E-services to small tea estate owners

Sandasen Marasinghe

Providing e-services to small tea estate owners who contribute immensely to bring foreign exchange to the country, is another among the other facilities that will be provided as promised by the government, Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said on Thursday.

He said small tea estate owners will be provided training on using e-services.

Minister Samarasinghe made this observation delivering the keynote address at a ceremony to introduce the mechanism to provide data to small tea estate owners through e-services yesterday. They have access to data of the services provided to them on line and by Short Message System (SMS).

The ceremony was held at the Tea Small Holdings Development Authority auditorium in Battaramulla. The minister said there are around 400,000 small tea estate owners. “Their contribution to the national tea production is 75 percent. They bring around US $ 15 million revenue to the country.”

He said these facilities are provided to enhance productivity. Plantation Industries Ministry Secretary Sudarma Karunaratne, Additional Secretary Vimal Jayawardena and ICTA chairman Wasantha Deshapriya were also present.