VIV Asia 2013

by Mohammed NAALIR

VIV Asia 2013 and Aquatic Asia 2013 Roadshow will be held in Colombo for the first time to boost cooperation in production methods and technology in livestock and aquaculture industry in Sri Lanka.

Exhibitions Director, Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), Sapuwan Teerarat said that Thailand's international exhibitions are effective platforms to explore the emerging opportunities in the region.

"VIV Asia 2013 has been selected as part of the the 'Better the Best' campaign, under our 'believe in Thailand' umbrella, for two consecutive years. We aim to raise the profile of Thailand's champion trade shows in the global arena by providing special support to the exhibitions in Thailand's key industries including VIV Asia 2013 for the livestock industry," he said.

Summarised data from the Ministry of Livestock and Rural Community Development reveals that nearly 30 percent of the total land area in Sri Lanka is agricultural land. 75 percent of this land is divided into around 1.8 million smallholdings and are solely devoted to crop production. The remainder has a mixture of crops and livestock and in some cases only livestock.

Agriculture sector contributes approximately 16.8 to the GDP and livestock sub-sector around 1.2 percent, according to the It is clear that there is room for development and promotion of the livestock industry in Sri Lanka. Moreover the upcoming ASEAN community and ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which will be fully operational in 2015, and the active role of Sri Lanka in BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectorial Technical and Economic Cooperation) are great opportunities in terms of the market size of 600 million people in AEC and more cooperation regarding livestock and aquaculture related technology transfer.

"Sri Lanka and Thailand need to work actively to strengthen their bilateral trade and investments, specially in livestock and aquaculture", Teerarat said.