COLOMBO, Dec 18 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was accorded a grand welcoming ceremony with full police honours as he arrived for talks with Sri Lankan President, Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Palace here today.
The Malaysian Prime Minister was accompanied by a horse battalion and was welcomed by the traditional dance “Kandian” and a 21-gun salute was fired before Najib inspected the Guard of Honour at 10 a.m local time.
Najib and Sirisena later proceeded to a four-eye meeting for about 30 minutes.
The two leaders then joined the bilateral meeting with the delegations from both countries for almost an hour, before witnessing the signing of three Memorandums of Understanding (MoU).
The memorandums are between the government of Malaysia and the government of the democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on Cooperation in the Field of Training for Diplomats.
The other two are the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MiGHT) and Coordinating Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation, Sri Lanka on Cooperation in Foresight and Science2Action, and the Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Cooperation Sdn Bhd on Collaboration in the Field of Science, Technology and Innovation Activities and Biotechnology Sector.
The Prime Minister along with delegations from both sides will attend an official luncheon hosted by the President at his residence for about two hours.
He later held a one-hour Roundtable Meeting with Captains of Industry which comprised Malaysian, Sri Lankan and international firms mostly in the services sector including those from telecommunication, information and communication technology (ICT), manufacturing, tourism, financial services and also agriculture.
As of 2016, Sri Lanka is Malaysia’s 41st largest trading partner, its 33rd largest export destination and its 67th largest import source. For the same period, Malaysia is Sri Lanka’s 10th largest trading partner, its 37th largest export destination and its 6th largest import source.
Malaysia’s total exports to Sri Lanka in 2016 is US$579.9 million (RM2.3 billion; Jan-Oct 2017: US$483.4 million).
Major exports included petroleum products; palm oil and palm based products; chemical & chemical products; electrical and electronic products and sawn timber and molding.
Meanwhile, total imports from Sri Lanka in 2016 are US$59.2 million (Jan-Oct 2017: US$60.2 million).
Major imports included textiles, apparels and footwear; processed food; natural rubber; petroleum products and rubber products.
Malaysia has a total investment of US$3.1 billion in Sri Lanka with 47 projects spanning 8,335 employments. — Bernama
