Industrial Development Board of Ceylon to celebrate golden jubilee with awards ceremony

By E. Weerapperuma 

The Industrial Development Board of Ceylon (IDB) in Moratuwa will mark its golden jubilee this year, with an awards and felicitation ceremony for the best Small- and Medium-scale Industrialists (SMIs) in the country.

The ceremony will be held on 20 December at the BMICH in Colombo.  

The awards and felicitation ceremony is organised with a view to encourage and facilitate SMIs.  The best SMIs are selected from industrialists participating in the competition at the District, Provincial and National level, in the following categories:

1.Electronic, Electrical Appliances and Machinery

2. Food and Beverage

3.Footwear, Leather and Allied Products

4.Foundry, Light Engineering and Engineering Industries

5.Coir and Fibre-based Products

6. Timber, Wood and Wood-based Products

7. Chemical-based Industries

8. Rubber and Plastic-based Products

9. Building and Building Material-based Industries

10.Readymade Garments, Textiles and Allied Industries

11. Mineral-based Products

12.Printing Papers, Packaging and Paper Pulp-based Products

13. Other Products

14. Micro Industries

IDB’s Media and Marketing Director told the media that steps had been taken to select the best industrialists in the Small and Medium segments at the District, Provincial and National level, as they formed an integral component of the country’s future in terms of its industries.

New names are set to enter the respective fields mentioned above providing broader opportunity and a greater scope for those industries in the country and the world at large, IDB said. 

“If we give them the due recognition and encouragement they need to proceed with confidence, we thus open new vistas to the young generation hoping to enter the SMI domain and continue the industries already existing while they will give it a facelift, new life and also look for new avenues. The best SMIs selected from the completion will be given the opportunity to have a stall to exhibit their product at the exhibition on the awards night,” the IDB representative said. 

From among those selected from the 14 industries mentioned above, the top three in each segment at the District, Provincial and National level will be presented with Platinum, Gold and Silver medals for their respective products.

IDB is the prime State organisation established for the promotion and development of industries in Sri Lanka and caters mainly to Sri Lankan enterprises, individuals and institutions that show concern and interest in their respective fields. 

IDB was initially established in 1966 under the State Industrial Corporation Act No. 49 of 1957. It was established during the tenure of then-Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake, whose Government ran a full five-year term for the first time in the country’s history. IDB in its present form was incorporated under the Industrial Development Act No. 36 of 1969.

IDB’s main objective is to develop of all industries across the country by encouraging, promoting and developing Sri Lankan industries. Its mission is to “provide the strategic, technological and commercial foundation needed to encourage, promote and develop all industries all over Sri Lanka”. Upon its inception, the IDB head office was located at No. 16, Gregory’s Road, Colombo 7. Currently, the head office has shifted to No. 615, Galle Road, Katubedda, Moratuwa.