The Regional Institute of Cooperative Management (RICM), Chandigarh, in collaboration with Unati Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Society, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, organized the India–Sri Lanka Cooperative Dialogue on Trade and Capacity Building on Tuesday at the RICM campus.
The Dialogue was convened in the context of the visit of Dr. Shantha Jayarathne, Senior Consultant to the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development, Government of Sri Lanka, and Director, National Institute of Cooperative Development, Sri Lanka.
The Dialogue aimed to provide a focused platform for interaction and exchange on strengthening cooperative-to-cooperative collaboration between India and Sri Lanka, particularly in the areas of trade, institutional partnerships, and capacity building.
Welcoming the participants, Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Director, RICM, highlighted the deep historical, cultural, and institutional linkages between the cooperative movements of the two countries. He emphasized the need for structured engagement to translate shared cooperative values into practical and sustainable collaboration. In his address, Dr. Shantha Jayarathne shared insights into Sri Lanka’s cooperative ecosystem, policy perspectives, and emerging opportunities for bilateral cooperation.
Key discussion themes included the scope for cooperative-led trade in agriculture, value-added products, fisheries, and services; joint initiatives in training, leadership development, and exposure visits; and institutional collaboration between cooperative training and research institutions of both countries.
The Dialogue concluded with an agreement to identify two to three concrete collaboration pathways, explore pilot initiatives, and take forward institutional MoUs and exchange programmes.
