The Hon. Sunil Rajapaksha

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, I am pleased to speak on the Ministry of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development, which bears a major responsibility in building a “Prosperous Country – Beautiful Life” for our citizens.

¶ 02 Reviewing the last 75 years, in 1950 industry contributed 19.6 percent to GDP; by 2025 it is around 25 percent. Over 75 years, the industry share rose only by about 5.5 percentage points. We must reflect on this.

¶ 03 You cannot mass-produce entrepreneurs like stamping out parts in a factory. To generate industrialists, businesspeople and investors, you must create the right enabling environment. Throughout 2025 we worked hard to lay the groundwork—planning to inspire people and to develop this sector over the next 30–40 years.

¶ 04 The next generation is built through education. For 75 years, our education largely produced job-seekers. We need graduates who can generate jobs for five, a hundred, two hundred others—entrepreneurs. Therefore, we are instituting a special programme to inculcate an entrepreneurial mindset and discipline from school-leaving age.

¶ 05 For the first time in Sri Lanka’s education history, under the new reforms coming in 2026, we introduce a new subject—Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy—from Grade 6 onwards. In 2007, when entrepreneurship studies were introduced at O-Level, some even protested outside the National Institute of Education saying “we don’t need entrepreneurship education”—and we now live with those outcomes. With the new reforms, we will include entrepreneurship studies in Grades 10 and 11, and also as a subject within the Advanced Level Commerce stream in due course. Our expectation is that every learner will develop the habits, training, and mindset to become an entrepreneur in any field, identifying risks and opportunities.

¶ 06 We will also reform pedagogy and assessment. Today’s system relies on rote learning and recall. We will shift to methods suitable for entrepreneurship development, embedding 21st-century skills—critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity and innovation, collaboration and communication. With these changes, the next generation will undoubtedly be equipped with entrepreneurial skills. We will also introduce new technology subjects at O-Level and a vocational stream at A-Level to supply trained manpower for industry and commerce, while nurturing new entrepreneurs through education.

¶ 07 On decentralization, previously the Ministry of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development was Colombo-centric. Our government established District Industrial Promotion Committees and Divisional Industrial Committees. Thus, issues faced by small, medium, and large industrialists can now be addressed at the Divisional Secretariat level, escalating to district level only if needed, and to the ministry thereafter. We have created the strategic change necessary to empower industrialists from village to province. We are investing significantly and building the enabling ecosystem for industries and entrepreneurship, so that achieving a “Prosperous Country – Beautiful Life” is not far away. Thank you.