Projects
PROJECT INVENTORY: FOCUS AND STATUS
The projects listed below are those which SL-JCP’S Board of Directors have decided as viable for implementation in Phase 1 (2020 – 2023). Please go into the hyperlink indicated under each project for detailed project description.
SL-JCP Project Code
19-01 (GSM-E3W)
Project Title
(Project Proponent/ Owner)
GREEN AND SMART MOBILITY
(T-Plan Inc , Vega Ltd)
Director(s) in-charge
(Former J-SLIP/new project)*
Mizobe,Takeuchi (J-SLIP)
Project Focus and Current Status
(as of 30 June 2020)
FOCUS:
The project has targeted the ubiquitous 3-wheel vehicle as its entry point into transforming this rapidly growing transport mode in Sri Lanka (Over 1.2 million registered vehicles) into an environmentally friendly and safe one which relieves traffic congestion and can accommodate a range of hitherto inconceivable electronic services. The aim is to manufacture this vehicle in Sri Lanka at Japanese production quality levels and develop advanced ICT-enabled services locally, which could then be scaled-up and replicated in other developing and emerging economies. The project proponents/owners are a Japanese engineering company and a Sri Lankan counterpart company.
STATUS:
Alpha- and Beta prototypes of the vehicle have been designed and road-tested in Sri Lanka and Japan; Supply chain inputs for local production inputs from Sri Lanka are ready; A training and HR system is ready; Production plans have been formulated; The production site is tbd; Production was expected to commence in Sri Lanka in 2021, but has been delayed ;due to the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Project proponents/owners have established a company, legally incorporated in Sri Lanka, to implement project; The company also functions as a modality for mobilizing Foreign Technology Investment (FTI) into Sri Lanka.
Projects
SL-JCP Project Code
19-02
(AA-Med/ i-Geron)
Project Title
(Project Proponent/ Owner)
ADVANCED AGRO-MEDICAL HUB & INTERNATIONAL GERONTOLOGY INITIATIVE
(Softlogic Holdings Ltd, Pan-Nippon Development Ltd)
Director(s) in-charge
(Former J-SLIP/new project)*
Cassim, Yamaguchi (J-SLIP)
Project Focus and Current Status
(as of 30 June 2020)
FOCUS:
The project focuses on strengthening climate resilience of and creating new value-addition to agriculture by linking it with a health initiative on the same project site. The latter focuses on extending Sri Lanka’s longevity at birth (now roughly the same as the U.S.) into healthy longevity, thereby becoming a world-renown centre for gerotological care. Synergies between the agricultural and health initiatives are anticipated, as are breakthrough disruptive innovations in these two sectors. Location and sectoral focus are as envisaged in the Greater Kandy Urban Plan (GKUP) document (JICA, 2018) and can be traced back to G-to-G JCP inputs (between 2016-2018) when the plan was being formulated. The project proponents/owners are two respected Sri Lankan private sector entities who have combined their strengths to take this project for the public good, to be implemented with a speed characteristic of private business.
STATUS:
This initiative is in a locality and in sectors identified for future growth in the GKUP; Land has been identified and secured as per GKUP guidelines for location; Dialogue on implementation is under way with project proponents/ owners. A project proposal document, rough cost estimates upon completion and business plan drafts have been formulated. Discussion with over 20 Japanese technology-intensive SMEs who have expressed commitment to the project has commenced. Similar conversations have been held with university partners in Japan to organize the R&D inputs into keeping the projects at the cutting edge of science and technology innovation (STI). A planned investment mobilizing seminar in Japan (for 31 May to 1-June 2020) has had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SL-JCP Project Code
19-03
(BHN)
Project Title
(Project Proponent/ Owner)
TELE-COMMUNITY CREATION FOR BETTERMENT OF RURAL LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS
(BHN Japan)
Director(s) in-charge
(Former J-SLIP/new project)*
Gunatilake, Takeuchi (J-SLIP)
Project Focus and Current Status
(as of 30 June 2020)
FOCUS:
This project looks at strengthening village communities in Sri Lanka’s central hills, where the increasing incidence of extreme weather events has resulted in large losses of lives and livelihoods due to landslides and flood. The project proponent, Basic Human Needs (BHN), is a Japanese not-for-profit entity, whose aim in this project is to design, develop and deploy a robust, disaster-resilient telecommunications system, which would also become the “last mile” connection to the national telecom infrastructure for disadvantaged rural communities to be linked to the global information highway. In addition to enhanced disaster resilience, this would also provide to such communities a variety of services (in education, health, etc) that would enhance the quality of daily rural life. A pilot rural community has been selected for implementation in the vulnerable hilly rural hinterland around the historic capital, Kandy, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
STATUS:
Building on the work done in Sri Lanka by an entry-level Asia-Pacific Tele-Community grant (APT-CAT 1, 2017) for deploying a robust integrated sensor network, this project has obtained funding at the next level (APT-CAT 2, 2019) to integrate the sensor network with a disaster resilient distributed area communication network . Land for the pilot project site has been secured, the target community identified, affiliation with premier national university research institutions consolidated and the principal project counterpart in Sri Lanka selected. The design of a sensor integration system to respond in times of disaster and to improve services related to rural lives and livelihoods has been completed. A “training-of-trainers” programme has also been designed. Following surveys in Sri Lanka in 2019, implementation in the target community was to commence in 2020 but has had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The status of project finance under APT-CAT 1 in unclear following the pandemic and needs to be clarified.
SL-JCP Project Code
19-04
(Self-Tec)
Project Title
(Project Proponent/ Owner)
TECHNICAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FOR SELF- ENTREPRISE
(SL-JCP & Partner tbc)
Director(s) in-charge
(Former J-SLIP/new project)*
Yabuta, Sugie, Takeuchi (NEW)
Project Focus and Current Status
(as of 30 June 2020)
FOCUS:
Sri Lanka has one of the lowest levels of self-entrepreneurship in Asia, and a high concentration of employment in the nation’s public service. This project targets the latter category. Among them is a group who have served in the Tri-Forces (Army, Navy and Airforce), entering the Forces in their late teens and honourably discharged following requests for early retirement after 22 years of service. This group often finds difficulty in securing gainful employment in civilian life that is commiserate to their skills and capabilities. The first phase (2021-2023) of the project targets this cohort who, following training induction for overseas employment, will take advantage of a recent revision of Japan’s overseas labour recruitment law to allow those with technical skills to be employed in Japan on a cyclical fixed-term basis. Following such a stint of employment in Japan, the project anticipates creating a self-entrepreneurship fund for the returnees which will match their foreign exchange savings during employment in Japan if used to set up new enterprises or be part of an existing technical enterprise upon return to Sri Lanka. In a similar vein, a second group targeted in this first phase are youth from impoverished households who have the potential to go into further education but without the financial means to do so. They would form a younger cohort in their late teens, who together with the cohort of discharged military personnel, likely to be in their early forties, could form teams that could alleviate the shortage of technically skilled workforce in local communities in Japan. In addition, success of this project would broaden the people-to-people exchanges among the ordinary citizens of the two countries, further strengthening the strong ties that currently bind Sri Lanka and Japan.
STATUS:
Discussions were initiated in late 2018 with the State Ministry of Defence, GoSL, with respect to the cyclical dispatch of discharged military personnel and a favourable response was received. The parliamentary hiatus of mid-October 2018 in Sri Lanka stalled further development of this project. However, with stability of governance returning it is perhaps timely for SL-JCP to resurrect this initiative. Similarly, discussions with a private sector initiative, targeting high school graduates from impoverished communities in Sri Lanka, have also been held. This too needs to be pursued to enable the dispatch of inter-generational technical workforce teams to local communities in Japan. Preliminary discussions with possible host communities in in Japan have been initiated recently in collaboration with the International Development Center of Japan (IDCJ), the difficulties of COVID-19 notwithstanding. Here too the project concept has been favourably received and is currently being refined for early implementation as well as for future scalability and replicability.
SL-JCP Project Code
19-05
(IO-CDC)
Project Title
(Project Proponent/ Owner)
INDIAN OCEAN CENTRE FOR DISEASE CONTROL
(SL-JCP & Partner tbc)
Director(s) in-charge
(Former J-SLIP/new project)*
Yabuta, Cassim (NEW)
Project Focus and Current Status
(as of 30 June 2020)
FOCUS:
CoViD-19 (the disease) and the SARS-CoV2 (the virus) have brought to us a “new normal”. Sri Lanka is an under-appreciated example of the latter. This is evident in the pandemic death count per million population, where the nation’s performance was second only to Taiwan, despite its very much smaller per capita GDP, until October 2020. Following this date, however, COVID-19 incidence and mortality have increased dramatically. The initial success was achieved by a combination of several factors, which this project highlights, but the underlying reasons for the decline in performance since November 2020 needs closer analysis. The significance of the project lies in that it is a model of great relevance to developing and emerging economies and the project argues for this to be more rigourously studied and the findings shared through international institutions like the WHO, backed by strong advocacy for this from Japan. As a focal point for this global health advocacy, the project proposes the establishment of a Centre for Disease Control in Sri Lanka to serve the vast emerging region in the Indian Ocean. Noting that there is no such transnational institution between East Asia and Europe in this vast oceanic belt, the project proposes the establishment of one that has both land-based and oceanic service launch capabilities, in partnership with Japan and other Indian Ocean nations.
STATUS:
The project concept document is being developed currently by a SL-JCP team in conjunction with a group of technology-intensive companies and international university research partnerships. While this is seen as a long-term project which will straddle the three phases of SL-JCP’s first decade, two other related projects listed below (Project Code: 19-06 and 19-07) are most likely to be implemented in Phase 1 (2021-2023)
SL-JCP Project Code
19-06
(STeP-Care)
Project Title
(Project Proponent/ Owner)
SANITIZATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR PREVENTIVE HEALTHCARE
Director(s) in-charge
(Former J-SLIP/new project)*
Alawdeen, Gunatilake
Project Focus and Current Status
(as of 30 June 2020)
FOCUS:
SL-JCP has been engaged with a technology-intensive Japanese company which holds the IP license for a non-alcoholic sanitizer, stable Sodium Hypochlorite, which has proved to be effective in sanitizing both surfaces and the air in environments likely to be contaminated by the SARS-CoV2 virus. Its effectiveness is validated by being the only non-alcoholic sanitizer with US-CDC approval and by its use at different concentrations for a range of situations by Japan’s leading business corporations and public sector organizations. The project proposes that Sri Lanka becomes an international distribution hub for this sanitizer, coupling it with the preventive health initiatives and clinical trials which have contributed greatly to the containment of CoViD-19 pandemic in the country.
STATUS:
SL-JCP has been given the distribution rights in South and Southwest Asia for the product because the company’s founder does not want its distribution to become a private monopoly but must serve the global public with a broader mandate. Recognizing this, SL-JCP has identified two private sector institutions in Sri Lanka in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors who will understand this requirement and informal negotiations have begun. An MoU between the license-holder and SL-JCP is currently being prepared for approval by the latter’s Board of Directors. The environmental requirements for storage and the logistics for transport to Sri Lanka are also being discussed. Samples for clinical trials of the sanitizer in Sri Lanka are also being made ready for dispatch to the prospective corporate partners. The Japanese IP license-holder also wishes SL-JCP to retain a share of the business turnover of the project to further public purpose in the Sri Lanka-Japan partnership. A scheme to enable this is also currently being designed.
SL-JCP Project Code
19-07
(Hydro-Tec)
Project Title
(Project Proponent/ Owner)
ADVANCED WATER PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVED LIFELINE INFRASTRUCTURE
(tbd)
Director(s) in-charge
(Former J-SLIP/new project)*
Sugie, Dewaraja (NEW)
Project Focus and Current Status
(as of 30 June 2020)
FOCUS:
The high prevalence of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDU) in Sri Lanka is attributed to the contaminated water supply. New urban development projects, such as the Port-City, are also expected to increase the demand for water. Reverse Osmosis (RO) water purification technology, where Japan is a leader, can be used for domestic, industrial and agricultural water purification as well as in large scale desalination plants. However, dealing with the adverse effects of the high concentration of salts and minerals on one side of the RO filter is a challenge. This project is designed to introduce nano-bubble technology from Japan to purify water for a variety of uses, from small scale highly pure water for medical uses as well as for large-scale infrastructural potable water supply and dealing with the salt and mineral accumulations following desalination.
STATUS:
The IP holder of the nano-bubble technology has gifted in 2017 to Sri Lanka’s Presidential Office two pilot devices for alleviating CKUD in the North-Central Province. The status of their use is unknown. Similarly, this IP holder, as project proponent, has initiated talks with Japanese development assistance agencies for taking this technology to enhance Sri Lanka’s water supply infrastructure and has received encouraging responses. The counterpart agency in Sri Lanka is the Sri Lanka Water Board, where exchange of notes has taken place, but where the project appears to have stalled. Having received a request to see where this has happened and what needs to be done to take matters forward, SL-JCP has initiated its own investigation. While this is happening, the possibility of using this technology for small-scale uses in the medical sector is being investigated by SL-JCP and dialogue has been initiated with a large private medical service provider in Sri Lanka.
SL-JCP Project Code
19-08
(MiniSat)
Project Title
(Project Proponent/ Owner)
END-TO-END MINI-/MICRO SATELLITE OPERATIONS & SATELLITE DATA MANAGEMENT
(SL-JCP & GlobalSat Japan)
Director(s) in-charge
(Former J-SLIP/new project)*
Yamaguchi, Cassim (NEW)
Project Focus and Current Status
(as of 30 June 2020)
FOCUS:
The intention is to partner with Japan to place mini-/micro-satellited in near space for the functional monitoring of environmental phenomena, pandemic epidemiology, land transport and traffic conditions, marine freight and logistics, sea-lane security, etc. The project proponent is a Sri Lankan company that manufactures micro-satellites and robotic process automation devices. Engagement with Japan is to guarantee quality in launch, tracking, data monitoring and satellite retrieval at end of its life-span. In this foray into aerospace sector in partnership with Japan, the path suggested for developing Sri Lanka’s capacity building is to focus on near space applications and data analytics. The possibility of linking Sri Lanka’s unique position in the Indian Ocean and Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative (FOIP) is also being studied.
STATUS:
This project is currently being designed.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The description of each of the above eight projects targeted for implementation in Phase 1 (2020-2023) will cover the following:
- Overview and Significance
- Objectives and Scope
- Conceptual Scheme and Project Contents
- Implementation Schedule
- Expected Outcomes
- Next Steps
NOTE: This page is currently under construction.
PROJECT INCUBATOR
As solicited and unsolicited proposals are brought to SL-JCP, if approved by the Board of Directors as appropriate for consideration, until the commitment of the project proponents/ owners to implement are clear, the SL-JCP Board assigns the Director(s)-in-Charge and the Board includes it in its Implementation Programme, information about such projects in the pipeline can be found here.
NOTE: This page too is currently under construction.