Norwegian business delegation visits Sri Lanka

The Sri Lanka–Norway Business Matchmaking Program (BMMP) of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce hosted a delegation from the wind, biomass and landfill gas energy, aquaculture, oil spill restoration and Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research.

A seminar was held to introduce the delegation to the local business community and to discuss their technologies. Over 30 local companies attended the seminar. Etech Miljo, a company specialising in generation of power from gases extracted from landfills plans to work with the Urban Development Authority to utilise the existing landfills for this purpose. The extraction of Methane a hazardous gas from the landfill prevents pollution of atmosphere and also facilitates faster decomposition of garbage.

Bioforsk, a research Institute specialising in multifunctional agriculture, plant sciences and environmental sciences visited CIC cattle farms and plans to work with them to produce bio-gas from cattle and poultry feces and also in fields related to plant sciences.

Hobas AS has already carried out a pilot project for producing Sea Bass in the Negombo area and they are confident that the same can be replicated in many regions in Sri Lanka. According to world statistics the production from aquaculture is expected to overtake the catch from wild fishing industry in a few years time.

Resolve AS who has developed a method for restoration of the oil spills using biodegradation which can work both in aerobic and anaerobic conditions met with the officials of the Central Environmental Authority, Marine Environment Protection Authority and an environmental services company to promote their services in Sri Lanka. Both authorities opined that there is a significant need to obtain such services in Sri Lanka at present.

The participating companies met with a number of companies and organisations to introduce their services and products during the week.