ADB to invest in skills development

Rita O’Sullivan

The Asian Development Bank will assist Sri Lanka in skills development with an investment of $ 300 m and will drive the human capital upgrading initiative of the government to enable a competent workforce, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Country Director Rita O’Sullivan said.

Skills development has become an extremely important aspect in economic progress as utilising the capacity and capabilities for the benefit of the country facilitates progress, she said at the ninth Annual General Meeting of the Spice Council in Colombo recently.

The spice industry is an evolving sector with many challenges. However, the prospects of the industry have not been fully exploited. “We need to work on the value chain integration as the industry has huge growth potential,” she said.

Deployment of modern technology is important to increase efficiency and the setting up of an investment fund to provide low cost financing is essential.

“We need to have a holistic approach to develop the spice industry and it is necessary to recognise the profession by improving living standards,” the ADB Country Director said.

The one billion dollar spice industry is expected to be a $ 5 b industry by 2020. - SJ