May 30, 2014 (LBT) - Sri Lanka has seen an upsurge of business tourism, with an estimated 11.2% of all tourist arrivals into the country being for business purposes or to attend conventions and meetings, according to the latest Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) report. The influx of tourists can be attributed to an economic resurgence in the island post-war, with new ports, highways and airports being constructed.

In line with this trend, Sri Lanka recently hosted the Caterpillar Asia Dealer Service Training Focus Group Seminar, the first time an event of this nature was hosted in Sri Lanka by the Caterpillar Group.

Caterpillar is a global leader in the Construction and Engineering sector which has more than 200 dealers across the world. This seminar was facilitated by United Tractor & Equipment (UTE), the dealer for Caterpillar in Sri Lanka.

The focus group saw representatives from countries like India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore and Korea attend. “With the dawning of peace in the country it is a point of pride for us as citizens that a global giant like Caterpillar chose to host their events in our country,” said H. R. Ranasinghe, GM-Product Support at UTE.

The focus group participants had the opportunity to visit UTE's multimillion dollar workshop as well as their state-of-the-art training centre during their visit to Sri Lanka.

“The UTE training facility is on par even with similar facilities in developed countries - having these types of modern facilities will ensure that their customers get the best out of their investment on vital capital goods,” said K. B. Chua, the Asia Region Service Training and Development representative of Caterpillar.

An electric generator fault simulator in particular drew the attention of participants during the visit to the Training Centre, as it had been specially developed by UTE's own engineers. UTE training centre is equipped with many simulators and diagnostic tools to train service technicians on various service procedures.

UTE's Training Centre is affiliated to the National Apprenticeship and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA), while their training facility in Wattala is affiliated to the internationally renowned Caterpillar ABC training programme, ensuring that the company remains at the forefront of industrial training. The latest UTE training centre enrolls school leavers in several batches every year in both customer and apprentice training. The centre draws from the expertise of engineers and technicians who have been trained at Caterpillar International Training Centres.

Dealer Service Training Focus group is an annual forum, which brings together representatives from the training divisions of countries in the region in order to strengthen the cooperation and communication between Caterpillar Service & training experts. This is a platform for knowledge sharing and the dissemination of latest technology related information among the dealers.