JEDDAH, 16 June — Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Ali will be the first ambassador at the just upgraded Saudi Embassy in Colombo. “Al-Ali, now in Brussels, will assume charge in September,” outgoing Sri Lankan Ambassador Nowfel Saly Jabir said here on Thursday.
Charge d’Affaires Ali Al-Hamdan has been the head of the Saudi mission in Colombo for the past four years.
Jabir, a political appointee, is due to return to Colombo soon at the end of a three-year tenure. He will be succeeded by Ibrahim Ansar, a career diplomat who has been the ambassador in Oman for the past four months.
“We’re looking forward to a visit by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal in response to an invitation extended by our Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadiragamar during his recent visit to the Kingdom. Kadiragamar’s visit has given a further boost to our bilateral relations,” said Jabir during a farewell reception by the local Sri Lankan Expatriates’ Society. Consul General A.C.M. Ibrahim and the society’s Vice President M. Azar Arif spoke about the ambassador’s substantive contribution to the welfare of the community.
Jabir, himself a top businessman, said he was delighted by the speedy development of the Kingdom’s manufacturing sector, which had attained high international standards. The Saudi gems and jewelry factories employ 2,000 Sri Lankan goldsmiths, he added.
There are more than 250,000 Sri Lankans working in the Kingdom. Sixty percent of them are housemaids while others included technicians and drivers. “We’ve now a full program of orientation and training for prospective job-seekers in the Kingdom and elsewhere in the Gulf,” said Jabir who is involved in many social, cultural and service organizations in the island state.
In his farewell speech, the outgoing ambassador urged Sri Lankans to remain united despite the ethnic problems back home. “I’m going back fully satisfied with the job I was given. I feel I spent the three years usefully in the service of the community,” he said.
Jabir thanked the Saudi government for its support to the Sri Lanka. He referred to a $12 million grant extended by the Saudi Fund for Development recently for a neurology hospital project in Colombo. “The health facility will become operational in two to three years,” he said.
