New ambassador thanks King for amnesty granted to illegal expatriates:

Amnesty benefits stranded workers in Saudi - envoy

MOHAMMED RASOOLDEEN IN RIYADH

New Sri Lankan Ambassador Vadivel Krishnamoorthy, who presented his credentials in Jeddah on Saturday, thanked the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for the amnesty granted to illegal expatriates either to rectify their status or to go to their homeland.

Krishnamoorthy presented his credentials to Foreign Affairs State Minister Dr Nizar Obeid Madani at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Jeddah.

"The amnesty has benefitted all undocumented Sri Lankan expatriate workers stranded in the Kingdom. Many Sri Lankans have been able to legalise their status by changing employers and obtaining a new Iqama, or by obtaining temporary travel documents to return home," the envoy said.

He said the Sri Lankan missions in Riyadh and Jeddah have documented some 17,000 cases under the amnesty granted by the king. The scheme has facilitated the illegal workers either to go home or work here respectably, Krishnamoorthy said.

"Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia have maintained close bilateral ties for several decades and I hope that my tenure here as Ambassador will see these historic ties further strengthened," Kirshnamoorthy said.

The new envoy also thanked the Kingdom for donations and investments made in Sri Lanka to help build a prosperous society after the end of the war.

"I am also happy to acknowledge the loan given to us by the Saudi Development Fund (SFD) to help us develop our infrastructure," he said adding that the longest bridge in Kinniya was recently completed with SFD funds.

Besides the construction of the bridge, the SFD contributed to fund hospital and road construction projects in the island. The Epilepsy Centre and the Trauma Centre at the Colombo National Hospital were built with the SFD assistance.

The ambassador said Sri Lanka eradicated terrorism thereby ending the conflict, which had been plaguing the country for more than three decades.

"With the ending of 30 years of conflict, Sri Lanka has successfully created a peaceful environment within the country during the past few years. Moreover, Sri Lanka has already managed to achieve tremendous development after the conflict. We also know that independence is an empty word without economic strength and social progress," he said. "We in Sri Lanka, under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, are also engaged with the task of building for our people a new world of economic prosperity and social progress to build a prosperous nation." the ambassador, said.

"Although we have a considerable amount of bilateral trade, still, there is a huge potential to enhance it further by diversifying the trade baskets. Extending our trade relationship into the areas of tourism, software development, healthcare, and agriculture will open vast opportunities to further consolidate our bilateral cooperation further," he said.

Prior to his posting here, Krishnamoorthy was attached to his External Affairs Ministry as its Director General for the South-East Asia and SAARC.