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Lanka sails fast to meet EU’s fishing deadline
View(s):Sri Lanka is going all out to meet 57 conditions set by the European Union for the lifting of the ban on fish exports, a senior Fisheries Department official said yesterday.
Fisheries Director General Christy Fernando said Sri Lanka had already fulfilled 36 conditions and was confident of meeting the rest before the deadline next month. Fisheries Director General Christy Fernando said Sri Lanka had already fulfilled 36 conditions and was confident of meeting the rest before the deadline next month.
He said the main tasks left were completing the installation of the Vessel Monitoring System and installing a system communications with the fishing vessels. Mr. Fernando said more than half of the 1,600 high-sea going vessels had been installed with vessel monitoring systems and the rest were being fitted.
The Department had sought permission from the Defence Ministry and the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRC) for the installation of the Communication system. The EU had imposed a ban on fish exports in January this year.
Before the ban, Sri Lanka earned more than US dollars 100 million or Rs. 14 billion a year from fish exports to the EU countries.