IRSD received an invitation from Ms Ruwandhika Hennayake, Divisional Secretary Akurana in Kandy district to conduct a full day workshop for selected entrepreneurs who lived in the area of Akurana divisional secretariat to empower the knowledge in entrepreneurship development. This workshop was held on 22.08.2024 in the auditorium of -Akurana local government institute and it was sponsored by BOC – Akurana with the participation of Ms Ruwandhika Hennayake, Divisional Secretary and her officials, Mrs, Jiwanee Bandaaranayake- Manager BOC Akurana.

This workshop conducted by Mrs Shirani Weerakoon -Chairperson/Director of IRSD and it contained the specific objectives to achieve such as making awareness of the current situation of SMEs in rural areas in Sri Lanka, providing opportunity to understand challenges faced by SMEs, what are the main factors contributed to the failures and successes of the business, and the roles of SMEs to accept new business trends and Sharing the experiences of successful and failed stories among the entrepreneurs. The 50 entrepreneurs representing the SEMs and Livelihood sector were participated.

According to the feedback received from the participants, they were able to acquire the knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship development and understood the importance of exploring the new business ideas to sustain in the industry. During the conversation with the participants, they highlighted that they were able to focus and look into the challenges needed to be faced currently and how they can deal with the knowledge in an entrepreneurship development to minimize the challenges.

According to the divisional secretary’ observations and written comments on this workshop, it was very much supported to encourage the entrepreneurs to improve their livelihood and helped them to understand that how should they act in the real time practices for facing the competitiveness in the SME sector.

Especially IRSD would like to express its sincere thanks to Mrs.Prbhaa Herath -Development Officer for taking effort in organizing this program with great enthusiasm and commitment.