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by Elmo Leonard

Sri Lankan Dharmatillake Ratnayake withdrew from an imminent contest for the presidency of the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) in favour of South African, Keith Pearson at the annual board meeting of the WPO held in Prague, Czech Republic, held recently.

Ratnayake, the Vice President of the WPO for the past three years and President of the Asian Packaging Federation (APF) was the runner all the way for the presidency of the WPO. But, the outgoing President Alexis Stassinopoulus had proposed the name of Keith Pearson, with the backing of some of the first world nations.

The APF, comprising by far the most populous region of the world, making up Australia, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Russia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam were to back Ratnayake. But, the rest of the world has a larger membership in the WPO. "I withdrew to avoid an embarrassing situation and was later thanked for it by many member nations," Ratnayake said.

The APF had decided to nominate Ratnayake as the Vice President of WPO for the next three years, which decision the WPO cannot reverse. Packaging is a vital marketing tool used very successfully, especially by developed nations to enhance the price of their consumer products and improve their economies. An Asian WPO president would have spelt the speedy improvement of the packaging industries in Asia and the Pacific.

Ratnayake, 64, a Bachelor of Science Degree holder is the most colourful packaging personality in the Asia Pacific region. He has held posts in the WPO, APF, presented many scientific papers at international packaging fora.

As President of the APF, in the past three years, he has been actively involved in improving the packaging industries in the Asia Pacific region, especially in South Asia.

Sri Lanka has by far the highest developed packaging industry in the SAARC region.

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