The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) held an SME Awareness Creation Forum at the Trincomalee District Secretariat on 1 October 2026, aiming to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Eastern Province break into export markets.
Organised by the EDB under the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, the forum was designed to support entrepreneurs in the district with export potential. It had three components: an awareness seminar, a mini exhibition and a business clinic. At the seminar, participants learned about EDB services and the requirements and opportunities of export markets. Speakers also shared success stories from the fruits and vegetables, processed foods, handicrafts and lifestyle products, and fisheries sectors.
The mini exhibition showcased exportable products from those sectors, with stakeholder institutions and export companies taking part. At the business clinic, EDB officials and public and private sector stakeholders worked with entrepreneurs on their individual challenges and on developing products that meet international standards.
Trincomalee was chosen in line with strategic export development priorities, with a focus on bringing fisheries and marine products, agricultural products and tourism-related enterprises into export value chains. The forum is part of the EDB’s regional outreach programme under the National Export Development Plan, which seeks to take export promotion closer to regional entrepreneurs and link them with global value chains. Nine such forums have been held island-wide since 2017, the most recent in Batticaloa in February 2025.
Organisers expect the event to help identify export-ready companies in the region and develop them into future exporters. It also aimed to attract local investment for export industries, raise awareness of the New Exporter Development Programme among government officials, trade chambers and other stakeholders, and encourage innovative, value-added export products.
Attending were Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Sunil Handunnetti; Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Employment Arun Hemachandra; Trincomalee District MP Roshan Akmeemana; District Secretary Hemantha Kumara; EDB Chairman/CEO Mangala Wijesinghe; Eastern Province Department of Rural Industries Provincial Director Riswani Rifas; Divisional Secretaries; and EDB Director of Regional Development D. M. P. Dissanayake. Officials from the EDB and other government institutions, exporters and a large number of entrepreneurs also took part.
Addressing the gathering, Minister Handunnetti said any task seems impossible until it is accomplished, and that goals can never be reached if people give up believing they are achievable. He noted that Trincomalee has a natural harbour unlike any other in the world, a large extent of land still unused for industry, and vast mineral resources in areas such as Kokkilai, Pudavakattu and Pulmoddai, as well as in the ocean. Once the Colombo–Dambulla expressway is completed, he said, the districts of the Eastern Province will become key areas with the infrastructure needed for industry, employment and land. “Such big dreams can be realised by starting as small businesses and working together,” the Minister said.
The EDB said it will continue taking export promotion to the regions as a means of promoting regional economic development.
Source: Daily News
