Abstract:

The growth of and development of SMEs in Jaffna is vulnerable due to the three decades of internal war. Even after finished the war, there is no remarkable progress in the development of SMEs in Jaffna. Thus, main objective of this study is to scrutinize the degree of growth and issues of small and medium enterprises in post conflict Jaffna. Self administered likert scale questionnaire has been employed for the analysis of this study. Mean value of assets; turn over, number of employees as well as growth stages of SMEs clearly show that there is very poor growth of small enterprises in Jaffna. The problems confronted by enterprises of Jaffna are severe and high degree compared to other part of Sri Lanka. The mean values of all issues are close to one or two indicating there are severe problems that small enterprises of Jaffna have been undergoing. Government should give more priority in policy making to the development of SMEs of North East where as political and economic climate should be conducive to flow foreign and local investment into North and East region. This study will be giving new insights to the policy makers and government. In addition, those who are interested in developing their business in the same region can acquire valuable information and knowledge about SMEs.