Sri Lanka invites investment from China

Colombo, Oct 25 (PTI) Sri Lanka has invited Chinese investors for setting up projects and has assured that terrorism will be wiped off from the island country soon.

"I invite all Chinese industrialists to invest in Sri
Lanka. Sri Lanka is a paradise for tourists. Soon we will
eradicate terrorism from Sri Lanka.

"Most countries, including China are with us. The
international community is totally against terrorism," Sri
Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, who is in
China, said while speaking at a function in Yunan Province
Friday.

He said relationship between the two nations dated back
to several years and that "the two nations were diplomatically
and culturally bound together".

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister said China had invested in
Hambantota new Port Complex, Norochcholai coal-fired power
generation plant and Performing Arts Centre in Sri Lanka.

Tourist arrivals from China to Sri Lanka is estimated to
have grown by 7.3 percent during the first half of 2008. As
many as 5,383 tourists from China visited Sri Lanka in the
first six months of this year, against 5,016 tourists during
the same period of 2007, according to official figures.

On the export front, Sri Lankan tea has achieved a
remarkable growth of more than 65 percent in the Chinese
market during the first few months over export figures for
2007, an official said.

According to Sri Lankan Ambassador to China,
Karunatilaka, the island country had great potential to secure
a bigger share in the Chinese market for its 'black tea'.

Sri Lanka has exported 765 metric tonnes (MT) of tea so
far this year to China and is targeting a record of 1,000 MT
of tea exports to that country by the end of the year. PTI