The city of Shanghai is linked to our administrative capital of Colombo. Therefore, I am pleased to address you in Shanghai.
The majority of the Chinese who immigrated to Sri Lanka live in Colombo. Some have already become traditional entrepreneurs. You will be surprised to hear that some streets in Colombo are almost solely reserved for Chinese restaurants. Therefore, I am glad to say that those Chinese are more familiar with Colombo than Shanghai.
The friendship between us is not of recent origin. It is a long historical bond. We still remember how we signed an agreement with China in the 1950s when there was a scarcity of rice in Sri Lanka. We obtained rice from China and in return supplied rubber necessary for industries in your country. Therefore, we Sri Lankans are a nation with good experience in such transactions, and our two nations have experience in good economic transactions.
Already a large number of Chinese investors are successfully investing in Sri Lanka. These include nearly 15 key commercial projects under the Board of Investment law and 39 projects under the ordinary law.
The total value of these investments exceeds Rs. 6000m. Small scale enterprises and other Chinese enterprises are also found in Sri Lanka.
I should tell that we too have entered the development path that helped China to emerge strong. Abandoning the wrong path followed by us since independence and correctly understanding the trends of history, at the last Presidential Election we obtained a mandate from the people for the policy of developing the country by developing the village. China took development from village to city. Therefore, there is no difference between the policy that China followed for development, and the path we have taken today.
We have already allocated a large percentage of our budgetary provisions to accelerate the development of roads, electricity, education and technology in rural areas. We would like the various investors of the world to identify Sri Lanka as being good for infrastructure development.
Having successfully emerged from the tsunami disaster, our objective is to harness our ocean resources. Our ocean economic zone is eight times larger than our land. We are confident that research into our ocean resources will bring many dividends.
China's rise was due to self sufficiency in agriculture. When confronted with world food scarcities and world crises, the Chinese people never starved because they had faith in self sufficiency in food. I must tell you that because we have given priority to agriculture, particularly to paddy cultivation, the productivity in our agricultural sector is increasing from year to year. We are venturing into agro equipment and food processing industries as well, which could bring rich dividends.
Free education has produced a very strong labour force. By now the literacy rate in Sri Lanka is as high as 90. 7%. In 2007 a batch 15, 000 students will be admitted to universities and annually another 2, 000 students are admitted to technical colleges. By now 36 technical schools have been established to expand technical education. The technological training of school leavers is enhanced through technical institutes and institutes of higher technology. Due to the education and vocational training imparted by these institutes we have a skilled labour force employable in any establishment of the world.
The certificates obtained by them by serving in many countries of the world are excellent. There is a good demand for them in foreign countries because they are equipped with modern knowledge and abilities.
Similarly, through our 10 Year Development Plan, the development in areas such as highways, electricity, monetary services, and educational facilities will be accelerated. I need not elaborate on that matter, as the Chinese government itself has witnessed this. China has undertaken the momentous task of constructing the Norochcholai thermal electricity plant and pledged to fund the Hambantota harbour project.
Therefore, it appears to me that the time has come to increase investments by Chinese nationals in our country.
The door is open for you to invest in electricity, electronic goods, highways, infrastructure, light engineering equipment, agro and aquatic enterprises, motor vehicles, motor cycles, three-wheeler assembling and development and communication projects. Our business community has firm confidence in Chinese investors who are rising rapidly and their bold commitment is an inspiration to us.
I should say that the doors of the silk route that were open are by now open again in the same way as before. Just as the Chinese traders of the past were trading even in the remote areas of Sri Lanka, some modern Chinese entrepreneurs have established garment factories in country today. I respectfully request you to come and join them.
