Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2013-01-17

Domestic School Uniform Manufacturers

- the two reports on the manufacture of School Uniform Materials by Domestic Manufactures submitted separately by Hon. Rishard Bathiudeen, Minister of Industry and Commerce and Hon. Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Education, were considered by the Cabinet and it was observed that 50% of the total requirement of School Uniform Materials required for distribution among school children throughout the country for the year 2013, has been supplied by the Domestic Manufactures and also that the manufactures have assured that they have already taken steps to enhance their production capacity by installing new machinery in their factories and will be able to supply the total requirement of school uniform material domestically in 2014 as well. After discussion, it was decided to appoint a Cabinet Sub-Committee under the chairmanship of Hon. Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, Minister (Senior) for Good Governance and Infrastructure, to revisit the issue and make recommendations to develop the local textile industry to ensure that the textile requirement of the government sector, including school uniform materials, can be procured from local manufactures.