Industrial Excellence Awards (IEA) 2015 was held at the Water’s Edge recently. 

The event was preceded by Kabir Hashim, Minister of Public Enterprise Development and was attended by distinguished members of the local business community. 

Union Bank of Colombo PLC (UBC) was the principal sponsor of the event organized by Sri Lanka Chamber of Small and Medium Industries (SLCSMI) to recognise business excellence of Small and Medium scale entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.    

Held this time for the 9th consecutive year, IEA is a recognition programme greatly looked forward to by the SME entrepreneurs in the country. According to Mohideen Cader, president of SLCSMI, this year’s awards programme received an overwhelming response from the SME community attracting a significant number of applications representing diverse industries including, agriculture, dairy, motor, electric, engineering, ICT, out which ten winners were selected based on the evaluation criteria set for the awards.  

It was noteworthy that, out of the ten winners, two were Corporate/ SME banking clients of Union Bank - the Principal Sponsor of IEA 2015.
The Industrial Excellence Awards are presented to businesses in recognition of their valuable contribution to the country and display of sustainable business practices. 

Under the provincial awards category Bhagya Kariyawasam, Managing Director of Integrity Private Limited and a client of Union Bank won the award for Western Province while Lallan Perera, Managing Director of Lallan Sports Goods Manufacturers (Pvt) Ltd of Ratnapura was conferred the award for Sabaragamuwa Province. Champika Amarasekera, proprietress of Cinnamon Processing Cente in Matara won the award of recognition for Southern Province, with Sivagnanasunderam Rajkumar, proprieter of Harikannan Papers in Jaffna seizing the award for Northern Province.  Samana Daminda Perera, Managing Director of Rasoda Dairies in Kurunegalain was conferred the award for North Western Province.  

The special award of recognition presented to a Union Bank client was won by V Kumaran, the proprietor of Otley Traders; a company providing paper and paper boarding solutions to the local and international markets. 

National Bronze award for business excellence was presented to Capt. Ranjith Salpitikorale, Managing Director of Matrix (Pvt)Ltd, while National Silver award was conferred to Keerthi Gunawardene, Managing Director of Graphic Systems (Pvt) Lts and the National Gold award was won by Lakshman Amaratunga of Kegalle State Plantaions PLC. The Grand National Platinum honour was won by Gamini Gunasekera, managing director of Union Chemicals PLC.  
Union Bank has extended its continuous support towards the development of Small and Medium Enterprises since its inception, being a part of the growth of Lankan SMEs for over 20 years.   

Commenting on the partnership with IEA for the third consecutive year, Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank, Indrajit Wickramasinghe said “We believe events of this nature are wonderful opportunities, especially for small and medium industrialists to be recognized for their business excellence; and we  hope that events of this nature will help aspiring entrepreneurs to strive towards business ethics, product innovation and business excellence – which is the passport to international trade.”