German Ambassador in Sri Lanka Jörn Rohd, Minister of Industry Commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Science, Technology and Research Sujeewa Senasinghe and Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and Maldives Tung-Lai Margue (Picture by Saliya Rupasinghe)
The EU will offer Euro 8 million as trade related assistance towards building National Quality Infrastructure (NQI), said Ambassador of EU Delegation to Sri Lanka and Maldives Tung-Lai Margue.
He was speaking at the joint launch of publications on quality infrastructure in Sri Lanka at Movenpick Hotel, Colombo last Friday.
National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) Strategy was launched in July 2018, under the National Export Strategy of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. German Ambassador Jörn Rohd said as Sri Lanka’s tourism grows, quality infrastructure would play a bigger role. “The question of quality is very important as Sri Lanka aims at a higher number of tourists. Quality becomes paramount as tourists get diverse. A small destination such as Bali in Indonesia, is getting six million tourists annually, due to their high quality infrastructure.”
“As the government focuses on a US$ 23 Billion export target by 2020, the need to enhance global market access through overcoming border rejections, delays in conformity assessment, higher testing costs for the private sector and risk management associated to border operations and commerce, is now experienced more and more. Therefore, there is no doubt that our quality infrastructure should be updated in par with global standards,” said Minister of Industry Commerce, Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons & Cooperative Development Rishad Bathiudeen.
The latest nationwide effort would see the birth of a National Quality Infrastructure scheme led by a National Quality Council - the first ever apex structure for quality, now on the cards.
This event, saw the launch of Publications such as results derived from the EU - Sri Lanka Trade Related Assistance project, funded by the European Union and implemented by UNIDO (with the International Trade Centre, Geneva) and “Strengthening Quality Infrastructure in Sri Lanka” project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by PTB. UNIDO also launched the NQI Strategy (NQI-S) document.
“Today, we thank the EU and Geneva’s International Trade Centre, UNIDO, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Germany’s PTB for their invaluable support to Sri Lanka’s trade,” said Minister Bathiudeen.
Sri Lanka recently revised its export target (by 2020) to US $ 23 Bn from earlier target of US $ 20 Bn.
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