Sri Lanka's Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, Handunnetti, visited Japan and held the Sri Lanka Mineral Resources Seminar in Tokyo. He called for Japanese investment to promote domestic processing and the creation of higher value-added products, rather than simply exporting mineral resources.
JETRO held the Sri Lanka Mineral Resources Seminar in Tokyo on 14 October to coincide with the visit to Japan by Sri Lanka's Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, Handunnetti, with approximately 80 people attending. Government-related organizations and others introduced Sri Lanka's mineral resources, investment climate and potential for collaboration with Japanese companies.
Daito Michiro (大東道郎), Vice President of the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC), highlighted the importance of diversifying sources of supply, operating businesses with a high degree of transparency, and building relationships of trust with governments, companies and local communities to ensure a stable supply of mineral resources. He outlined a policy of supporting Japanese companies. In his keynote address, Minister Handunnetti explained the goal of increasing export value to $36 billion by 2030, and set out plans to process mineral resources domestically, create higher value-added products and develop global markets for them as advanced products.
As ways of encouraging investment by Japanese companies, the seminar cited participation in and consideration of joint ventures in areas including mineral processing and beneficiation, high-purity graphite and advanced materials, research and development and technology transfer, and testing and certification. The program concluded with company pitches by 10 Sri Lankan companies, which called on Japanese companies to work with them as trade partners and technology partners.