Inter-ministerial National Research program

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

The Ministry of Technology and Research will launch the Inter-ministerial National Research program to coordinate the research done separately in ministries such as agriculture, industries, the plantation industry power and energy.

"Most of the research done in each of these ministries was hardly used to improve the relevant fields and were less productive on the national economy," a spokesman for the Technology and Research Ministry told the Sunday Observer. As an initial step, discussions were held between Technology and Research Minister Tissa Vitharana and Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe to enhance the research work by merging technical and human resources of the two ministries. At present research is being done on manufacturing value added products from rubber using nanotechnology by scientists at the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) and Rubber Research Institute. "The results of the research will be applicable to industries as under this new program scientists can take collective decisions," the spokesman said.

According to ministerial sources, SLINTEC scientists have already developed a technology to convert ilmenite into titanium dioxide that will add 250 times the value of raw ilmenite. By exporting mineral sand containing ilmenite Sri Lanka earns only US$ 8 million per annum at an average.

The titanium doxide we import for the paint industry costs US$ 12 million on average per year.