Colombo, March 15 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Thursday called for greater economic and trade co-operation with China and hoped China’s assistance and aid would benefit more grassroot people in the island country.
The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka, in a statement said that during a working consultation with the newly appointed China’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Cheng Xueyuan, Wickremasinghe thanked China for its long-term support to Sri Lanka’s economic and social development and emphasized that Sri Lanka attaches great importance to mega-projects cooperation between the two countries.
Wickremasinghe further affirmed his commitment to tackle the practical difficulties listed by the Chinese side and to speed up the implementation of pragmatic cooperation such as the development of Hambantota Port and industrial zone, in southern Sri Lanka, so as to bring real benefit to Sri Lankan people in an early date.
During discussions, Ambassador Cheng said in order to strive for early harvest and bring tangible benefit to the two peoples, China stands ready to work with the Sri Lankan side to accelerate the implementation of the major-projects
cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Ambassador Cheng also elaborated on current progress together with difficulties of the mega-projects cooperation between the two countries and called upon the Sri Lankan government to push for practical solutions.
Both sides reviewed the current progress of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and vowed to further promote pragmatic cooperation.