SAUDI-Lankan relations have expanded into new dimensions for the benefit of the two countries, observed Abdul Ageed Mohamed Marleen, the island’s ambassador to the Kingdom, on the eve of Sri Lanka’s 61st Independence Day.
Marleen, who came to the Kingdom in April 2008, said that he is happy that he was able not only to open new areas of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka, but also to introduce several measures for the welfare of Sri Lankans living in the Kingdom as well as to lift the image of the country in this part of the world during a short period.
During this period, the Kingdom provided a soft loan of SR75 million (approximately Rs.2,175 million) for the construction of an epilepsy hospital and a supplementary loan of SR11 million (approximately Rs.320 million) for the extension of the Neuro-Trauma Center at the Colombo General Hospital.
The new epilepsy hospital will be a specialized facility for epilepsy patients with a capacity of 242 beds and facilities required for intensive care and inpatient care treatment. The project includes construction of a new seven-story building with a total floor area of 15,000 square meters within the premises of the Colombo National Hospital. It also provided medical equipment, including MRI and CT scanners and X-ray machines.
The hospital consists of operation theaters, intensive care units, high dependency unit, post-operative wards, a pediatric ward and a neurosurgical unit.
Marleen thanked the government of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for the financial assistance provided by the SFD.
“It has provided the island with project loans on three previous occasions,” he said. “It offered SR99.9 million for the second stage of the Water Supply and Sewage project and gave SR48.1 million for the Mahaweli Ganga Development Project System B in 1981. Subsequently, Sri Lanka obtained SR85 million for the Mahaweli Ganga Development Project System B Left Bank in 1984,” he recalled . The envoy added that the SFD had also granted SR40million for the construction of a bridge and widening a highway on the island.
Last week, the Saudi government donated SR75,000 to the Islamic Center for the Physically Handicapped (ICPH) in Sri Lanka for the education of its mentally retarded children. The center has 42 such children among its 225 inmates, including 62 girls.
On the initiative of the ambassador, the mission publishes a monthly newsletter — Insight — sponsored by Sri Lankan companies and philanthropists. It is prepared by an editorial board composed of honorary members from the Sri Lankan community and officials from the mission. “We have got an unprecedented response for our newsletter both from the sponsors and readers,” Marleen said , adding that the publication is released during the first week of each month.
A TV crew from the Kingdom, which visited Sri Lanka’s tourist resorts, filmed a documentary on the island entitled: Faces and Places. Marleen said that the program was broadcast on Saudi television following Ramadan on three occasions for 20 minutes each time. “This film helped a great deal to penetrate into the Saudi market,” he stressed.
The Sri Lankan Embassy in the Kingdom was established in Jeddah in late 1981. This was reciprocated by the Kingdom with a Saudi mission in Colombo in 1994. The Saudi mission was elevated to ambassadorial status with the appointment of Mohamed Mahmud Al-Ali as its first ambassador in 2001. Late last year, Abdullah Al-Jammaz succeeded as ambassador, supported by Riyad Al-Kheneini as its deputy chief of mission.
With the dawn of the new year, an information center was opened at the mission. Marleen said the newly opened information center would give ample information about the island’s natural resources, tourism, products and services for foreigners who would like to harness the potentials of the country.
Under a new scheme, he said visit visas to Sri Lanka are processed within 10 minutes. He added that the products are beautifully displayed in showcases and an information officer will be available to advise local businessmen on the opportunities available in the country. He also said that the labor division has been given a spacious area to accommodate the large number of countrymen who come for labor welfare work. He said that these services include renewal of workers registration with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment and workers welfare activities.
The Kingdom, he said, had lent its helping hand during the devastation caused by the tsunami. “The tsunami took the lives of 35,000 Sri Lankans and rendered 500,000 people internally displaced,” said Marleen.
“The Muslim population, which had a large concentration on the eastern part of the island, lost one percent of its population. Saudi Arabia’s assistance came at the right time and it still continues to support deserving people who were affected by this natural calamity,” he said, adding that a housing city comprising 1,000 houses were being built for the tsunami victims and 10 ambulances were also given by the Saudi Red Crescent to hospitals in the affected region. The housing scheme, which will be named after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, will have 500 houses, two schools (one for boys and the other for girls), a hospital, a mosque, a playground, a bus terminal and a shopping mall.
When thousands of Muslims in Muttur were displaced due to terrorist activities in the eastern part of the island, the Kingdom sent a planeload of relief to Colombo, he said. The 150-metric-ton consignment containing 2,000 waterproof tents, 4,000 blankets, 2,000 carpets, medicines and food items were distributed under the direct supervision of a six-member Saudi team headed by Saad Al-Wetaid from the Ministry of Finance.
As an effort to help its domestic workers in the Kingdom, the Sri Lankan Embassy operates a round-the-clock help desk for expatriate workers who may need embassy assistance when in distress. The runaway maids who seek refuge at the mission are kept in a safe house, run by the mission with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE). The envoy said that this year the officials in the labor wing of the mission were successful in collecting large sums of money as compensation for those unpaid housemaids and on behalf of those workers who died in accidents in the Kingdom. “The collection runs into millions of Sri Lankan rupees.”
Saudi Arabia has traditionally followed a liberal import policy with no quantitative restrictions. A large percentage of imports coming into the country such as agricultural products enjoy duty free status while others enjoy low tariffs.
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Saudi Arabia is an important trading partner of Sri Lanka and a noteworthy development in trade relations with the Kingdom is that the total trade turnover has increased steadily during the past few years and has reached an all time high of $202 million in the year 2007. This dramatic increase was mainly due to the increase of crude oil imports resulting in the balance of trade being favorable to Saudi Arabia from 1995.
Sri Lanka is the world’s largest tea exporter and supplies about 60% of the tea consumed in the Kingdom. Sri Lanka tea exporters have been successful in establishing strong brand names such as Rabea, Al-Waza, Unicom, Dilmah, Stassen and Sultany in the local market. While tea remains the major export item, the other export is desiccated coconut which in the year 2007 was valued at Rs.344 million. Garments, fresh vegetables, brooms, coconut milk powder, natural and cultured pearls, precious stones, etc., are some of the other export items to the Kingdom.
Garments seem to offer the greatest potential among the non-agricultural items. Readymade garments should be considered as one of the priority areas for promotion in this market as Sri Lanka has already earned a great reputation in US and Europe as supplier of high quality readymade garments.
The prevailing construction boom offers Sri Lanka a range of opportunities and there is an emerging demand for building materials — ceramic floor tiles, marbles and electrical items. Spices, costume jewelry, surgical gloves, fresh fruits, vegetables, coconut milk powder and frozen food products have a good demand and a ready market.
“It is intended to sign an Air Services Agreement to increase the frequency of Sri Lankan Airline flights from Sri Lanka to Riyadh and vice-versa as there is now an urgent need for such an increase due to the heavy load of passengers, both tourists and migrant workers flying between the two countries.”
The largest state-owned People’s Bank as well as a leading private bank, Seylan Bank, maintains representative offices in the Kingdom to provide services to the Sri Lankan community in sending remittances to their families back home. Top Saudi banks such as ANB -Telemoney also offer special services to expatriates for fast and convenient money transfers. It has introduced a new service — “REMIT Through INTERNET” which enables remitters to send money home at any time through the net.
SLES, which functions under the umbrella of the Riyadh Mission, runs a free medical clinic besides funding deserving projects at home. The SLES played a prominent role in the tsunami relief efforts undertaken by the embassy. It donated medical equipment to Sri Lankan hospitals.
The society built 100 houses for flood victims in central parts of the island and also donated medical equipment to the Jaffna Hospital. It constructed and installed 23 rainwater harvesting tanks in drought-stricken areas of the country.
At the moment there are two Sri Lanka International Schools, one in Riyadh and the other in Jeddah. It is planned to open a Sri Lanka International School in Dammam in the Eastern Province.
Saudi Arabia is an important trading partner of Sri Lanka and a noteworthy development in trade relations with the Kingdom is that the total trade turnover has increased steadily during the past few years and has reached an all time high of $202 million in the year 2007. This dramatic increase was mainly due to the increase of crude oil imports resulting in the balance of trade being favorable to Saudi Arabia from 1995.
Sri Lanka is the world’s largest tea exporter and supplies about 60% of the tea consumed in the Kingdom. Sri Lanka tea exporters have been successful in establishing strong brand names such as Rabea, Al-Waza, Unicom, Dilmah, Stassen and Sultany in the local market. While tea remains the major export item, the other export is desiccated coconut which in the year 2007 was valued at Rs.344 million. Garments, fresh vegetables, brooms, coconut milk powder, natural and cultured pearls, precious stones, etc., are some of the other export items to the Kingdom.
Garments seem to offer the greatest potential among the non-agricultural items. Readymade garments should be considered as one of the priority areas for promotion in this market as Sri Lanka has already earned a great reputation in US and Europe as supplier of high quality readymade garments.
The prevailing construction boom offers Sri Lanka a range of opportunities and there is an emerging demand for building materials — ceramic floor tiles, marbles and electrical items. Spices, costume jewelry, surgical gloves, fresh fruits, vegetables, coconut milk powder and frozen food products have a good demand and a ready market.
“It is intended to sign an Air Services Agreement to increase the frequency of Sri Lankan Airline flights from Sri Lanka to Riyadh and vice-versa as there is now an urgent need for such an increase due to the heavy load of passengers, both tourists and migrant workers flying between the two countries.” The largest state-owned People’s Bank as well as a leading private bank, Seylan Bank, maintains representative offices in the Kingdom to provide services to the Sri Lankan community in sending remittances to their families back home. Top Saudi banks such as ANB -Telemoney also offer special services to expatriates for fast and convenient money transfers. It has introduced a new service — “REMIT Through INTERNET” which enables remitters to send money home at any time through the net.
SLES, which functions under the umbrella of the Riyadh Mission, runs a free medical clinic besides funding deserving projects at home. The SLES played a prominent role in the tsunami relief efforts undertaken by the embassy. It donated medical equipment to Sri Lankan hospitals.
