On September 25th, the Opening Ceremony of Seminar on Tropical Fruit Cultivation and Processing Technologies for Sri Lanka was held at the Ministry of Plantation Industries of Sri Lanka, Colombo. Mr. GU Gang, Vice Governor of Hainan Province, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Plantation Industries and Mr. Nalin Munasinghe, Assiatant FAO Representative for Sri Lanka, together with around 50 other participants, have attended and addressed the ceremony.

The seminar, which was co-organized by Foreign Affairs Office of Hainan Province (Hainan FAO) and Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS), will last 5 days from September 25th to 29th. 23 participants from 11 institutions will attend this training programme aiming to raise the level of commercialization of value chains of tropical fruits in Sri Lanka and enhance agricultural exchanges and cooperation between Sri Lankan institutions and Hainan Province.

Hainan Province enjoys close ties with Sri Lanka, establishing sisterhood relationship with the Southern Province and the Western Province in 2005 and 2018 successively. Over the years, Hainan Province has carried out fruitful exchanges and cooperation with Sri Lankan ministries and local governments in many fields especially the agricultural sector. CATAS have signed a number of memorandums of cooperation and letters of intent between Wayamba University, the Ministry of Plantation Industry of Sri Lanka and its affiliated Coconut Research Institute, and held 11 sessions of tropical agricultural technology training for Sri Lanka with nearly 100 trainees.

Hainan, located at the southernmost tip of China, is an island province with similar climatic conditions with Sri Lanka. Tropical high-efficiency agriculture is one of its pillar industries. Hainan is also China's largest special economic zone and is currently building the world's largest free trade port. This seminar will further boost agricultural exchanges between Hainan and Sri Lanka. Also it will enrich the friendship between the two countries.