The event ‘Pathways to Sustainability: Young Entrepreneurs Showcase’ was hosted by the British Council

The event ‘Pathways to Sustainability: Young Entrepreneurs Showcase’ was hosted by the British Council last week to showcase the ingenuity of young entrepreneurs who have transitioned towards greener and more inclusive approaches and practices relating to businesses. The youth led enterprise are the beneficiaries of an ongoing project implemented by the British Council in partnership with local organizations and a UK University that supported them with capacity building and networking to transition towards more greener and inclusive paths.

Delivering the Keynote Remarks at the event, the Director General of the Sustainable Development Council, Chamindry Saparamadu highlighted that, in line with the recently launched National Strategy to Promote Inclusive and Sustainable Businesses in Sri Lanka to achieve the SDGs, steps are being taken to build a cohesive eco-system for inclusive and sustainable businesses to thrive in Sri Lanka. These include, among others, the formulation of an Action Plan to build the stakeholder’s capacities for Inclusive and Sustainable Business Development focusing on important areas such as accreditation, impact reporting; branding and recognition; access to finance and investment; engaging low-income and vulnerable groups; building green business opportunities; and value chain development and export readiness as well as developing an inclusive business accreditation system for Sri Lanka drawing on comparative experience and good practices from countries in the Asia-Pacific region such as Philippines, Cambodia etc .

The event also featured a panel discussion with industry experts and government representatives, which highlighted several critical issues such as information and communication gap between the business community and government agencies and potential solutions such as the proposal to establish the 'Enterprise Sri Lanka' agency, as a dedicated one-stop for SME support, the National Tariff Policy which is to be implemented in January 2025, etc to create a more conducive environment for businesses to thrive in Sri Lanka.

The event was attended by young entrepreneurs, stakeholders from the government, non-government organizations and the corporate sector.