Addressing the team leaving for Kerala on Thursday (22nd Sept.) at the ministry premises, the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishard Bathiudeen said that his Ministry was an implementing partner in Government’s Rubber Master Plan and these training opportunities were provided as a part of it.

According to him, though Sri Lanka use locally made raw rubber heavily for industries, there was also a growing problem of lack of skilled technical knowledge in the rubber manufacturing sector. “Realising the need to address this issue my ministry, with Sri Lanka Plastic and Rubber Research Institute contacted Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala, India which is well-known in South Asia for plastic and rubber technologies and received a positive response to our request.”

Ministry of Industry and Commerce is contributing almost Rs 1.5 million as part of the Cochin training costs.

Locally harvested rubber is heavily used in domestic manufacturing in Sri Lanka– totalling to around USD 195 million of raw rubber annually.