In these cases, communication and international or bilateral partnership can do a lot of things. The fact that a country like Canada supports this kind of project, even though it's very limited at the outset, would give the project a lot of credibility.
Furthermore, if the project is carried out as a result of government relations between the two countries and is accepted by the Sri Lankan government at a certain level, even in the case of a pilot project or certain modules of limited scope, it would be a start from which something else could be built.