During discussions Hon. Vasantha Senanayake, State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka, had with H.E. Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh on 07 August 2017, the two countries agreed to progress on the decisions taken during the recent State Visit to Bangladesh of H.E. the President Maithripala Sirisena. Meeting on the sidelines of the grand celebration of the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Manila on Tuesday, the Ministers discussed ways and means to intensify the engagement including collaboration at regional fora, mechanisms to further liberalize bilateral trade, establish joint venture partnerships in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, enhance cooperation in education, deep sea fisheries, agriculture processing and Defence matters and deepen people to people contacts. They also considered other matters of mutual interest including enhancing business to business engagement.
Both Ministers discussed the importance of the early implementation of the several Agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed during the recently concluded State Visit including the MOU between the Ceylon Shipping Cooperation & Bangladesh Shipping Cooperation which could facilitate closer linkage between the Ports of Colombo and Hambantota and the Ports of Bangladesh including for transshipment and bunkering facilities.
Areas such as business facilitation, repatriation of profits arising from investments, matters relating to national standards and the relevant SAARC instrument were also discussed.
Associated with State Minister Senanayake were Hon. Buddhika Pathirana MP, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the Philippines Mrs. Aruni Ranaraja, Director General of East Asia and the Pacific Mr. O.L. Ameerajwad and other senior officials both countries .
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Manila
8 August 2017
