BMMP delegation to leave for Aqua-Nor international exhibition in Norway
Thursday, 8 August 2013 00:00
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The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce’s Sri Lanka-Norway Business Match Making Programme (BMMP) recently held a briefing session for the delegation from the fisheries and aquaculture industry, who will be participating in the Aqua-Nor international exhibition, Trondheim, Norway. The delegation is scheduled to leave for Norway on 11 August 2013.
The BMMP, which has been in operation since 1994 with the CCC as the national contact point, has been instrumental in facilitating an increase of exports to Norway over the last two decades. This will be the first ever delegation from the fisheries and aquaculture industry from Sri Lanka to visit the world renowned Aqua-Nor exhibition which will be held in Trondheim, Norway from 13 to 16 August.
The arranging of meetings and the Sri Lankan companies’ business presentations during the exhibition are being carried out by BMMP’s partnering company Advance Business Partners AS, headed by Project Director Inge Reithaug. The partners are also of the opinion that this visit will be greatly beneficial to the Sri Lankan companies. In 2012, BMMP pioneered a delegation from the rubber products manufacturing industry to Norway.
A team of Norad fisheries experts visited Sri Lanka in May 2012 and complied a report on the current status of the fisheries industry in Sri Lanka and possible areas for cooperation within the fisheries and aquaculture sectors between Sri Lanka and Norway
The overall conclusion of their report states that there is a general interest in the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Sri Lanka to establish a broad technical cooperation with Norwegian institutions with the objective of promoting a good and viable development and utilisation of the marine and inland fisheries resources in Sri Lanka. Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development (MFARD) Dr. Rajitha Sanaratne received the team at two long meetings during the delegation’s visit which underscored the strong interest to develop this cooperation.
The team also finds that there are a number of areas in which Norwegian institutions and Norwegian expertise can contribute to the positive development of the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Sri Lanka. The staff at the Ministry and its institutions are well qualified and highly motivated, which is a necessary condition for successful cooperation.
The delegation’s visit to the Aqua-Nor exhibition was one of the key recommendations made by the Norad team.
The delegation consists of Roshan Fernando, CEO of Tropic Fishery, Anura Paranagama, Chairman, Aqua’n Green, Dr. Harsha Navaratne, Chairman, Sevalanka Foundation, Irfan Thassim, Director, Oceanpick, and Col. Channa Weeratunga, Executive Director, Global Sea Foods. The Managing Director/CEO of CCC Solutions, Prema Cooray and the Director of BMMP Gerry Suraweera will also join the delegation. These companies’ main interests will be in aquaculture, processed sea food exports, seeking investors, transfer of new technology, fish breeding and aqua feed manufacturing.
Prema Cooray in his address noted that this is the first time a delegation from the fisheries sector in Sri Lanka will be visiting an international exhibition promoting aquaculture. He also stated that aquaculture is the way for future, as according to statistics, world aquaculture production is shortly expected to overtake wild catch.
Vijayanathan Loganathan, Senior Adviser of the Royal Norwegian Embassy Colombo, who participated at the meeting, stated that introduction of GSP+ facilities to Norway from this year would be a clear advantage for Sri Lanka.
