Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-02-14

Implementation of a pilot project for the issuance of Electronic Phytosanitary Certificates

- The issuance of Phytosanitary Certificates which is an essential certificate for ensuring the quality of plants and plant materials exported by Sri Lanka, by the Plant Quarantine Unit of the Department of Agriculture of Sri Lanka is carried out in the print form. The International Plant Protection Convention of the United Nations has emphasized the necessity of issuing the Electronic Phytosanitary Certificates as a safe and efficient methodology of exchanging documents among countries. Accordingly, Sri Lanka has been selected for the pilot project to be implemented in the Asia Pacific Region to experiment on the programme of issuing Electronic Phytosanitary Certificates. In view of this programme, new commercial and marketing opportunities will be created for Sri Lanka with the enhancement of the efficiency and security of the exchange of plants and plant material at international level.

The Agriculture and Water Resources Department of Australia under the guidance of the International Plant Protection Convention of the United Nations will provide the sponsorship for the implementation of this pilot project. As such, the proposal made by Hon. Duminda Dissanayake, the Minister of Agriculture, and to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Department of Agriculture of Sri Lanka and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources of Australia to implement the pilot project, was approved by the Cabinet.