JAPANESE DELEGATION VISITED SLCG HEADQUARTERS FOR A COURTESY CALL WITH DIRECTOR GENERAL OF SRI LANKA COAST GUARD AND HELD A MEETING ON ADVISORY SERVICE FOR IMPROVING OIL SPILL RESPONSE CAPABI

The Director General-Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) Rear Admiral Anura Ekanayake welcomed the delegation from the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) at the Coast Guard Headquarters, Mirissa on 30^th August 2022. Further, he appreciated the tremendous training assistance provided by Japan, especially on oil spill management which has given a remarkable boost to the capacity building of the SLCG.

The delegation from Japan was headed by Mr Koji Tsuchiya (Senior Advisor JICA) and he explained the purpose of their visit and expressed the possibilities for further improvement of the oil spill response capabilities of SLCG.

The JCG and JICA have commenced advisory service for improving oil spill response capabilities for SLCG under the project name of “Institutionalization support to establish an in-house Advanced Oil Spill Incident Management training program at Sri Lanka Coast Guard for disaster mitigation and marine environment protection from 2022 to 2025” in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed in February 2022.

Accordingly, a Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting was held between the visiting delegation and the SLCG in order to discuss the project progress as per the Plan of Operation (PO) and update the progress of the project according to the Project Design Matrix (PDM). The visiting delegation also visited the oil spill storage facilities available at the Coast Guard Southern Region, Sri Lanka Coast Guard Ship Samudraraksha and is scheduled to visit Coast Guard Advanced Training Centre in Kirinda, Sri Lanka Coast Guard Ship Samaraksha and the oil spill equipment storing yard at Dikovita prior to their departure on 02^nd September 2022.

The cordial meeting culminated with an exchange of mementoes.