The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a resolution by the Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft a Bill establishing the “Sri Lanka Industrial Transformation and Innovation Authority.”
The new authority would consolidate three existing state bodies: the Industrial Development Board (IDB), the National Enterprise Development Authority (NEDA) and the Small Enterprise Development Division (SEDD). The consolidation was recommended by an Officials’ Committee appointed under the chairmanship of the Secretary to the Prime Minister to review non-commercial state-owned institutions.
Policy approval for the merger was granted at the Cabinet Meeting held on 29 December 2025. The Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development has since prepared a draft legal framework in consultation with stakeholders and with technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank. Wednesday’s Cabinet decision moves the process to the drafting stage.
The step is part of the NPP government’s effort to rationalise non-commercial state institutions by merging overlapping industrial-support bodies — covering industrial zones and investment facilitation (IDB), enterprise development (NEDA), and small enterprise support (SEDD) — into a single entity. A Bill must pass Parliament before the authority can be formally established.
