Clarifying the Lanka Business Online (LBO) report which we published last week under the heading "Colombo Dockyard in talks with Croatian ship builders,’’ Mr. Mangala P.B. Yapa, Managing Director/CEO of Colombo Dockyard Limited (CDL) said that although CDL has had discussions with Croatian entities on possible cooperation in collaborating for designs and supply of raw material and technical support where feasible, these are specifically "project based."

He also confirmed that CDL has worked very closely with the Croatian design entity for meeting some of the company’s recent requirements.

However, Yapa who had been to Croatia recently, said CDL had no discussions whatever in setting up a ship building and/or a ship repair company either in Hambantota or elsewhere.

Yapa said that the idea of a possible collaboration between Croatia and Sri Lanka had been mooted by Sri Lanka’s mission in Vienna and CDL had reciprocated.

They were confident that there can be benefits to both countries in sharing ship building knowledge, training for Sri Lankans, procurement of raw materials and other technical support for the development of the ship building industry here where feasible.

"Croatia too may benefit by employing Sri Lankans as they are short of labour," Yapa said. "These discussions are still in a preliminary stage."

Yapa said that he happened to be at the Ministry of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion when the minister,Dr. Sarath Amunugama was briefing the media on possibilities of collaborating with Croatia in the ship building field.