Ingrin Institute of Printing and Graphics, Sri Lanka

rld in order to effectively fulfill its obligations. The proposed expansions and diversifications would help the Institute to further enhance its capability to effectively serve the Printing and Graphics industry in Sri Lanka. The potential benefits of the proposed expansion would be:

Overall improvement in productivity, quality, reliability and price competitiveness of printing establishments, which hitherto had no access to professional training through expansion of geographical coverage of services offered by the Institute. Further improvement of performance of printing establishments, who have already got professionally trained staff by offering new training courses to equip them with the latest developments in the industry. Contributing to reduce the unemployment problem by offering training to unemployed youth and school leavers, who could easily find openings in the printing industry. New technological developments in the printing industry has opened up lot of new opportunities for increased participation of women in the industry and the Institute has planned to exploit this opportunity by involving more women in its training programs. Generation of foreign employment by providing advanced professional training in printing and graphics to those who seek foreign jobs. Increasing of foreign exchange earnings by export of printing products and/or saving of foreign exchange by substitution of imports of printing products from other countries through improvement of competitiveness of the local printing industry. Generation of foreign exchange by offering training programs and related services to neighboring countries, which have no modern training facilities. Boosting the image of the printing industry in Sri Lanka by improving its quality assurance systems through the services offered by the proposed quality control and testing facility. The services of this center could also be utilized to improve quality standards of garments. The INGRIN Institute of Printing and Graphics was established in 1997,as a result of determination of Hon. Wickramaratne, the Minister of Internal & International Commerce & Food, in order to offer training programs to impart knowledge on new technological developments to Sri Lanka’s printing, packaging and advertising industries. The main strength of the Institute was the technical support received from The INGRIN Foundation of the Netherlands, a highly recognized international organization involved in development of printing and graphics industry in developing countries. The INGRIN Foundation has recognized INGRIN Sri Lanka as one of the most successful training institutes established by them and has used it as a model for setting up similar institutes in Indonesia, Ghana, Surinam, South America, The Philippines, Malawi, Cameroon, Benin, Tanzania, Eritrea, Congo, Somalia, Honduras, Costa Rica and The Dutch Antilles. During the first year of operation, the Institute conducted only 11 training courses with participation of only 165 candidates. The Institute had maintained an impressive track record by increasing the number of courses as well as the number of candidates participated in the courses over the years. The number of candidates trained by the Institute has been increased from 165 in 1998 to1345 by 2003. The noteworthy feature is that in addition to increasing the number of candidates, the Institute had introduced a large number of new courses to equip personnel in the printing industry to meet the challenges of the rapid technological changes and developments in the global market place. The Institute, which offered only 11 courses in 1998, now offers 21 regular training courses.