Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran said Sri Lanka's capital wealth has been destroyed due to the conflict and through unfortunate experiments with the nationalisation of industries.
Commenting on challenges faced by these small and medium enterprise and micro financing sectors, the governor said that there has been a paucity of deposits in Sri Lanka and it is imperative to encourage broader flows of foreign funding particularly into small and medium enterprise and micro financing segments.
"SME and micro financing sectors remain largely unexploited and the penetration and the growth of micro finance activities have been hindered due to entrenched mindsets which persisted in the country for several decades.
The country has to use the power of persuasion to bring alignments between different thinking and different interested groups in order to move the country forward," Mahendran said.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said Sri Lanka is now standing on the cusp of a historic moment. The private sector is given the opportunity to spearhead and move the country forward. In the meantime the government wants to make sure exchange controls are free and will take necessary steps to eliminate unwanted bureaucratic processes that overlap one another.
http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/02/25/business/broader-foreign-inflows-vital-help-sme-micro-industries-governor