Korea-Sri Lanka 2014 Knowledge Sharing Programme concludes

The 2014 Knowledge Sharing Programme (KSP) with Sri Lanka of the Korean government came to an end through two events held in Colombo last week.
The delegation from Korea, which was headed by former Korean Minister for Policy Coordination Dae-Hee Yoon, has paid a visit to Colombo to have consultations with the highest-rank officials of the Sri Lankan government and convene a seminar in which they presented the main results of their consultancy work on the grand theme of ‘Enhancing Technology to Improve Export Competitiveness in Sri Lanka’. 

The Korean KSP team, which was composed of two consortium members – Centre for International Economic Studies (CIES) and Korea University (KU) – has conducted the KSP project for Sri Lanka for the past four years (2011-2014) and has come up with a number of meaningful and hands-on recommendations that can enhance the country’s international competitiveness. 

Professor Sunghoon Park of Korea University, who has led the research team as the Project Manager, picked up “attracting Joint-Venture FDIs, bringing the automotive components industry of Sri Lanka into global value chains (GVC) and effectively utilizing the Technology Business Incubator (TBI)” as the most immediate and important policy tasks for securing the sustainable development of Sri Lanka.  The highlight of Korean KSP team’s activities was the courtesy visit to President Maithripala Sirisena. President Sirisena received the Korean delegation for half an hour, appreciated the long-lasting policy consultancy provided by the Korean government and instructed Finance Minister R. Karunanayake to discuss the future agenda with regards to the KSP and other cooperation programmes for the coming years. Republic of Korea Ambassador Won-sam Chang, who accompanied the delegation, reiterated the Korean government’s strong will to provide continuous support, thereby contributing to the upgrading of Sri Lanka’s development capacities.
 
The KSP was initiated in 2004 in order to share Korea’s experiences of economic development with developing countries. 
The Korean government provides this type of technical assistance to nearly 30 countries every year. The KSP projects with Sri Lanka was started in 2011 and continued for the past four consecutive years, focusing on trade and investment promotion, industrial upgrading and technological advancement, etc. Former Minister Yoon, the delegation head, evaluated the activities of the Korean delegation as “most successful and meaningful” and reaffirmed his strong dedication to “working closely and effectively with the Sri Lankan government.”