Forging partnerships with small and medium enterprises, USAID’s Economic Growth programs are promoting investments, increasing productivity, strengthening institutional capacity, and improving the business climate in economically lagging regions.  USAID initiatives are also supporting economic reforms through the strengthening of country systems and processes for public financial management, and improving the business enabling environment.  With a strong focus on youth, USAID programs are creating youth employment opportunities and developing technical and vocational skills.

YouLead
The YouLead! project increases youth employability and sustainable self-employment opportunities to foster inclusive economic growth and development throughout Sri Lanka. The objectives of the project are to:
(1) increase youth employability skills in targeted sectors; (2) improve the quality and relevance of technical and vocational education and training delivery; and (3) increase prospects for successful self-employment. 

Development Credit Authority (DCA)
USAID has partnered with local banks to provide local financing to private, micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises throughout Sri Lanka. This activity helps youth entrepreneurs to access capital, expand businesses, and, ultimately, create more jobs. It unlocks critical resources that help to spur innovation, foster investment, and provide critical resources to under-served segments of Sri Lanka's economy including existing MSMEs and start-ups.

Private Sector Development (PSD)
This activity will help to bolster Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in high growth sectors including tourism, ICT, commercial care industry. It will also design activities to respond to the economic and financial impacts of COVID-19. PSD will also contribute to increasing women’s labor force participation in Sri Lanka. 

Sri Lanka@100 
This activity will focus on promoting more inclusive and sustainable growth by supporting mid-market companies that are based in more rural areas and enterprises owned by women, through the creation of a platform. The platform will serve as an ecosystem of partners including business development service providers, investors, and industry bodies that can drive value creation for these companies. 

Partnership for Accelerating Results in Trade, National Expenditure and Revenue Activity (PARTNER)
This project will provide technical assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka to improve the policy and regulatory environment for trade, investment, and public financial management. PFM+T will also provide technical assistance to strengthen the government's capacity to promote practices that assess the viability of infrastructure projects in line with international best practices.