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New rules to protect fisheries sector from foreign domination
View(s):The Government has passed regulations to ensure that any entity engaged in the export, import and re-export of fish and fishery products has a majority Sri Lankan shareholding after observing a trend of foreign interest in the industry.
An amendment has been introduced to regulations first promulgated in 2017 to state that any establishment that intends to export, import or re-export fish or fishery products shall be a corporation, board or other body which was or is set up with funds or capital wholly or partly provided by the Government.
It could also be wholly owned by one or more persons who are citizens of Sri Lanka or “be wholly owned by any company, society or other association of persons, incorporated or established under any written law in which majority of the voting shares are held by citizens of Sri Lanka.”
The earlier regulation did not offer such protection to the domestic fisheries sector and only specified that any person engaged in export, import and re-export of any fish or fisheries products shall register with the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources for that purpose. It also referred to anyone who wanted to register an establishment for the same purpose without specifying that it needed majority Sri Lankan shareholding.
“We want to ensure protection to the domestic fishermen and fisher societies,” a Fisheries Ministry official said. “Earlier, it was possible to register a company with 10-15 Sri Lankan shares but now we would require at least 51 percent of equity to be held by a Sri Lankan.”
“This is because we observed a trend of foreigners seeking to invest in the fisheries and fisheries products sectors and if they came in a massive scale with large investments, domestic fishermen will lose their livelihoods,” he said.