"Till now the war sapped our energy. That problem is now behind us. Value addition of our products is part of the President’s ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’ programme. Other countries have got ahead of us. We should have been in that league. However rather than hark back to those dark days that prevented our rightful place in the global sphere of competitive expertise it is now not too late to be in on that international platform for technological competition to add value to our products," Minister Professor Tissa Vitharna said at a press conference yesterday.

The conference was called by the National Science Foundation. "Basics for priority placing for Nanotechnology was that we have been left far behind in value addition in practically every aspect of our exports. For instance Rubber. Till quite recently we exported rubber in its raw form and we bought back finished products from other countries who used rubber exported by us to manufacture value added products which we bought. President Mahinda Rajapaksa through Cabinet paper on the National Nanotechnology Initiative, of August 2006 initiated to cement its importance and initiate moves and have such importance to move into level five in relevance and importance." Professor Vitharna said.

The Cabinet also approved that NANCO be established as an adjunct organisation with BOI status. NANCO will be based on an approximately 60 acre tract of land in Homagama in a Nanoscience Park with buildings, and equipment for research and development.

The Minister also said that a country like South Korea was far ahead of us in technology and development. We now have to reach those levels as quickly as possible. Nanotechnology will get us to those levels as quickly as possible.

Chairperson National Science Foundation, Professor Srimali Fernando said this was a move in the right direction and augers well for technological progress and international competitiveness in value addition of our products.

Director, Small and Medium Enterprise Developers (SMED) Renuka Rodrigo posed the rhetorical question, ‘What next’? She said it was time there were distinct moves that technology be expanded to rural environments where talent was available to absorb and dispense such expertise.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Technology, (SLINTEC) was represented by Professor Veranjan Karunaratne, Professor, Ajith de Alwis, and CEO Ravi Fernando.