With no restrictions on movement:

Vast fishing grounds at our disposal - Minister Senaratne

By P. Krishnasamy

The proposals initiated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he was one time Fisheries Minister, calling upon the UN for a greater oceanic region for Sri Lanka have now borne fruit and the island-nation will now get a sea-bed area, 23 times its land area, with its fertile aquatic resources, rich minerals and hydrocarbon, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister, Rajitha Senaratne told the Sunday Observer. The proposals have been almost agreed upon and we will have plenty of fish and other new economic resources, he said.

In the same manner as President Rajapaksa liberated the country from terrorism, many of his initiatives for the country's economic welfare have now begun to bear fruit, Minister Senaratne said.

Outlining his far-reaching proposals and the available resources to restructure the country's fisheries industry he highlighted the well-formulated and well-studied plans to increase fish produce on par with other fish-producing nations in the region, especially Thailand. He also referred to the biggest fisheries harbour in the Asian region being constructed at Dikkowita, in the Gampaha district, the biggest and most up-to-date modern fish market to be completed soon in Peliyagoda, the proposal to set up a fish canning factory with foreign collaboration and strengthening the impoverished fishing community socially and economically in the North, the East and the South.

"According to the 'Miracle of Asia' program we have to achieve a per capita income of US $ 4000 from the present US $ 2005 , the growth rate being 10 percent. To achieve this we have to improve both the fisheries and agricultural sectors. We have to target these two sectors for high growth," Minister Senaratne said. The total fishing community of 2.5 million is 25 percent of the population of the country, he said.

Thailand is another Theravadha Buddhist country in the region with a 437,767 sq.meter oceanic zone while we have almost 100,000 sq.meters more than that of Thailand. But their fish produce is ten times more than ours. Our fish harvest is only 472 kg per sq.meter whereas theirs is 5600 kgs per sq.meter. A Thai fisherman produces 7.39 metric tons a year as against the 1.73 metric tons of our fisherman. It is clear, therefore, that we are very much backward in the fishing sector, the Minister said.

To address the problem of malnutrition among our children which invariably results from protein deficiency, the fisheries sector - both coastal and inland fishing- has to be strengthened and the production has to be increased to the maximum level, he said.

"As a medical personnel I am delighted to see that I have an opportunity to address the problem and I am in an advantageous position because the entire sea area is available to me today unlike in the many years of the protracted war with restrictions on fishing in many areas of the North and East", Minister Senaratne said. The fishermen then could only use 15 horse-power boats but today the horse-power of boats are not limited. Although there are about 200,000 multi-day boats only 500 have the capacity to reach the international waters, he said.

"We are spending Rs.15 billion per year on import of canned fish. President Mahinda Rajapaksa informed me of his discussions with the Maldivian President in Thimpu during the recent SAARC summit at which the latter told him of the ideal condition of three canned fish factories in his country, two of them not functioning and one is only producing half of its capacity. The Maldivian President had expressed his willingness to process and supply canned fish at a comparatively much lower price if we can despatch our fish produce to them", he said. He was planning to meet the Maldivian President soon to finalise arrangements on it, he said.

The Minister said that he will ensure before long that adequate quantities of tuna, other varieties of fish and fresh water fish are supplied to the markets, both in the urban and rural areas at a lower price. He will also resurrect President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Diyawara Gammana and Diyawara Niwasa projects. He will assign his Deputy Minister Susantha Punchi Nilame who is from Trincomalee to be in charge of a separate unit in his ministry to address all problems being encountered by the Northern and Eastern fishermen, including their housing problem and education of their children, he said. "I have already held discussions with Chairman of the Bank of Ceylon on procuring a loan for manufacturing high-powered fishing trawlers and he has agreed to extend a loan of Rs.1 billion initially", he said. He said that he wants to introduce the latest Refrigerator Sea Water (RSW) system for preserving the fish catch before they reach the shores. Measures are also being initiated to increase the produce of dryfish, half of which we import at a very high cost.

The Ministry will subsidise dryfish production and will give all incentives for boosting inland fishing, the Minister said.

He will have prices of fish regulated through the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation in an effort to make fish an affordable commodity for the ordinary people, the Minister said, adding that he will also have a proper transportation and distribution network for marketing fish produce in all parts of the country. Coolroom facilities will be provided in all parts of the country to preserve fish and to stabilise fish prices. Presently the high cost of electricity is one major problem with regard to setting up coolrooms but this would be resolved once the Kerawalapitiya thermal power, the Upper Kotmale Hydro Power and the Norochcholai coal power projects come into operation in 2011, the Minister said.