The Forum of Chartered Institutes in Sri Lanka (FCI) and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) have agreed to partner each other in sharing services with their member bodies across the country.

A “Memorandum of Understanding” was duly signed by all the relevant parties at the FCCISL recently.

The FCCISL works to promote the interests of its federating units in trade, industry and commerce. Its services are attuned to protect, encourage and safeguard the cause of the private sector in the process of consulting and interaction with the Government and other inter-related agencies. It also provides advisory services to the Government and lobbies and presents its views in the formulation and execution of business and industry related policies.

On its part, the FCI is an umbrella body of nine institutes operating within Sri Lanka as branches of UK institutes incorporated by Royal Charter, namely the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of Sri Lanka (ACCA), the British Computer Society (BCS), the Chartered Management Institute (CMI),  the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators (ICSA), the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) and the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport (CILT). The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) is also a member of the FCI having received its Charter through an Act of Parliament (Sri Lanka).

The FCI was formed to enable each individual discipline to meet regularly and network for the mutual benefit of its members as well as for the economic benefit of the country and to disseminate specialist knowledge of the individual institutes amongst members of the Forum. Primary objective on the part of FCI under this partnership would be to create awareness of the existence of such Chartered Institutes and the professional ethics, disciplines and values they practice which they will be able to impart to small and medium industries across the country; and to offer technical advice and assistance to any small or medium trade or industrial body/bodies who are members of the FCCISL in any part of the country in the functional field the FCI member Institutes specialize in.  These services would be rendered as a means of imparting good management practices to traders and industrialists in the various parts of the country attached. Under this programme FCI members would provide valuable business advisory services to SMEs covering many disciplined. These services would be provided to encourage SMEs to increase their profitability whilst following good management practices.

Primary objective on the part of FCCISL would be to support its members to improve, expand and enhance functional ability of their businesses in trade and commerce by utilizing the technical assistance and advice offered to them by those Institutes affiliated to the FCI. This assistance would be limited to the specialist fields of each FCI institute representing Accounting, Information Systems, Management Consulting, Company Secretarial and Administration, Marketing, Shipping, Logistics and Transport.

Secondary objectives of both parties would be to promote interaction between the members of the FCI and FCCISL, create public awareness of FCI through FCCISL and its objective of assisting small and medium industries to improve their financial status, specially those in the outer regions; and to keep small and medium industries informed of the updated business trends, management ethics and technical improvements through training programmes and workshops of value organized by FCI either for its own membership or facilitated through FCCISL and encourage them to practice same in their own establishments around the country.