Around 65 per cent informal sector business organizations in Sri Lanka are far behind the informal sectors in other countries because a majority of both large-scale, medium and small scale business concerns do not concentrate on conducting research on productivity and improvement. For instance a large number of medium and small-scale business enterprises are alleged to have violated labour rules and regulations.

Research on market trends and improvement in the affairs of any business are of vital importance for any business organization to flourish. In productivity improvement a business enterprise is required to adopt new productivity tools, techniques, measurements and methodologies, Labour Relations and Manpower Minister Athauda Seneviratne said at a seminar on Research on Productivity and Improvement in the Informal Sector held at Trans-Asia hotel on November 1.

Minister Seneviratne addressing the participants said that the National Productivity Secretariat of the Labour Ministry in collaboration with the Asian Productivity Organization had commenced a comprehensive research on informal sector business organizations because administrative, technical, resource utilization and adherence to labour rules and regulations left much to be desired. The member countries of the Asian Productivity Organization such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Phillipines, Singapore,Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka had embarked on research on the omissions and commissions of the informal sector.

He pointed out that the South Asian and South East Asian countries were in a tough race to achieve prosperity in their economies. In this race some countries were far ahead and some countries were at far behind. Despite the degree of achievement the sudden economic crises such global financial crisis, food crisis and Asian financial crisis had exacerbated the economies. These constraints had undermined businesses, particularly in the informal sector businesses and employment, because of high inter-dependency on the international market.

Minister Seneviratne outlined that in terms of the formal sector a significant attention had been drawn to businesses by providing fiscal and monetary incentives such as tax concessions and subsidies. Even in the process of productivity and improvement much attention had been paid to adopt new productivity techniques. Less attention had been paid to the informal sector in terms of employment creation and livelihood for the majority of people in the developing countries. It was a well-known factor that the bulk of people were surviving by engaging in economic activities in the informal sector although efforts were made to bring this sector into the mainstream of development. The Sri Lankan Government was grateful to the Asian Productivity Organization for undertaking to conduct a research on productivity improvement in the informal sector.