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Thursday Dec 05, 2024
Monday, 26 February 2018 00:36 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
CH17 Loyalty Director SanjeewaPerera handing over the first Membership card to Puttalam District Chamber of Commerce, Industryand Agri President K F J MacdonalPerera, Secretary W P Joseph Perera and DirectorNihalPeduruAppuhamy at their office. Loyalty Management Director NazarMohideen was also present
The Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) this week launched their much awaited national level program to issue membership to small, medium and micro scale businesses with the objective of setting up a common platform to better manage and promote the informal sector.
All 25 district chambers and their affiliate bodies have been requested by the FCCISL to strengthen their respective units by enrolling entrepreneurs within their respective regions to join the national body. This is the initial step towards setting up of a national registry of SMEs and Micro entrepreneurs, which has been lacking in the existing monitoring and management system.
FCCISL is the first among the various chamber bodies to reach out to grass roots level, tapping entrepreneurs with the objective of drawing up end to end solutions to the various issues faced by the rural business community.
Primary among the set target of FCCISL is to compile a strong database of their island-wide membership with vital information of each member pertaining to their type of business, business processes, supply chain, market info, sales and marketing support, financial advice and assistance and market access said FCCISL Secretary General Ajith Perera.
Recently FCCISL entered into a strategic partnership with Channel17 Loyalty to bring in additional valuable features and IT support to strengthen the federation’s membership drive.
With the wide network of consumer groups and the loyalty management tools, CH17 will extend their services to build an effective network of SMEs and micros for the federation, CH17 CEO JumarPreena added.
Marketing has been identified as the biggest challenge faced by the SMEs, Jumar pointed out.
“We are keen to support them with access to large consumer groups, ease of access to basictechnology to improve better planning and financial advice through our partner bank – Commercial Bank. Central Bank Governor Dr. IndrajithCoomaraswamy in his remarks at a forum recently had pointed out that the biggest challenge and the area where Sri Lanka has done the least so far (to develop the SME Sector) is marketing. The FCCISL is determined to address this issue, Jumar said.
