Eighty fish landing centres to be developed
Shirley Wijesinghe
The Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ministry has officially launched
a project spending over Canadian $ 4.9 million to develop 80 fish
landing centres located in 15 coastal districts including the Northern
and Eastern Provinces.
The project is being executed by the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
Ministry and implemented jointly by the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
in association with the Ceylon Fishery Harbour Corporation (CFHC).
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Felix Perera said at the
launching ceremony of the CIDA-FAO funded project on ‘Restoration and
Improvement of Fishing Lading Centres with Stakeholder Participation’,
held recently at the CFHC that the project is also committing to build
capacity of the CFHC, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Department (FARD)
and to promote livelihoods among the small scale fishing community
particularly for the benefit of fishermen.
He said this is the most opportune time for us to extend the
rehabilitation of fish landing centres covering all 15 coastal districts
as we have liberated the whole country from terrorism.
There is considerable progress made towards development of the
fisheries sector in our country, through the Thotupala Aruna National
Development drive as part of the Mahinda Chintana program.
The fisheries sector had been strengthened by foreign donors towards
rehabilitation and restoration of harbours and anchorages, the Minister
said. |