Japanese Ambassador MIZUKOSHI Reaffirms His Commitment to Assist the Economically and Socially Underprivileged Communities during His Visit to Nuwara Eliya District
2022/11/11
Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, H. E. MIUZUKOSHI Hideaki visited Nuwara Eliya District from 1st to 4th November.
In their visit to Nuwara Eliya District, H. E. Ambassador and Mrs. MIZUKOSHI attended the handover ceremony of the water purification system in Strathspey Estate, Minna Division, where most of around 770 inhabitants work at tea plantations. As 40% of the tea plantation workers there do not have access to purified water, this water purification system would improve the hygiene and health of the local communities.
Ambassador MIZUKOSHI also interacted with the tea plantation workers living in Ragala Watta while distributing the emergency food package as a part of the 3.5 million USD of assistance provided in collaboration with WFP. Ambassador MIZUKOSHI had the opportunity to get first hand information about their challenging conditions and how severely the current economic crisis hit people’s lives in the region, where the majority of them are hill country Tamils.
In order to uplift the livelihood of the local communities, Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) provides various vocational trainings for 250-300 youth every year at Thonderman Vocational Training Centre. Ambassador MIZUKOSHI visited the centre and exchanged views with Hon. Sensil Thonderman, Hon. MP Jeevan Thonderman, Hon. MP Rameshawran and other members of CWC as well as the representatives of the training centre on the importance of the vocational trainings for the youth in the uphill region. Ambassador highly appreciated the centre’s initiatives to teach Japanese language and various technical skills at the centre.
Ambassador also exchanged views with Hon. MP Radhakrishnan of Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) on the history, current situation and challenges of the hill country Tamils in the region. Hon. Radhakrishnan explained the potential ways that would sustainably develop this area, maintaining the beauty and the culture of the tea plantation region.
During the visit of Kelani Valley Plantations, Ambassador met Dr. Roshan Rajadurai, Managing Director of Hayleys Platations, and other representatives of the group companies. Through the visit, Ambassador learned how the company adopts the innovative system such as maternity and child care for their workers and the “revenue sharing model” which gives incentives to the tea plantation workers so that they can feel inclusiveness and being part of the company, which would eventually increases their productivity and satisfaction.
As a long-standing partner of Sri Lanka, Japan has been supporting Sri Lanka’s sustainable economic development and social cohesion so that any member or community of the society is not left behind. In this year itself, Japan has so far provided approximately 45 million USD in total as grant aid under immediate, mid- and long-term assistances, addressing the urgent needs while enhancing capacity and potentiality of the people of Sri Lanka for further growth.
Japan is committed to continue to support the people of Sri Lanka across the country including the communities of minorities, bearing in mind the importance of assisting the economically and socially underprivileged people.
Japan is committed to continue to support the people of Sri Lanka across the country including the communities of minorities, bearing in mind the importance of assisting the economically and socially underprivileged people.