Korea shares knowledge with Sri Lanka

The Final Reporting Workshop of Korea's Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) with Sri Lanka was held at the Times Building, Colombo, recently.

Korean Ambassador Jongmoon Choi.

The workshop focused on industrial policy framework, prioritising the strategic sectors for export promotion, promoting exports of SMEs, a new strategy on FDI and skills development to meet emerging human resource needs.

Senior Advisor for KSP Sri Lanka, Dr. Haksoo Kim, former Executive Secretary, UNESCAP, Dr. D.M.S. Batagoda, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Korean Ambassador Jongmoon Choi and government officials from relevant ministries and District Secretariats from across the country were present. The Knowledge Sharing Program was initiated by the Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) in 2004 to share Korea's experiences and know-how on development with partner countries.

This technical assistance program draws from Korea's policy-making experiences and provides government officials policy research findings, recommendations and training activities on specific issues relevant to the Development Partner Country.

In Sri Lanka, KSP works in areas of knowledge-based economy, economic development strategy, human resources development, industrialisation and export promotion.

Korean Ambassador Jongmoon Choi, said that the Sri Lankan economy showed resilience and adjusted reasonably well to the diverse challenges that it faced last year and added that he has every reason to believe that Sri Lanka will be the next break out nation. The final report of the Knowledge Sharing Program was compiled after several rounds of exchanges and interactions between the Sri Lankan and Korean sides, which resulted in the report reflecting the ground realities.

After holding these events, CIES and the Sri Lankan authorities determined new topics for the 2012 KSP with Sri Lanka.

A number of presentations at the event highlighted the policy changes suggested by the researchers on various areas such as industrial policy, export promotion and Foreign Direct Investment.