Spice Council Chairman to address WTO event in Geneva
Tuesday, 2 July 2013 00:00
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Chairman of the Spice Council of Sri Lanka Sarada de Silva will be among the array of international dignitaries invited to address the side-event organised by the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) during the next Global Review of Aid for Trade at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva from 8-10 July 2013.
De Silva’s speech will focus on the role of public-private partnerships to build SPS capacities and will relate to the formation of the Spice Council. Sarada de Silva is the founder Chairman of the Spice Council of Sri Lanka, which has been accepted by the Government of Sri Lanka and international agencies as an extremely successful public-private partnership. The Spice Council continues to lead the spice industry in formulating and developing policies and proposals for the development of the spice industry as an apex body.
De Silva is a leading entrepreneur and an outstanding industry patron who has demonstrated great passion and commitment in developing the cinnamon and other spice industries of Sri Lanka. Since 1997, he has been the leading advocate in lobbying issues which have been critical to the spice sector of Sri Lanka. He has extensive experience in the cinnamon industry, covering the areas of cultivation, plantation management, production, value addition and international marketing.
He has been the mastermind behind initiating GMP, HACCP and ISO standards and certification to the cinnamon industry, initiating setting up of a training function and institutional capacity building to train cinnamon peelers, and the introduction and launch of Pure Ceylon Cinnamon, the national trademark to the world.
He has served in many national and international advisory and industry bodies like World Spice Congress, International Standards Forum, National Export/Advisory Committee for Budget Preparation, etc. Presently, he serves as Deputy Chairman of Project Steering Committee of WTO-UNIDO -The Spice Council Cinnamon Project in Sri Lanka.
The Global Review of Aid for Trade at the World Trade Organisation will bring together the heads of institutions including the United Nations, World Bank, OECD, regional development banks, ministers and companies across a broad spectrum of industries and countries and will examine strategies to connect firms of developing countries to international value chains.
Sarada de Silva has been invited to address this important forum based on his achievements especially for the cinnamon industry of Sri Lanka.
During this visit, a team of officials from the UNIDO-WTO-Spice Council Cinnamon Project led by Sarada de Silva will hold discussions with the EU officials in Brussels, Belgium regarding obtaining geographical indication for Ceylon cinnamon. The team will review the progress of the cinnamon project at the UNIDO head office in Vienna.
