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Tuesday, 18 December 2012

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Australia pledges support towards Sri Lanka’s economic stability

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr yesterday promised support to Sri Lanka to achieve economic stability.

Carr on a three day official visit to Sri Lanka, made this announcement when he met Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa at the latter’s office in Colombo yesterday.

The discussions focused on many issues of mutual interest including human smuggling and demining.


Australian Foreign Minister
Bob Carr

Minister Rajapaksa said the demining process in the North and East Provinces was nearing completion.

The minister said over 95 percent of the land area dotted with mines, have been cleared so far.

He said the clearing of the remaining mines will take sometime as the area earmarked for demining is presumed to be dotted with unexploded mines heavily.

The minister said many people in the area collecting metals were injured by unexploded ordnance.

He said the government’s programme to make people aware of mines continues unabated.

Carr said Australia will extend assistance for mine clearance activities in the North and East during the next year too.

Minister Rajapaksa said the people are being resettled in mine cleared areas with the assistance of the Australian government and a number of programmes are in progress to uplift their living standards.

The minister said Australia has encouraged the Sri Lankan government to develop the dairy industry. He thanked the Australian government for providing 500 milch cows to promote dairy farming under the Mahinda Chinthana policy framework.

He said the cows would be provided to farmers at fair prices through artificial insemination of milch cows brought from Australia. Minister Rajapaksa said the government’s target is to become self-sufficient in dairy milk production by 2016.

He said the government expects assistance from the World Bank and the Australian government to develop 5,000 primary schools and 1,000 secondary schools islandwide with the objective of achieving knowledge based development goals.

The Australian Foreign Minister said his country is prepared to provide US $ 36 million to uplift Sri Lanka’s education sector.

He believed that creating more opportunities for education in the country will help reduce illegal migration among youths.

Minister Rajapaksa also touched on bilateral investment opportunities at the meeting.

He said many passengers coming from Europe and Middle Eastern countries are inconvenienced due to the lack of direct flights to Sri Lanka.

He said the government is discussing to introduce direct flights from Europe and the Middle Eastern region.

Minister Rajapaska also stressed the importance of starting direct flights from Australia and Sri Lanka.

He was of the view that this would help boost the tourism industry too.

Australian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Robyn Mudie, Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Australia Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, Commerce and Industry Ministry Secretary Anura Siriwardena and Australian High Commission protocol officer James Lasan were also present.

 

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