President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka early on Saturday morning after a successful visit to China where he met a host of leaders, including the Chinese President Hu Jintao and the Premier Wen Jiabao.
Though a non-state visit, Mr. Rajapaksa, and his team held bilateral discussions on a wide range of issues with leaders. These primarily concerned with the infrastructure development of Sri Lanka, and, support for Sri Lanka in international fora to tackle the growing concerns relating to human rights violations in the last stages of the war with the Tamil Tigers.
According to Sri Lankan Presidential Spokesman Bandula Jayasekara, Mr. Jiabao told President Rajapaksa that he would encourage Chinese nationals to visit Sri Lanka and help promote tourism in Sri Lanka. Both the leaders agreed that people-to-people contacts and cultural activities between Sri Lanka and China should be encouraged.
Also, Chinese companies will be encouraged to buy more products from Sri Lanka since the balance of trade was in favour of China, he said in a message on the micro-blogging site, Twitter. Sri Lanka’s main exports to China are natural rubber, tea and seafood, particularly shrimps and prawns. Imports from China include knitted and crocheted fibre, iron and steel finished products, machinery, cement and toys.
Sri Lanka reported a trade deficit equivalent to $ 1737 million in the first quarter of 2011. Sri Lanka exports mostly textiles and garments (40 per cent of total exports) and tea (17 per cent). Sri Lanka imports petroleum, textile fabrics, foodstuffs and machinery and transportation equipment. Main import partners are India, China, Iran and Singapore, according to the website trading economics.
Increase in flights
Mr. Jayasekara also said that officials will hold discussions soon to increase Sri Lankan Airlines flights between China and Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan now flies to Beijing via Bangkok.
