Consul General for Sri Lanka to Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania Sandith Samarasinghe presented Sri Lanka's roadmap for a Green Sri Lanka, as part of the recently concluded seminar, "Sri Lanka: The Rise of a Thriving Nation", organized by The Brisbane Club and the Sri Lanka and Australia Chamber of Commerce on 28 April 2023.
Consul General Samarasinghe was invited by the organizers to be an expert panelist at the seminar, which focused on investment opportunities in Sri Lanka. In particular, it looked at the prospects arising from the Port City Sri Lanka, and from Sri Lanka's innovative climate change policies, geared towards achieving climate prosperity for Sri Lanka through sustainable growth, development and education.
The seminar was attended by members of the Brisbane Club, including CEOs of high end companies, leading businesspeople, and philanthropists, all of whom were very interested in the opportunities available in Sri Lanka.
Consul General Samarasinghe, who is also one of the key drafters of the preliminary report of the Sri Lanka Climate Prosperity Plan, presented participants with the highlights of the CPP, updates on its progress, and three of the flagship projects under the Plan.
Speaking on the roadmap set out in the CPP, the Consul General highlighted the objectives of the CPP, including unlocking domestic energy abundance through renewables, modernization and sustainable transport; financially engineering a climate secure transformation; galvanizing climate protection against key risks.
He also highlighted the simulated models of the CPP, which highlighted how scenarios driven by CPP policies showed much higher return and more positive impacts than two other models, the Business-As-Usual model and the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) model (which projects how the country would develop if its Paris Agreement NDC targets are met).
Speaking on the investment opportunities under the CPP, Consul General noted that there were over 110 projects earmarked, with 68 transition projects and 47 resilience projects. He also presented in greater detail, three flagship projects which characterized the overall priorities and end ambitions in implementing the CPP.
Firstly, he presented on the Sri Lanka Offshore Wind Array, an offshore wind mega project aimed at harnessing the wind resources in the ocean area between Jaffna and Puttalan. The project is planned to go through 2023 until 2030, with an estimated level of investment of USD 16 billion over eight years. The overall objective of this project is to finance maximized renewable energy and grid modernization potential and connectivity.
The second project he presented was the Sri Lanka University for Climate Resilience, aimed as a hub for tertiary education focusing on capacity building and knowledge around climate change and job skilling. The project timeline will be from 2023 to 2035 with an estimated level of investment of USD 11.25 million over 12 years.
The final project was the solar powered community agriculture project in Anuradhapura, a project which has the potential to be a case study in developing climate-smart agriculture, as well as sustainable land and water management practices. The project would cover 15,000 farmers in the district, and would aim to transform farming practices through the deployment of solar powered irrigation systems.
In conclusion, Consul General. Samarasinghe set out the proposed timeline of the next steps, including the publication of the final CPP including detailed project proposals and financing analysis, and its implementation, including identifying funding, developing investor packages, and designing and deploying a resource mobilization campaign.
Consulate General of Sri Lanka
Melbourne
10 May 2023
