Sri Lankan at 10th Annual World congress

The 10th Annual World Congress  has selected an internationally recognised business professional Rohantha Athukorala who has experience in the private, government and international public sector to share his insight on ‘Business and entrepreneurship development in a globalised era - Sri Lankan tea industry”  this weekend at the Swissotel Le Concorde in Thailand.

Athukorala who works for the United Nations (UNOPS) as the Head of National Portfolio Development for Sri Lanka and Maldives as well as in an honorary capacity serves the tea industry as the Chairman of the Tea Committee at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Sri Lanka Tea Board Marketing Committee and was appointed by His Excellency the President to the ten-man committee to evaluate the privatised tea industry of Sri Lanka.

The key note address at this year’s Annual World Congress will be delivered by Minister of Environment of the Republic of Indonesia Prof. Dr. Balthasar Kambuaya, whilst the other speakers will be the Treedom Group CEO Andrew Steel who is an honorary doctorate recipient  from the University of Hull (UK), globally acclaimed environment expert Prof. Ranjan Varadarajan from Texas University (USA) and Conference Chair of the Global Board of Trustees for the Academy for Global Business Advancement Dr. Norman Wright.

The Sri Lankan speaker will highlight the comparison of the Sri Lankan apparel industry that began business way back in the 1980s and was initially referred to as ‘a mere contract manufacturers’ but, thereafter with some strategic thinking by a private-public partnership has now made Sri Lanka give leadership to the world by making Sri Lanka the fashion apparel destination of the world for ethically manufactured clothing.

He will then parallel Ceylon Tea  and  explain how the same route  is been modelled from a different  context with the recent award of Sri Lanka being the first ozone-friendly certified tea producing nation in the world. He will also take participants through the history of the plantation industry from nationalisation in the 70’s, to the 80’s when the Colombo auction came to the fray and today where Ceylon Tea has taken the high ground with some focused decisions and by conforming to global standards on MRL levels.

The industry has gone further by developing a new standard for tea that has resulted in Ceylon Tea being the first certified ozone-friendly tea; a standard that no other tea producer has received.