Trade and Commerce Ministry is an implementing partner in Government’s Rubber Master Plan.
These training opportunities are provided as part of this "Master Plan”.
The team consisting of scientists, PhDs and Research and Development (R&D), will be taking flight tomorrow to pursue a hi-tech rubber industry training course at Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala, India – well known in South Asia for its courses in plastic and rubber technologies.
Ministry of Trade and Commerce is an implementing partner in Government’s Rubber Master Plan.
These training opportunities are provided as part of this Master Plan said Minister Bathiudeen and added: “The Ministry, with Sri Lanka Plastic and Rubber Research Institute contacted Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala, India which is well-known in South Asia for plastic and rubber technologies and received a positive response to its request. It has already started upgrading of skills in rubber manufacturing with latest technologies and sent two batches previously for international training but they were mostly for manufacturing operations training.”
“This is Sri Lanka’s first ever advanced rubber industry team to go abroad for Hi-Tech training in the sector” said Ananda Caldera Executive Director of Global Rubber Industries Ltd and Chairman of Rubber Advisory Committee of Ministry of Industry and Commerce. “Sri Lanka’s rubber products is the island’s premier value addition manufacturing sector and we are also the world’s largest supplier of solid tyres. The government is moving to make this sector a $3 Billion industry through its Rubber Industry Masterplan and members of this team will return to Sri Lanka with the latest tech know-how.”
“We are thankful to Industry and Commerce Ministry and Minister Bathiudeen for this initiative” said Dr Sisira Ranathunga, a General Manager of Elastomeric (a fully owned subsidiary of Stockholm listed HEXPOL A.B). “We are to be trained in advanced rubber concepts such as synthetic rubber blends, EPDM blending, Finite Element Analysing, nano-tech applications in rubber industry, UV projections, testing using latest equipment such as DMA, DSC and FTIR, and rubber transfer and injection moulding techniques” added PhD Ranathunga.
Minister Bathiudeen’s Ministry is in charge of 12 projects from the total 25 projects in Government’s Rubber Master Plan. In yet another initiative aimed at upgrading Lankan rubber manufacturing skills, the Ministry is now planning to sponsor another batch of students for the Graduate Program of Plastic and Rubber Institute of Sri Lanka at a Rs 3.7 million support fund quantum.
Locally harvested rubber is heavily used in domestic manufacturing in Sri Lanka– totalling to around $195 million of raw rubber annually.
