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PM leaves for Japan

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be in Japan on a five-day official visit which is expected to bolster Japanese aid and cooperation for development and the peace process.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe will brief Japanese leaders on the peace process and urge Japanese companies to invest more in Lanka. Arrangements for the peace talks due to be held in Tokyo in March and a mid-year donor conference will also be discussed during the visit which begins today.

The Prime Minister will meet Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, hold talks with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and address business leaders. The visit concludes on Saturday.

"This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Sri Lanka.

It is expected that the forthcoming visit of the Prime Minister will further strengthen friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries," a Japanese embassy statement said.

Japan has been fully supportive of the peace moves in Sri Lanka. It recently Yasushi Akashi, a former undersecretary general of the United Nations, as a special envoy to Sri Lanka.

He participated in the recent donor conference in Oslo, where he pledged to increase Japanese aid to Sri Lanka in tandem with the peace process.

Loans and grants from Japan totalled $354 million last year, equal to 47 per cent of all aid to Sri Lanka, making it the country's single largest donor.

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