IDB to hold National Industry Exhibition and Excellence Awards in June

“Industry 2023”, the National Industry Exhibition and Industry Excellence Awards slated for 22-25 June 2023 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, Colombo was announced recently.

Minister of Industry and Plantation Industries, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana along with the participation of Minister of State for Primary Industries Chamara Sampath Dasanayake, the high commissioners and ambassadors from foreign embassies and representatives from foreign and local agencies/institutes attended the launch ceremony held at Waters Edge, Battaramulla.

Minister Dr. Pathirana highlighted the need of a thriving manufacturing sector to propel the economic growth towards a sustainable development of Sri Lanka. Using global and local statistics, the minister clearly underpinned the possibility of shifting the performance of the local industrial sector to global level by scaling up high potential industries to become a significant part of the country’s economy. 

At a time when the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is creating more challenges and opportunities for development, adoption of 4IR technologies offers an opportunity for developing countries to accelerate the development by skipping some of the intermediate stages of industrialisation. Realising this potential truly depends on access to technology, skills and market conditions, the minister emphasised the real desire of the Government to facilitate all local industries adopting 4IR to build back the country’s economy better in a sustainable way from the current challenging economic situation.

Accordingly, under the purview of the Ministry of Industries, the Industrial Development Board (IDB) is organising “Industry 2023” to demonstrate the status and future potentials of the Sri Lankan industrial sector.

IDB envisages the strategic success of the exhibition as the empowerment of entrepreneurial mindset in Sri Lankan society and opening the gateway for budding entrepreneurs to step into the global market arena and thereby uplift the country towards an export-oriented manufacturing economy. The exhibition serves as a significant platform for industrialists to represent their creativity and novelty to a broader audience encouraging them to understand and become confident about the prospective local and international markets. 

It further motivates the potential entrepreneurs to sharpen their mindsets to think out of the blue to develop their products and ideas in a better way. Among the SMART objectives, the exhibition stimulates academic, organisational, and individual researchers to increase their engagement in research commercialisation by organising “Innovation Arena”, a special segment to unlock untapped market opportunities.  

To achieve the above goals, the exhibition provides space for more than 20 identified industrial sectors in over 700 stalls to exhibit the products of local manufacturers targeting both local and international markets while promoting the business linkages. Industrialists participating in the exhibition receive the opportunity to share the existing knowledge in their sectors to fill the technological gaps in local manufacturing, and to discuss and identify the challenges in sustaining a business and solutions for resolving or mitigating them. 

IDB further recognises the importance of infusing entrepreneurship into primary and secondary levels of education hence school children are given a special focus more broadly on providing necessary motivation to become an industrial entrepreneur through a proper vocational education.

IDB has set strategic targets to hold an Industry Excellence Award Ceremony in parallel to the exhibition. Best industrialists at national, provincial and district levels are to be rewarded through comprehensive evaluation criteria.

According to IDB Chairman Dr. Saranga Alahapperuma everything is in place to provide Sri Lanka a strategic driver accelerating the local manufacturing sector to demonstrate that the country can add insights and values to global challenges. 

“We constantly need talented new people entering the industrial sector to grow our economy fast to prove to the world that this small country has the strength to prosper in the global market. I hope this exhibition will serve as an important part of our journey building Sri Lanka a wealthy nation,” added Dr. Alahapperuma.