Atchchuvely Industrial Estate to be opened on 27 August in Jaffna

Thursday, 21 August 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Atchchuvely Industrial Estate is a major initiative under the Government’s ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ – Vision for the Future to facilitate the transformation of the Northern Province and in particular the Jaffna District into a driving hub for industries to support high potential promising strategic industrial sectors and specially to promote the small medium industries (SMIs). The rehabilitated and modernised Small and Medium Industrial Estate at Atchchuvely, Jaffna of the Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development will be ceremonially opened on 27 August 2014 by the Chief Guest Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development and Y.K. Sinha, High Commissioner of India. Douglas Devananda, Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development will chair the inaugural ceremony as the Minister in charge of the subject. Weerakumara Dissanayake, Deputy Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, G.A. Chandrasiri, Governor of the Northern Province and V. Sivagnanasothy, Secretary, Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development will participate as special guests. Small Medium Industrial Zone with Indian grant assistance The reactivation of Atchchuvely Industrial Estate was supported under the generous small development grant assistance program of the Government of India to the value of Rs. 225 million. Government of Sri Lanka provided Rs. 50 million as counterpart funds. Memorandum of understanding was signed between Indian High Commission and UNOPS as the Project Managers to manage the implementation and provide technical inputs. This agreement was signed on 9 December 2011 in the presence of Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development, Douglas Devananda, Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development and the High Commissioner of India. High Commissioner of India Y.K. Sinha and the senior officials of the Indian High Commission were supportive and closely work with the Government counterparts to accelerate the implementation of this results oriented development intervention. Douglas Devananda, Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development took all efforts to formulate the project and obtained Cabinet approval and the assistance from the Government of India. ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ Vision on reducing regional imbalances V. Sivagnanasothy, Secretary, Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development said that ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ – Vision for the Future recognises the establishment of industrial estates as a strategy to develop small and medium industries to reduce rural urban imbalances on industrialisation and to promote the relocation of industries in the backward region to achieve balanced regional development. The SME industrial estates offer workspace with infrastructure facilities to house small medium industries (SMIs) and provide other support such as extension services for SMIs. There are 18 SME industrial estates island-wide under the Industrial Development Board (IDB) of the Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development and are being upgraded and modernised under a special project to provide improved services to SMEs. 25 acres out of 65 acres land with 22 plots is developed under phase I The Atchchuvely Industrial Estate was setup in 1970s in 65 acres in Atchchuveli, Jaffna and was managed by the IDB. There were 36 industrial units in operation in the 25 acres covering lime based products, fruit pulp based products, Aluminium based products, tyre retread, coconut oil extraction and ever-silver and plastic based products. V. Sivagnanasothy, Secretary of the Ministry said that this industrial estate though commenced operations in 1971 and was very popular and successful in its operation, it was closed down and ceased to function in 1991 due to the past war situation. The estate was abandoned for over 25 years and was virtually a jungle at the time of our visit in 2011. Ministry with the support of the security forces cleared all the land-mines before commencing the construction work. Everything had to be restarted from the scratch. Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development has initiated action to reactivate and modernise the Atchchuvely Industrial Estate to develop as an environmentally friendly model industrial estate as part of the Uthuru Wasanthaya development initiative. Accordingly, a Master Plan was developed with site zoning identifying location of heavy, medium and light industries to ensure environmental sustainability. Under phase one, 22 land plots (40 perch – 4 plots; 80 perch – 14 plots and 160 perch – 4 plots) have been developed in 25 acres with common infrastructure facilities such as internal road (1.25 km), storm water drainage (1.4 km), water supply system, water tank (60 cubic meter), drinking water supply, three phase electricity, water treatment facility, service building, fire protection system, fire water sump and waste water disposal system, boundary wall, Chain Link Fence, administrative complex and Entrance Buildings. Post office and canteen facilities are to be made available. Land plots will be provided along with the infrastructure facilities to small and medium industrialists on a 30 year lease basis. Selection of investors V. Sivagnanasothy, Secretary, Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development further informed that based on the international best practices and success stories, the Ministry and the Industrial Development Board (IDB) has developed a criteria to pick high potential promising sectors and industrialists who have high commitment and potentials for the Atchchuvely Industrial Estate. In this regard, the Ministry adopts the policy of ‘Picking the Winners’ to bring committed and capable SMIs to ensure sustainability. The following criteria is currently being used in selecting industries under the industrial estate program.

High potential and viable sectors/clusters
The value addition
Use of local raw materials
Export orientation/export connectedness
Forward and backward linkages
Flagship sector with very high potential spillover effects
Investment and employment generation

High potential promising SMIs Initially 61 industrialists showed their expression of interest. Detailed proposals were received from 17 industrialists covering light engineering, Fibre glass moulding, soft drinks, food based products, wood based products, sculpture work, manufacturing packaging, rubber and plastic, cement based production, foundry work, garments, machinery products, production of oxygen gas and waste paper recycling. The mobilisation of high potential promising investors is in progress. Based on the criteria, currently seven promising small and medium industries have already been selected and mobilised. It includes, industries in Light engineering – Sara Industries is a Presidential Award Winner and involved in manufacturing of light engineering products such as hinges, mamotty, knives, water pumps and agricultural equipment. Food based products – Hema Industries is an SMI that undertakes food based products such as Jam, cordial, grape wine, nelli cordial, grape cordial using wood apple, mango, orange, grapes, pine apple, papaw and nelli and papadam, dehydrated fruits and dry foods and pickles. Waste paper recycling and paper manufacturing – Nobel Printers is an SMI supported by the USAID funded VEGA BIZ Grant and is involved in waste paper recycling and related products such as writing, printing and new printing papers, all kinds of exercise books, magazines, pamphlets , educational brochures, screen printing and digital cloth printing and installation of waste paper re-cycling processing plant. Manufacturing of Fibre Glass – Yarl SST Fibre Ltd is an SMI involves in fibre glass products covering door with glass, bath basin, flower vas, sculpture mould and fibre glass boat. PVC pipes and horse pipes – Union Enterprise is an SMI involved in PVC pipes and horse pipe related products. Food Based Products – Vesta is a local SMI involved in food and beverage based product such as Nelli Cordial etc. Manufacture and export of fishing nets – a local company involved in manufacturing and export of fish nets. In the selection of high potential promising small and medium industries, the representatives of the IDB, planning unit of the District Secretariat of Jaffna and the Jaffna Chambers of Commerce were involved. The currently selected 7 industrialists will invest initially Rs. 547 million and provide direct employment to over 525 people. At full operational stage, it is expected to attract initially an investment of over Rs. 2,000 million and generate employment to over 3,500 youth. Selection of other industrialists is being done by the Ministry and the IDB. It is important to note that the Atchchuvely Industrial Estate is geographically located in strategic position within the reach of Jaffna town, Palali Airport (6.7 km), Kankesanthurai Harbour and railway station (12.6 km), Point Pedro harbour (16 km), Tellipalai railway station and Chunnakam railway station (10 km). V. Sivagnanasothy, Secretary, Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development said that Atchchuvely Industrial Estate initiative is considered as a key development initiative to open-up the Northern Province and in particular the Jaffna as a SME industrial hub which will provide opportunities for related small and medium industries and enterprises to have forward and backward linkages leading to rapid economic and social development.