After agriculture self-sufficiency, strong need to develop industry
The NERD Centre (National Engineering Research and Development Centre) at Ekala , Ja-Ela resembled a ruined ancient city – a vast land devoted to industrial research and development perched on the Ekala Industrial Estate. Dr. T. A. G. Gunasekera, Chairman, NERD Centre made the above comment when he addressed the launch and the media briefing of the CNCI (The Ceylon National Chamber of Industries) Achiever Awards 2016 , as Chief Guest in Colombo this week.
He said that one of his friends told him that the vast land area of NERD appeared like an ancient ruined city. There were difficult times in this country and Sri Lanka has been improving its agriculture and in this exercise of improving agriculture, it appeared that the industrial sector seem to have got neglected, he mentioned. He noted that it is high time to develop industry as the country is self-sufficient in agriculture, indicating that the government has taken the wise decision of improving the industrial sector of the country.
Their organisation, NERD Centre, he pointed out is dedicated as an engineering centre undertaking many industrial activities towards supporting the industrial sector of this country, in addition to dealing with engineering research and development as a whole. Listening to previous speakers and going through the eligibility criteria for the Achievers’ Competition, Dr. Gunasekera said that the competition would pave the way to build strong industrialists in the country and the participation in the competition would become a learning process, whether the contestants win or not.
Ravi Jayawardene, CEO, Sales and Marketing, Maliban Biscuit Manufacturers (Pvt) Ltd, CNCI Crystal Award Winner 2015, asserting how they climbed the ladder to secure this highly prestigious award, said that in the process in participating in this competition over and over again and winning the ‘Gold’ in three consecutive years previously gave their industry the opportunity to improve all sectors of their organisation. Tissa Seneviratne, Chairman, CNCI said that the awards ceremony would be held on August 5 and noted that CNCI came into existence just after the independence of the country and now it has become the foremost facilitator of the industries in this country.