A ministerial delegation comprising Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Agriculture Duminda Dissanayake and Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama are currently visiting Thailand for bilateral discussions on developing Sri Lanka’s fishery industry. The ministerial delegation, visiting Thailand on an invitation extended by the Thailand Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, have participated in bilateral talks with regard to fisheries, trade, industry, tourism and agriculture and entered in to several bilateral agreements. Commencing bilateral talks yesterday, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera noted that Sri Lanka and Thailand share decades-long friendly relations since establishing diplomatic relations in 1955. The Minister said Thailand has been successful in the fisheries industry and particularly, the recent economic development achieved by Thailand is a classic example to the countries like Sri Lanka. It has placed a high priority in fisheries resources management including the fish resource in their attempts to raise national income levels, the Minister noted. “Every state of the world at present has focused on food security and therefore the exported fish and aquatic products are considered to be important by every nation. We have decided to raise the annual fish consumption of Sri Lankans up to the level of 22 Kg in order to increase the nutrition level of the citizens,” the Minister said. Pointing out that Sri Lankan fish and aquatic exports enjoy a high demand in the global market, the Minister said Sri Lanka has set a long term objective to increase fish exports income to USD 1.3 billion by 2020 and further improve it to USD 5 billion by 2030. “We are still incapable of satisfying the existing high demand of fish exports. Thus we believe that as a result of the measures taken by the government, fish production will be raised by 100 percent by the year 2020,” he said. Minister Amaraweera highlighted that Sri Lanka encounters numerous challenges in promoting its marine fish resources. “Competitiveness and the disputes likely to occur between the various parties in the harvesting of fish resource is the major challenge we are encountered with due to the constraint in marine resources,” he said. “Similarly, some parties deploy illegal fishing methods. Therefore, we should give a guarantee to the international community that we sustainably conserve and manage fisheries resources. This is requisite especially in the deep sea fishing,” he added. “We achieved a lot by taking part in the discussions and sharing experience during the past two days. Thailand’s support to the development of Sri Lankan fisheries is genuinely appreciable.” Development of finfish species such as Grouper, Cobia and Pangasius, implementation of expedite aquatic resources development schemes, marine fish farming, ornamental fish farming, mariculture farming, fish culture in paddy fields, farming of vannamei prawn species, sea weed food items and popularizing them among the public shall be promoted. “Sri Lankan government has focused on these aspects and taken measures to raise the awareness of the public. Fish farming in the Sri Lankan context is a deviated process to a certain extent. Sri Lankans still adopt a conventional attitude towards fish farming. Thus, Sri Lankans have not still identified the importance of fish farming which is capable of earning huge economic benefits. We believe, in future more and more people will be engaged in this industry and the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development are taking actions to develop this industry to the satisfaction future needs,” Minister Amaraweera said.