By Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The promotion of a third country partnership, provided the production is based in Sri Lanka, is a new dimension under the third phase of the Sri Lanka -Norway Industrial Coorperation Programme funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Coorperation, said Inge Reithaug, Norwegian Business (NB) partner on Wednesday.

Speaking at a seminar titled " Opportunities for business collaboration between Norwegian and Sri Lankan companies", he said that the programme, which is also known as the ‘match making’ programme, started in 1994. The programme has already completed two of its phases and the third phase would continue upto December of next year. The programme will provide funding for commercial ventures, parties having sufficient equity and capital for risk taking and companies that focus on improving management resources for project development and implementation, Reithaug said.

The programme will further facilitate the transfer of Norwegian know-how, competence and technical skills, he added. It will also create job opportunities and the collaboration agreements could take the form of license agreements, joint ventures, industrial cooperations and similar technological co-operation arrangements, and in special circumstances, trading agreements for companies having a local manufacturing base, he added.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) is the national contact point in Sri Lanka for the programme. The CCC has appointed CCC Consulting Services (Pvt) Ltd., an arm of the CCC to market the programme in the regions besides Colombo through the regional chambers of commerce and industry.