Financial Times - Sri Lanka firm forms JV in Doha, signs pact with Biotech centre here

Serendib Horticulture Technologies, a top Sri Lankan company involved in horticulture and working on a similar project in Qatar, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Agricultural Biotechnology Centre of Sri Lanka’s University of Peradeniya.

The MOU between these two institutions is on developing training curricula with short-term courses and to initiate collaborative research work with Middle Eastern countries, with specific reference to the Qatar project, Serendib officials said. The agreement was signed at the university recently.

Serendib has already set up a joint venture named Serendib Horticulture Technologies (Middle-East) in Qatar with Sheikh Khalifa Bin Jabor Althani, Managing Director of Aljabor Co. He is one of the director's of Serendib Horticulture Technologies while the other director is Serendib Chairman/CEO Dilip de Silva. De Silva said the Ministry of Agriculture in Qatar has requested Serendib to look into their capacity building requirement, adding that it took him over two years to work out the modalities and the structure of the company before finally forming it. The company will be staffed and managed by Serendib Horticulture.

Serendib Horticulture which was awarded the Silver Medal in landscaping at an international exhibition held in Qatar, is now a well known organisation in the Middle East. “We were selected by the Qatar Ministry of Agriculture, out of many proposals submitted, to carry out a feasibility study on setting up a Regional Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Qatar which is a multi-million dollar investment,” De Silva said, noting that his team of professionals is hoping to start on the feasibility by the later part of the year.

Prof. Buddhi Marambe from the Peradeniya University, speaking at the signing of the MoU, said the Agri-biotech Center will join hands with Serendib Horticulture technologies to cater to a foreign market on Training and Research in Biotechnology.