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| Thursday, 17 June 2004 |
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From the Foreign Office Third Ministerial meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue on June 21-22 The third Ministerial Meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dilogue (ACD) is scheduled to be held on June 21 and 22 in Qingdao, People's Republic of China. This would be the first occasion that Sri Lanka would attend as a member country of the ACD. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Prof. Viswa Warnapala will lead the Sri Lankan delegation to the Meeting which would also include Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China and an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The meeting would address issues including new membership, possible institutionalisation of the process, the Qingdao Initiative on Energy Security, Declaration on Asia Cooperation, progress made by 'Prime Movers' on identified areas of cooperation i.e. Energy and Security, Poverty Alleviation, Agirculture, Transport Linkages and Biotechnology, E-commerce and Infrastructure Tax, Asian Institute of Standards, SME's Cooperation, IT Development, Energy and Science and Technology, Financial Cooperation, Tourism, Human Resources Development, Environmental and Legal Infrastructure. Sri Lanka was admitted as a member of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) at the second Ministerial Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand in June 2003. The ACD is a regional Forum, which is an initiative of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to set up co-operation among Asian Economies. ACD serves as a bridge between sub regional grouping spanning South, East. South East and North East Asia and West Asia. Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Loas, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are ACD members. Dr. H.N. Thenuwara, Additional Director/ Economic Research of the Central Bank will represent Sri Lanka at the High Level Seminar on Asia Cooperation and Development scheduled be held to coincide with the ACD on June 21 morning sponsored by the Chinese Government. The topics that would be discussed include "Building Asia's competitiveness through complementarities," 'Promoting Public - Private partnerships in Asia', 'Energy Security and the Asian Energy Strategy' and a 'Common Agriculture Policy'. Cheques worth Rs. 12 million transmitted to Public Trustee The Foreign Affairs Ministry consular Affairs Division has transmitted cheques for the payment of compensation and salary dues amounting to Rs. 12,296,394, received from Middle East countries in favour of Sri Lankan employees, to the Public Trustee. These cheques have been transmitted during May and June 2004. Assistance to stranded Lankans in Somalia The Consular Affairs Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is coordinating the repatriation of hundreds of Sri Lankans stranded in Somalia. The Sri Lankans, attempting to enter Italy as illegal migrants, became stranded in Somalia en-route to Italy. Action is now being taken by the Consular Affairs Division to bring these Sri Lankans back to Sri Lanka in coordination with the Sri Lanka High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya. The Consular Affairs Division has already submitted details regarding these Sri Lankans to the Sri Lanka High Commission in Nairobi. |
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