Local News from Sri Lanka: Yesterday, at the 27th Annual General Meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka, U.S. Ambassador for Sri Lanka and Maldives Alaina B. Teplitz said that the U.S. is supporting Sri Lanka for the quick recovery of its tourism industry from the Easter attacks.
She said they’re looking at a U.S.-Sri Lankan tourism alliance and they love the initiative in Sri Lanka. She said Sri Lanka needed assistance for its entrepreneurship curriculum. The US will support it by providing vocational and technical educators. She said the US has partnered with more than 60 small and medium-sized enterprises across Sri Lanka, including various company industries, and the findings were impressive.
She said 8,000 jobs were generated by the companies involved. “Over 5,000 micro-enterprises have benefited from our assistance,” she said. She said the U.S. government is committed to achieving free, fair, reciprocal and transparent financial development through its programs. “We think this development can only be achieved through private-sector partnerships,” she said, referring to the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Development Assistance Program, Teplitz. She said last year the U.S. government and Sri Lanka created it for catalyzed financial growth.”The proposed project is a five-year program to be financed from the individuals of the U.S. to Sri Lanka with 80 million dollars. This isn’t a loan and as a result, it won’t be added to Sri Lanka’s balance sheet, “she said.
Once the program is completed, there will be two components, the transport infrastructure and land management industries, which are recognized as the main elements of the program, she said. The road network in the provinces of Sabaragamuwa and Uva, where tea, rubber, fruit, and vegetables are cultivated, requires small and medium-sized businesses to get them to Colombo’s ports and the brand.
She said these are government programs and there are no fresh programs planned under the MCC Development Assistance Program.”I stress this because there is a lot of poor data about this in the public space, “she said.
