Indian High Commissioner visits Northern Province

India High Commissioner Ashok K. Kantha, on a three-day visit to the Northern Province from July 20 -22 ,2012, participated in various events held in Jaffna on July 20.

The High Commissioner attended the Plenary inaugural session of the Jaffna University International Research Conference (JUICE 2012), on 'Capacity Development in a Post War Context,' which was organized by the University of Jaffna.

In his address, the High Commissioner traced the evolution of India's development assistance to Sri Lanka from the period prior to the end of the armed conflict to the present and India's ongoing developmental projects in different sectors, such as transport infrastructure, housing, industry, health, education, culture, etc. He welcomed the scholars who had arrived from India to partake in the proceedings of the Conference, by sharing their knowledge and expertise in capacity-building in various disciplines.

The India-Sri Lanka Foundation established by a Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of India and Sri Lanka in 1998, in order to foster India - Sri Lanka relations through the enhancement of economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation and to promote greater understanding between the people of the two countries, is one of the Platinum Sponsors of JUICE-2012.

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and the High Commissioner of India jointly inaugurated the Palmyrah Research Institute in Kaithady, Jaffna. The government of India has provided vehicles for the Institute and has supplied laboratory equipment to the tune of SL Rs.70 million. The project will help to revive the Palmyrah industry in the Jaffna District with over 3.5 million Palmyrah trees. India's assistance will help in the expansion of research at the Institute, thereby improving the production and productivity in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and benefiting around sixty thousand families whose livelihood depended on Palmyrah, directly or indirectly. The Institute will also help the Palmyrah farmers and handicraftsmen to improve the quality of their produce and provide market access, thereby generating better returns to the farmers and handicraftsmen. The project will also generate self-employment opportunities in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

The High Commissioner along with the Economic Development Minister, also inspected the land earmarked for the Handicrafts Village in Kaithady, Jaffna. The Handicrafts village, when operational, would have 21 stalls and would generate1,000 man days of employment, directly and indirectly.

It would also provide a platform to bring together the handicraftsmen and potential buyers. It would result in better market access to handicrafts products, generating income opportunities for the artisans and help the local population in livelihood generation through utilization of locally available resources, especially the by-products of Coconut and Palmyrah for production of handicrafts. Later today, the High Commissioner would have meetings with the Council for Peace and Goodwill and Members of Parliament from TNA. In the next two days, the High Commissioner would also visit Nainativu, Delft Island, Keerimalai and Maviddapuram temples, according to a press release from the Indian High Commission.