing business. Following the second forum, the Ministry of Finance convened a number of side meetings with several Government institutions and private sector entities/business chambers, to address important issues of concern that came up at the second forum.

Further, under the direction of the Minister of Finance, most of the Government institutions have established public relations offices within their institutions to provide an efficient service to the private sector entities and the general public.

The Ministry of Finance has created a facebook page for “Ease of Doing Business” which was launched by the Minister yesterday. The facebook page is another channel which will enable the private sector to view and participate in the live forum and give their input and suggestions online.

The third forum scheduled for today will be chaired by Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake. He will be joined by several other ministers. Advisor to the Ministry of Policy Planning, Economic Affairs, Child, Youth and Cultural Affairs, R. Paskaralingam and Secretary to the Treasury, Dr. R.H.S. Samarathunga will also be present to lend their expertise in facilitating this exercise.

Private sector entities could forward their queries online through the web portal, which is accessible through the Ministry of Finance website (http://www.treasury.gov.lk/) or via email to [email protected]. More details could be obtained from the “Ease of Doing Business Unit” at the Ministry of Finance, tel: 0112484583/0112484818.