Keerthi Gunawardane receives highest honour from Sri Lankan Printers

Keerthi Gunawardane was a great contributor to the Sri Lankan printing industry. He was awarded with the Life Time Achievement Award from the Sri Lanka Association of Printers (SLAP). This award was presented only to the individuals who have made significant and exceptional contribution to the printing fraternity. The award was presented by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at Shangri La Hotel, Colombo at their Printing Awards 2018 recently. 

Keerthi Gunawardane was the President of the Sri Lanka Association of Printers during the year 2006-2007. He studied the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement and the impact of the FTA on the Sri Lankan printing industry. He was one of the presidents who studied the Sri Lanka printing industry potential and submitted many reports to the Government. 

He had fruitful discussions with the other stakeholders involved in packaging, book publishing and computer stationery manufacturers. In addition he discussed this matter with the National Paper Corporation who was objecting to make the paper duty free from the inception. During his presidency he managed to achieve the goal of making the imported paper duty free to Sri Lanka which benefited the entire printing fraternity to perform well in the local market as well in the global market.

He had a dialog with the Government and the related ministries to safeguard and protect the printing industry at large. He was fighting against not creating level playing fields for the Sri Lankan printers; especially when the finished products can be imported to Sri Lanka duty free the raw materials were not exempted from duty. He addressed the school book printing matter with the Ministry of Education and during his presidency at the SLAP he influenced the Education Ministry to decide on fair play and they decided to open the tenders to all the printing companies and not to favour the Government institutions and the state organisations such as Printing Corporation and Government Printing Department. They agreed to evaluate on the basis of price, quality, capacity and capability. This was a great achievement for the printers at that time since the state organisations were given preference.

He managed to convince the Government not to offer large jobs to overseas companies and to use the local printers and improve their capacity to export such products to the rest of the world. As a result of this the Sri Lanka Telecom Directory started printing 100% in Sri Lanka and this created few printers to come together and build their capacity to handle such jobs. In addition this helped to save a large amount of foreign currency. 

He has conducted many training programs under his stewardship at the Sri Lanka Association of Printers as the President to educate the printers and subsequently served as a Director of INGRIN Institute of Printing and Graphics (INGRIN) and Sri Lanka Institute of Printing (SLIOP) and still sever as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Export Development Board on printing and packaging. 

He organised a few international events including the Forum of Asia Pacific Graphic Art Technology (FAGAT) with the participation of members from Japan, China, Australia, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand in Sri Lanka with the Global printing fraternity. He attracted many experts to participate for the events conducted in Sri Lanka. He was the conference Chairman in many of those events and brought glory to Sri Lanka. 

After the Tsunami he collected funds from various local and overseas organisations and supported all the printers and the individuals who worked at printing companies. He created the SLAP Tsunami Relief Fund and assisted the effected printers, and undertook to repair the printing machines of some of the printers along the coastal belt up to Matara. Some of the printing companies ware completely damaged including their machinery and buildings. In addition to support them to come back to business continues to support them for training and getting new equipment’s to rebuild their businesses and sustain.

He introduced the Life Time Achievement Award for the first time to mark the 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Sri Lanka Association of Printers, and introduced the SLAP Cricket Tournament for the first time. He introduced newspaper companies to SLAP offering membership of the association, and signed an MOU with the SME Bank to support the small and medium size printers to improve their printing companies.

Keerthi Gunawardane was a Silver award winner of the Sri Lanka Entrepreneur of the Year 1999 and 2001. His company was awarded CNCI Achiever of Industrial Excellence Award, National Business Excellence Awards, SLCBCC Business Star Awards and National Productivity Award. In the year 2001 his company was awarded the Award of Excellence and adjudged as the most productive company in the Small and Medium Category in Sri Lanka.

Keerthi Gunawardane was one of the few awarded winners of the Pradeepa Pranama (2107) awarded to few individuals passed out from the Sri Jayawardenapura University who have contributed for the Sri Lankan business and the National Development of Sri Lanka.

Keerthi Gunawardane is an active member of the Chamber moment in Sri Lanka. He is the immediate past Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, Vice President of the Sri Lanka Printers Co-operative society, Vice President of the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Sri Lanka and an Executive Committee member of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.