Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
During this state visit, Dissanayake is scheduled to participate in several key engagements and undertake field visits focused on technological and agricultural development, as well as initiatives aimed at poverty alleviation.
The visit also includes high-level business meetings and discussions, it said.
“The visit to the People’s Republic of China will further strengthen the longstanding ties between the two countries,” the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said earlier.
A host of issues, including permitting Chinese research vessels, regarded as spy ships by India; Sri Lanka’s debt commitments to China, stated to be Colombo’s largest creditor and expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investments are expected to figure in Dissanayake’s talks with Xi.
Sri Lanka expects the visit to result in the digitisation of Sri Lanka’s two state TV channels – Rupavahini and ITN.
Sri Lanka would also seek Chinese assistance to complete the central expressway, which has been stalled for over a decade, the media division of the Sri Lanka President’s Office here said in a press release earlier.
The talks would also cover the Chinese industrial zone around the southern port of Hambantota.
Qin Boyong, a top Chinese official who visited Dissanayake immediately upon his return from Delhi in December, said the Chinese companies were eagerly waiting to set themselves up for business at Hambantota.
Dissanayake, once a bitter critic of India, chose Delhi for his first visit abroad.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
