The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.

Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.

The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, to appoint Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, an officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service in the Special Grade who is currently serving as an Additional Director General of the Department of Management Services, to the post of Director General of the Department of Management Services with immediate effect.

At present, approximately 90% of the country’s sugar requirement is met through imports, resulting in a considerable expenditure of foreign exchange. Therefore, the necessity of obtaining international technological assistance for overcoming the loopholes and challenges existing in the local sugarcane
sector has been identified.

Taking that situation into consideration, the Ministry of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development of Sri Lanka, the Sugarcane Research Institute, and the National Science Foundation, together with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency and the Federal University of São Carlos, have planned to implement a project titled the “Sugarcane Project in Sri Lanka.”

Through the proposed project, it is expected to obtain the expertise and experience possessed by Brazil, as a global leader in sugarcane production, for the purposes of increasing sugarcane yield and sugar production in Sri Lanka, enhancing the technical capacity of stakeholders through training and
knowledge exchange, promoting value addition and the efficient utilization of by-products, and strengthening institutional capacity within the sugar production sector.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development to implement the proposed project over a period of 36 months under the framework of
the Technical Cooperation Agreement signed between the two countries in 2008.