Sri Lanka and Norway will take effective steps to increase cooperation in fisheries, information technology, energy, hydro and solar power and oil and gas exploration, following talks between President Maithripala Sirisena and visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday.

Sri Lanka has sought technical expertise from Norway to develop the fisheries industry in Sri Lanka as there are immense possibilities for growth in both sea fishing and inland fisheries, the President’s Office said in a media statement.

Sri Lanka also seeks foreign investments in export oriented industries such as garments, gem and jewellery, ceramic, plants, timber and medicine. Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera is expected to visit Norway next week to discuss ways and means of expanding cooperation in the fisheries sector.

The Norwegian Government will take steps to bring together potential Norwegian investors and Sri Lankan partners. The Prime Minister added that as Sri Lanka has now reached the status of a middle-income country, the focus would be to assist development and increase cooperation in trade, industry and business.  The Norwegian Prime Minister praised the tourism industry in Sri Lanka and said that she had a most enjoyable holiday in the island during the last week. She added that there is immense scope for high growth in the tourism sector.

The Norwegian delegation, headed by Prime Minister Erna Solberg, included Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether, Ambassador of Norway to Sri Lanka, Lasse Bjorn Johannessen, Director, South Asia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Borge Romsloe, Senior Adviser, Prime Minister’s Office of Norway, Espen Gullikstad, Special Adviser for Sustainable Development Goals and Prime Minister’s Office/Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.

The Government delegation comprised Ministers Mangala Samaraweera, Mahinda Amaraweera, Ravi Karunanayake and Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle, Secretary to the President P. B. Abeykoon, Treasury Secretary Dr. H. M. S. Samaratunga and Foreign Secretary Esala Weerakoon.

Development should align with SDGs

Solberg warns unresolved 

conflicts can spill across 

borders to rest of the world 

By Dharisha Bastians

Sri Lanka’s development priorities are in line with sustainable development goals, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said yesterday, urging the non-government and business sectors to participate in the process to achieve sustainable development.

Delivering the Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture for 2016 at the Strategic Studies institute dedicated to the former Foreign Minister who was brutally assassinated on 12 August 2005, the visiting Norwegian Premier emphasised that security and co-existence was crucial to peace building.

“If you can’t co-exist in your country, it won’t just be your conflict. It will become everyone’s conflict. That is what we are seeing happening in the world today,” Prime Minister Solberg noted in her address.

She said Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would help countries achieve employment, security and a ‘feeling of belonging’ that could lead to a better world.

SDGs, the Norwegian Prime Minister noted, should be the main track and not a side track to all other governance issues for all the world’s governments.

The wife of the former Foreign Minister, Suganthi Kadirgamar delivered the vote of thanks at the lecture, saying Prime Minister’s Solberg’s words at the lecture yesterday would inspire awareness on the issue.

The well-attended lecture concluded with a reception for the visiting Prime Minister in the gardens of the Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic studies.