Sri Lanka’s first science and technology policy, launched at the National Science and Technology Commission (NASTEC) conference in July, has finally been given the go-ahead. NASTEC and multiple Sri Lankan science and technology institutes are currently formulating an implementation strategy. The policy aims to increase GDP investment in science from 0.13% to 1.5% by 2016 and to further the growth of basic and applied sciences for national development, sustainable resource management and adaptation to climate change. Though talks began in the 1980s, the policy took until now to approve due to the country’s civil war, which was recently declared over. NASTEC said a report on the implementation will be released soon.

Source: SciDev.net