Feasibility of accommodating informal sector enterprises in local government areas: a case study of Colombo, Sri Lanka

This study strongly suggests that the provision of physical accommodation has positively influenced the economic status of the accommodated enterprises. This is clear from the comparative assessment of the accommodated and unaccommodated enterprises in the study areas of Colombo. The study also demonstrates that a substantial proportion of the unaccommodated entrepreneurs could afford to pay accommodation fees if physical access to marketplaces were ensured. It is a fallacy that the majority of informal sector (IS) entrepreneurs cannot afford to pay the costs of any physical facility. Such a notion hides the financial capacities and entrepreneurship of productive is enterprises. It is a question of nonavailability of opportunities rather than sheer inability to pay that has magnified the accommodation problem of the IS. -from Authors