Photo taken on Sept. 27, 2018 shows the China-Sri Lanka Joint Centre for Education and Research (CSL-CER) at the University of Ruhuna (UOR) in Matara, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka and China inaugurated a new building for the China-Sri Lanka Joint Centre for Education and Research (CSL-CER) at the University of Ruhuna (UOR), in southern Sri Lanka with the aim of strengthening marine science and research in the island country, the UOR said in a statement on Saturday. (Xinhua/Tang Lu)

COLOMBO, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka and China inaugurated a new building for the China-Sri Lanka Joint Centre for Education and Research (CSL-CER) at the University of Ruhuna (UOR), in southern Sri Lanka with the aim of strengthening marine science and research in the island country, the UOR said in a statement on Saturday.

The CSL-CER is handled by the UOR and the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), an outcome of a national level cooperation agreement signed in 2014. It is also the CAS's first overseas research center on marine sciences.

According to the statement, the CAS has granted more than 20 Sri Lankan students to pursue their Phd/Master's degree on marine sciences in CAS's research institutes during the last three years.

The CAS along with the UOR and other Sri Lankan agencies will push this center to play a bigger role in the international cooperation on marine sciences and education in the Indian Ocean region.

Hou Jianguo, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the CAS will continue to promote comprehensive science and education cooperation with Sri Lanka using the newly launched ocean observation platform.

Acting Vice Chancellor of the UOR Nayana Alagiyawanna said the joint observation system of the tropical marine environment set up by the CAS and the UOR a few years ago had laid UOR on an important position in the field of marine research in Sri Lanka.