Study Identifies Vast Gap in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka

A study entitled ‘ Identifying Gaps in The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the North and East of Sri Lanka’, conducted among entrepreneurs in the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka finds that entrepreneurs are unable to advance their start-ups and thrive not because they lack hard work, talent, and aspirations but because they lack adequate access to knowledge, resources (investment), and skills to retrain their capacity to act towards entrepreneurial activities and achievements.

The survey findings illuminated the vast gap in the ingredients of an ecosystem conducive to thriving entrepreneurship and achieving entrepreneurial achievements, such as access to capital, entrepreneurship training, skills development, resources, knowledge, mentorship, etc. As the study highlighted, this situation limits the youth’s ability to adopt technology and innovate in their entrepreneurial endeavours.

The study stresses an immediate attention from all the community stakeholders, such as the government, educational institutions, NGOs, diaspora, CSOs, donors, and industry, to create an Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (IEE) in the Northern and Eastern provinces to effectively organise, mobilise, and manage the necessary skills, knowledge, resources, and opportunities among both opportunity entrepreneurs and necessity entrepreneurs as well as ideapreneurs equitably for entrepreneurial achievement.

The complete study can be assessed from the below link: Identifying Gaps in The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the North and East of Sri Lanka