Euro 11 m grant from Germany to boost vocational training, SMEs

Thursday, 11 June 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Finance Ministry Secretary S.R. Attygalle signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka while German Ambassador Jörn Rohde signed on behalf of the Government of Germany

An agreement was signed by the Governments of Sri Lanka and Germany yesterday to obtain a technical assistance grant of Euro 11 million (over Rs. 2 billion) to implement three projects, including vocational training and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) development.

The Vocational Training program will be allocated Euro 7 million, and aims at providing demand-oriented cooperative vocational training for young people. The Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Sector Development in Sri Lanka will receive Euro 3.5 million to remove major obstacles to the global competitiveness of Sri Lankan SMEs.

The smallest share of the grant, Euro 0.5 million, will be for a Study and Expert Fund that will be to utilise finance preparation of new projects, to fund small-scale projects and for financing German experts. The above projects will be implemented by GIZ of the German Government.

The Government of Germany has been assisting the Sri Lankan Government’s efforts to develop the vocational training sector and SME sector by providing technical and grant aid cooperation through various interventions.

The signing of the agreement pertaining to the above grant took place at the Ministry of Finance, Economy and Policy Development. Finance Ministry Secretary S.R. Attygalle signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka while German Ambassador Jörn Rohde signed on behalf of the Government of Germany. Ajith Abeysekare, Director General of External Resources Department and Christiane Einfeldt, Country Director of GIZ for Sri Lanka and Maldives also participated at this occasion.