Today, we are celebrating the 65th Anniversary of Independence of our country with vigor and glory, and I am proud to convey my warmest greetings to the Sri Lankan expatriate community who are residing, staying and working in the western region of Saudi Arabia.
Independence is enjoying freedom of life, speech and faith and being economically free.
All countries gain their independence for this purpose.
Thus, we celebrate Independence every year, in order to remember our war heroes who sacrificed their lives in the struggle to gain our freedom and to be reminded that we are enjoying the freedom obtained.
With renewed freedom, our country is striving forth for developments in creating great opportunities for investments sector.
The Sri Lankan migrant community can play a pivotal role in the development of infrastructure and economy of the country.
With the influx of European tourism, Sri Lanka has also gained from the increased numbers of Arab tourists.
As we all know that our motherland is known as the Pearl of Indian Ocean and the paradise island on the earth, an island with extraordinary beauty, valuable culture and proud history.
Hence, I take this opportunity to urge the Sri Lankan community in the western region to promote this beautiful image of our country to the Arab world and to contribute to the nation promoting our tourism and attractive foreign investment from this region.
The migrant workers who already contributed to the developments of the country as foreign exchange from foreign employments for the year 2012 have become the number one foreign exchange earner for the country.
The Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Jeddah provides consular and welfare services to the Sri Lankan community in this region and also conducts visits to all major cities in the region on a regular basis for this purpose.
At this juncture, I wish to recall the slogan declared by the Government of Sri Lanka in 2012 which was “Let us build up the country to be the Wonder of Asia” in addition the Government has declared this year’s slogan as “Let us make the Expectations of General Public Ensuring an Excellent Public Service Delivery”.
I kindly invite my fellow Sri Lankans to join hands, bury our differences, be united as Sri Lankans and strive forth to make Sri Lanka ensuring an excellent public service delivery.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the King, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Government of Saudi Arabia for the excellent bilateral relationship existing between our countries at all levels.
I also wish to thank the Sri Lankan expatriate community and the Sri Lankan International School for their invaluable support to the Consulate General’s activities.
Let us all celebrate this day proudly and value our nation by uniting and contributing to the economy and development of our motherland in every possible way.
Dr. A. Uthumalebbe
Consulate General of Sri Lanka
Jeddah
