Ministerial meeting to benefit fisherfolk

CHAMIKARA WEERASINGHE

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Ministry Secretary Dr Damitha De Soyza yesterday said that the 30th session of the Asian Regional Ministerial Meeting, which will be held in Sri Lanka on July 28 and 29, will bring special benefits to fisherfolk in the North and East. President Mahinda Rajapaksa will inaugurate the meeting and deliver the keynote address.

The session will be held at the Colombo Hilton with the participation of over 70 Fisheries Ministers and fisheries policy makers from 18 countries, including major fish producing nations, such as, Thailand, China and India.Sri Lanka hosts the meeting for the first time.

The Committee on Fisheries of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) approved Sri Lanka as the venue to hold the event at the request of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Rajitha Senaratne.

Ministry Secretary Damitha De Soyza said the meeting is held at a time the country is exploring technical cooperation and investment possibilities with key aquaculture nations to increase aquaculture production to ensure food security , nutrition and health of the nation in keeping with the Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dekma vision for the future.

"Inland fisheries and aquaculture development has been identified as a key area of fisheries development under the country's national plan for fisheries development which seeks to increase the domestic fish production by 80 percent in the next five years to meet the growth in demand for fish in the domestic sphere," Secretary Soyza said.

Meanwhile, Dr Senaratne said there is no need for the country to suffer from malnutrition when there is 200 000 hectares of inland waters to breed fish to provide protein requirement.

Secretary Soyza said the Ministry has been working towards this goal on the directions of Minister Senaratne with a focus on making a major shift from coastal fisheries to inland and deep sea fisheries in view of fish resources in coastal waters. The Ministry will double its inland fish production by the end 2013 from the present 51,000 metric tonnes to 90,000 metric tonnes.

"The conference will set a firm basis in terms of reaching our targets by way of technical co-operation to be established with regional fish advanced technological know-how in increasing fish production," she explained.

Meanwhile, Director General of FAO Dr Jacques Diouf has reportedly offered FAO's assistance to Sri Lanka to develop the fisheries and aquaculture sector in the Northern Province.