Address by Prof. Lakshman R Watawala, President CMA Sri Lanka and Chairman CMA Sri Lanka SME Development Committee

CMA Sri Lanka SME Development Committee comprising members from Professional Bodies, Commercial Banks, Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Industry Experts hosted the “CMA Sri Lanka MSME Business Development Summit 2025” and the “CMA Sri Lanka MSME Business Excellence Awards 2025” to celebrate United Nations - Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Day to raise public awareness of their contribution to sustainable development and the global economy with the active participation of commercial banks, finance companies and their MSME customers on Friday, 27th June 2025 at the Jasmine Hall, BMICH Colombo.

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One of the significant achievements of the CMA Sri Lanka SME Development Committee was the recommendation made to the Ministry of Industries in 2020 to submit a Cabinet Paper to reactivate the SME Credit Guarantee Institution which had been an approved project with ADB funding but was put in cold storage since 2016 and with tremendous push from the then Minister of Industries was approved by cabinet in early 2021 and handed over to the Finance Ministry External Resources Departmentand the National Credit Guarantee Institution (NCGI) was officially launched on Monday 2nd June 2025fulfilling a great need to support those SMEs that are unable to provide collateral or security to banks. This will benefit and promote start up young entrepreneurs and women led SMEs and many others who are unable to provide collateral to obtain funding to start projects. Today we will honour those who made this possible — The ADB, Ministry of Industries and the External Resources Department Ministry of Finance.