The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the aid division of the Korean Embassy, will provide a $ 6 million grant to enhance the export competitiveness of Sri Lankan agricultural products by improving plant quarantine capacity.
The agreement between the two countries for the project was signed by Country Director of KOICA Sri Lanka Office, Lee Dong Ku, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, K.D.S. Ruwanchandra and Director General of the Department of External Resources Priyantha Rathnayake at the Ministry of Agriculture recently.
Country Director of KOICA Sri Lanka Office, Dong Ku said that as export of agricultural products plays a significant role in the gross export income to Sri Lanka, KOICA has decided to strengthen the agricultural sector by providing this grant.
The main outputs of this project will be strengthening the plant quarantine capacity, supporting value chain development for agricultural export and expansion of Sri Lanka Good Agricultural Practice (SL-GAP), setting up of a Plant Quarantine Information Management System. The agriculture sector provides employment to nearly 25 percent of the workforce and forms the resource base for agro-based industries and agro-services and stimulates the economic growth through vertical and horizontal integration with other sectors in the economy.
