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by Channa Kasturisinghe

The European Commission's Asia Invest program will assist Sri Lanka to improve quality, productivity and business skills in the rubber and plastics sector and to establish links between European and Sri Lanka Companies.

The EC would assist the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ECCSL) and the Plastics and Rubber Institute (PRI) to carry out a project to promote the rubber and plastics sector. The project envisages as an important activity, the production of a databank of EU and Sri Lankan companies in the rubber and plastics sector that will facilitate the easy identification of potential business partners.

The EC's Asia Invest program would also assist the two institutions in educating and training industrialists on technical, logistics and communication aspects of quality concepts and standards including quality of raw materials, cost of quality and productivity.

The ECCSL and PRI have organised a workshop on "Quality Concepts and Standards of Rubber and Plastics Sector" on October 8 at the PRI's Auditorium.

The workshop will focus on the history of production and export of rubber and plastics from Sri Lanka, success stories and drawbacks related to quality, need for further growth, technical concepts of quality and avenues of quality improvement; procurement systems in European industry and communication and presentation issues.

The two institutions will also hold a seminar on `Quality of Rubber Processing' on October 10 at the same venue. The key areas to be discussed at the seminar will be quality as an entry point to the EU market, quality culture in Europe, outsourcing, competition, quality indicators as seen by the European Procurement offices, consumer protection, ISO and other standards, environment protection and social standards as a quality feature in export products, moulds and quality production and action for export performance.

The seminars will identify present strengths and weaknesses of Sri Lanka and lead to a number of recommendations for the improvement of the marketing set as well as quality assurance system.

Meanwhile, an eight-member trade delegation from the Netherlands and Hungary who met representatives of 25 Sri Lankan Companies recently expressed their interest in functional design products ie, rubber and plastic.

The meeting was organised by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Trade Promotion Office (SLTPO).

The buyers were also interested in health and beauty care products, natural organic health products and ayurvedic products, fashion garments and leather garments, coir carpets, textile fabrics, ceramics, gift items, furniture and coconut shell products.

One to one-business meetings were arranged by the EDB for the delegation with Sri Lankan exporters/manufacturers. One member of the delegation expressed his positive interest in coconut shell powder for polymer industries and has placed a trial order to start a joint venture.

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