EU commends Switch Asia

Thursday, 8 December 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The SWITCH Asia programme for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Food and Beverage sector was commended by an expert panel at its bi-annual evaluation held recently.

The expert evaluation panel comprised of Harshini Halangode of the European Union, Senior Experts Sena Peiris (NCPC), Gamini Senanayake (GSA) and heads of partner organisations.

Commenting on the project and its achievements, Halangode said: “Within the three years of implementation a tremendous improvement in resource conservation is seen among the participant SMEs of this project. While congratulating the project team who have worked diligently to enable this positive output, undoubtedly the success stories will encourage other SMEs to come on board.”

“The team working on the SWITCH Asia programme is making great strides in what they do and their work should inspire others to adopt similar practices,” said Peiris, who now leads the 10th Asia Pacific Roundtable Consumption & Production.

He further noted that the technological outcomes that have been achieved are excellent and suggested that the team comes up with guidelines on best practices for the SMEs to follow.

Gamini Senanayake appreciated the team for having taken note of the suggestions made by the panel at previous evaluations.

SWITCH Asia food and beverage Programme was initiated by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka to enhance the environmental performance of Small and Medium Enterprises of the Food and Beverage.

This is a global consultancy programme sponsored by the European Union. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-India, IVAM-Netherlands, Industrial Services Bureau (ISB), Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) and Industrial Development Board (IDB) are the implementing partners.

The programme is currently in the end of its third year and has made significant contributions to improve resource efficiency in terms of saving Energy, Water and Material within the sector.

The SMEs that are part of the programme have received the ISO22000:2005 certification. They follow Sustainable Consumption and Production practices (SCPs) and have achieved considerable progress in resource conservation.