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President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday called for the setting up of facilities and assistance for skills development for the small-scale enterprises, noting that undue interference by the Government could interrupt their progress.
He made these remarks at a meeting with the representatives of beauty culture and hair dressing industry stakeholders on Thursday.
“Enhancing professional standards of those who are engaged in beauty culture and hair dressing, providing financial assistance and increasing trade promotion capabilities are the responsibilities of the Government,” he pointed out.
Upon the request of the many of the industry stakeholders, President Rajapaksa agreed to ensure the assistance of the National Enterprise Development Authority (NEDA) to the beauty culture sector.
President emphasised that this is not to bind them, but to contribute to them in order for them to meet business demands. At present, there are around 90,000 small, medium and large scale beauty salons in the country with a workforce of more than 400,000.
During the meeting, measures required to train and maintain the beauty culture as a standard profession was discussed in length. President directed the officials to take measures to conduct NVQ Level 5, 6 and 7 in Sinhala, Tamil and English medium.
The representatives commended the President for his knowledge about the prevailing issues in their industry.
Foreign Relations, Skills Development, Employment and Labour Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardene, Secretary to the President Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, Ministry Secretaries, NEDA Chairman Anushka Gunasinghe and several experts in the beauty culture and hair dressing industry were also present at the discussion.
