8th Asia Cooperation Dialogue Meeting in Lanka

COLOMBO: Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama led a delegation to the 6th Asia Cooperation Dialogue Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which took place from 4th - 5th June 2007 in South Korea.

A notable achievement of this meeting was the acceptance of Sri Lanka’s offer to host the 8th ACD Foreign Ministrs Meeting in 2009. This highlights Sri Lanka’s growing recognition in the multilateral fora.

The Asia Cooperation Dialogue inaugurated in 2002, is a Regional Forum. ACD serves as a bridge between sub regional groupings spanning South, East, South East and North East Asia and West Asia, Today ACD comprises 30 countries.

The ACD Chairman’s Statement dealt with the Seoul IT Declaration which promotes IT development and bridges the digital divide, moratorium on membership, creation of the ACD high level study group and the establishment of a website.

Sri Lanka as a Co - Prime Movers in the Small and Medium Enterprises sector together with Singapore contributed towards this process. Sri Lanka will host an SME forum in Sri Lanka in 2008. In Sri Lanka the transport, tourism and the plantation sectors consist of SME’s, which are major contributors to the economy.

He stated that ensuring security of a country is fundamental and called upon the international Community to stand together and eliminate terrorism in all its manifestations.

Minister Bogollagama stated that Sri Lanka looks forward to engage closely with the Prime and Co-Prime Movers in the areas of agriculture, poverty alleviation and tourism.

He expressed satisfaction of the warm and friendly bilateral relations that exist between Sri Lanka and the ACD member countries and agreed to work together to further broaden and deepen their ongoing cooperation in various fields.

During the bilateral meetings, Foreign Minister reiterated Sri Lanka’s commitment to protect her sovereignty and territorial integrity, which was unanimously accepted by his counterparts. On the issue of terrorism, the Foreign Minister stated that Sri Lanka has had to deal firmly with wanton acts of terror. He went on to state that terrorism poses the biggest threat to a country’s security.

Foreign Minister also briefed the ACD countries on the political proposals that are developed to end the present crisis. Minister Bogollagama met the Chairman, Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry to promote business relations between Sri Lanka and South Korea. The korean Chamber has a membership of over 50,000 companies with worldwide representation.