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Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a happy mood as he participates in the closing ceremony of the Yovunpura Camp in Sigiriya yesterday - Pic by Pradeep Pathirana
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be leaving for a three-day state visit to China on 6 April, at the invitation of the Chinese Government.
This is his first visit as the Sri Lankan Prime Minister to China, since the Government of President Maithripala Sirisena was formed in January last year.
On this visit he will be holding high-level discussions with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Keqiang and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Zhang Dejiang. These discussions are expected to advance relations between the two countries.
The visit of the Prime Minister to China comes as an extension of the goodwill visit made by President Maithripala Sirisena to China last year.
Undertaken with a view of strengthening the relations between China and Sri Lanka, this visit is expected to promote co-operation mechanisms between the two countries in the spheres of economic affairs, investment and technology. It is also expected to bolster co-operation in science, sports, tourism development, financial services and water resources management along with the initiation of mobile clinics for kidney patients. During this visit it is expected that many multilateral agreements will be entered into between the two countries.
In a gesture that will renew the strong and historic ties between the UNP and the Chinese Communist Party, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe will also hold talks with the Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, Song Tao.
In Sri Lanka, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister, R. Paskaralingam, along with the Chinese Ambassador in Sri Lanka Yi Xianliang, has been handling all key matters concerning the Prime Minister’s visit. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, together with Foreign Ministry Additional Secretary Ranjith Uyangoda and the Sri Lankan Ambassador in China Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku, are coordinating the arrangements in China.
During this visit, a group of business representatives from Sri Lanka will hold discussions with leading Chinese entrepreneurs, with a view to enhance Chinese investments in Sri Lanka.
Prof. Maitree Wickremesinghe will be accompanying the Prime Minister on this visit. The Prime Ministerial entourage will include the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mangala Samaraweera, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Minister of Special Projects Sarath Amunugama, the Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem, the Minister of Housing and Construction Sajith Premadasa, the Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrema, Secretary to the Prime Minister Saman Ekanayake, Additional Secretary to the Prime Minister Saman Athaudahetti, the UNP’s Coordinator for International Relations Mahinda Haradasa and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Sandra Perera.
Reuters (Beijing): China will offer $ 11.5 billion in loans and credit lines to five Southeast Asian countries for infrastructure and other projects, Premier Li Keqiang said last week.
In 2014, Li offered $ 20 billion in loans to Southeast Asia, while visiting Myanmar to attend an East Asian summit, an attractive proposition for a region struggling to fund the roads, ports and railways needed for growth.
Li made the new offer, which includes 10 billion yuan ($ 1.54 billion) in preferential loans and a $ 10 billion credit line, to the leaders of five countries along the Mekong River.
He was speaking at a summit with leaders from Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam in the southern Chinese resort town of Sanya on Hainan Island.
His comments were carried on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website and by the official Xinhua news agency.
Such offers of financial aid are not unusual at such get-togethers.
He did not give a timeframe for when the funds may be dispersed.
Li added that he would push China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and its Silk Road fund to also fund projects in the region, and ensure a greater use for China’s yuan currency in dealings with the five countries.
“There are six countries on one river. The Lancang-Mekong sub-region is our joint home,” Li said, referring to the Chinese name for the upper part of the river which runs through China.
“Over the many years of being neighbours we have become family,” he added.
Despite the proffers of friendship and money, China has a strained relationship with two of the countries whose leaders Li met - Vietnam and Myanmar.
Vietnam and China are involved in an increasingly ugly dispute in the South China Sea over competing territorial claims.
In Myanmar, China has been angered by a decision in 2011 by suspending the $ 3.6 billion, Chinese-invested Myitsone dam project, and is also nervous at the prospect of Myanmar’s new Government lead by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
While Beijing had strong ties with the former Burma’s military junta, it has also moved to cement relations with Suu Kyi, who met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last year.
