In a meeting with the World Bank’s Executive Director for Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Bhutan Mr. Mukesh Prasad held on the 15th of July, President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged the Bank to focus more on large core projects rather than smaller projects that have a lesser impact.
The World Bank will support the government’s efforts to address the challenges and constraints for achieving its vision, specifically by: facilitating sustained private and public investment through improving the investment climate and increasing fiscal space and public spending efficiency; supporting structural shifts in the economy through assistance for a knowledge-based economy, and increased internal Sand international integration and competitiveness; and promoting improved living standards and social inclusion through support for increasing quality of services, reducing the prevalence of malnutrition and promoting social inclusion and equitable access, the Bank further said.
Dr. Anoop Singh, International Monetary Fund’s Director for Asia and the Pacific region, who arrived in the island to participate in “Sri Lanka Economic Summit”, gave this assurance when he met President Rajapaksa at Temple Trees yesterday (July 10) evening.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during a discussion with India’s National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, said the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) is the best forum to reach a consensus on the implementation of the 13th Amendment.
At the meeting that took place at the President’s House in Colombo this morning, President Rajapaksa explained to Menon the practical problems that exist with devolving land and police powers to the provinces of a small country such as Sri Lanka and stressed that the structure that is implemented should apply and be acceptable to all parts of the country.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa last year vowed to conduct the long overdue provincial elections in the North in September.
The Elections Commissioner had stated that the polls for the Northern, North Western and Central Provincial Councils will most probably take place on September 21 or 28.
The website will provide updated information relating to the progress of implementing recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.
The two ministers discussed a range of issues of bilateral relevance and reiterated their commitment to strengthening the deep and abiding friendship between India and Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka and Seychelles signed three agreements today (30) following bilateral discussions between President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is currently on a two-day state visit to Seychelles and his Seychelles counterpart James Alix Michel. The agreements signed were bilateral air-service agreement, MOU on vocational training and youth development and MOU on defense cooperation between the two countries.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Tanzania has laid a solid foundation to further enhance cooperation in all sectors between Sri Lanka and the African Continent, Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete said.
There is no substitute for a Parliamentary Select Committee to resolve in a systematic and all-inclusive manner the issues relating to constitutional reform which are now the subject of vigorous debate in the country, Professor G.L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs, told Ambassadors and High Commissioners accredited to Sri Lanka at a briefing at the Ministry of External Affairs on 26th June 2013.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia told External Affairs Minister Professor G.L. Peiris that she is looking forward to attending the Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka, and that Australia will do everything she can to ensure total success of the event. She made this observation at a meeting in the Australian Parliament in Canberra on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris has said that the remnants of the defeated Tamil terrorist organization of Sri Lanka, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is still active in Australia and asked Australia to proscribe the terror outfit.
Delivering a keynote address at an event to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU)/African Union (AU) in Colombo recently, Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, Karunathilaka Amunugama said relations between Sri Lanka and Africa has a long distinguished history beginning with the arrival of Arab traders in the early 11th century and the island nation hopes to enhance its existing economic and trade relations with the African nations further through business exchanges.
Full text of speech : Link ....
“As Asian countries transform to become service-driven economies, it is important that we work towards creating greater synergies,” President Rajapaksa said in his speech.
China has pledged to provide further funding to develop Sri Lanka’s transport sector that includes a number of expressways, road networks and railway lines, including a new Colombo-Jaffna expressway. The agreement was one of several others reached during bilateral meetings between Sri Lanka and China that took place in Beijing this afternoon.
Sri Lanka celebrated the fourth anniversary of the victory in the humanitarian operation with the Victory Day parade at Galle Face - in the capital of Colombo, this morning under the patronage of the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa. The massive Humanitarian Victory Day parade with the participation of the troops who actively took part during the final stages of the war against the rebels, took place following the president's speech. There was also a two-minute silence in memory of 24,000 security force personnel who died during the conflict, which ended in 2009.Addressing the event, President Rajapaksa said, "We will not allow a single inch of the land that you won by the sacrifice of your life to be taken away. There will be no room for separation".
Full text of the speech :
Our experience demonstrates the vital role of local traditions and culture in moulding the practices of local government institutions. It also highlights the unique significance of the part played by these institutions in sustaining and strengthening the democratic way of life. This is especially so, because democratic governance impacts most directly on the people through these institutions which bring government literally to their doorstep, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni opened the new Sri Lankan High Commission in Kampala, Uganda yesterday (13).
The new Sri Lankan High Commission in Uganda is the 62nd Sri Lankan diplomatic mission abroad and the 6th in the African continent. The last three were opened during President Rajapaksa’s tenure.
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