The shortage of competent people in management and technical fields has become a major hindrance in achieving the 8% to 10% economic growth rate targeted from next year onwards, said Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake at the inauguration ceremony of the Trans American Institute of Information Technologies and Management (TAIITM), a Sri Lankan Campus of the Honolulu University, USA.

The Minister said that the country’s human resource base is mostly under-employed, even though the annual inflow to the job market is 126,000, out of which 26,000 are fresh graduates from universities.

"The Honolulu University’s entrance will certainly add value to the country’s education sector because there is a crying need to find necessary people and train them to meet employer requirements, in the process of converting our national economy to a knowledge based one", a Karunanayake said.

He said that Sri Lanka is presently a service based economy where 53% of the GDP comes from the service industry alone. The TAIITM conducts accredited degree programmes of the Honolulu University, which covers a wide range of disciplines including business related subjects, mass communication, engineering, environmental management, health management, hospitality and tourism management, hotel and restaurant management and information technology.

The programmes are delivered through both on-campus and distance learning methods and lead to masters and Ph.D levels. The University offers transferable credits to universities in the USA and other countries such as UK, Australia and Canada and also award transferable credits to non academic professional achievements including published writing, major work projects and professional licenses.

Western Region Development Minister M.H. Mohammed and an adviser to the Tertiary Education Ministry Dr. Wickrama Werasooriya were also present at the occasion.