Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-01-16

Obtaining Technical Assistance for improving the production of the major fruit crops and fruit value chains in Sri Lanka and commercialization

- The South-South Cooperation of the People's Republic of China has agreed to provide technical assistance for a project implemented with the objective of increasing the production of fruits in Sri Lanka and enhancing the business activities to suit the local and export markets by promoting an effective agro-business sector. Under this project, it has been planned to raise the production, quality and effectiveness targeting fruits such as, banana, mango and pineapple, to enhance the value chains and to promote the Public-Private Partnership process to attract the interest of investments for fruit orchards and processing centres.

The value chain activities of banana will be carried out mainly based in the Districts of Monaragala and Kalutara, and the value chain activities of mango will be carried out based on the Districts of Anuradhapura and Kilinochchi and the same of Pineapple based on the Districts of Gampaha, Kurunegala and Monaragala. As such, the proposal made by Hon. Duminda Dissanayake, the Minister of Agriculture, to enter into a Tripartite Agreement among the Government of Sri Lanka, the Government of China and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for the implementation of the above project, which will be beneficial for the development of the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka, was approved by the Cabinet.