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Indian investor interest in Sri Lanka is growing: Rajapaksa

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday said that Indian investor interest in Sri Lanka was rapidly growing and that several leading Indian entrepreneurs in industry and other sectors had expressed interest in setting up business in Sri Lanka.

President Rajapaksa made the comment when Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao called on him here for an exchange of views on bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka in general, and on the process of re-settlement of the three lakh Tamil civilians displaced in the conflict between the security forces of the island nation and the LTTE.

Ms. Rao met Mr. Rajapaksa after a tour of the war-ravaged Northern Province and Trincomalee in the Eastern Province.

In the course of her interaction with displaced people, Ms. Rao refuted reports in a section of the local media that Indian labour would be engaged in the execution of India-aided projects.

The Foreign Secretary — the first to travel to the region in nearly three decades — in response to questions from a section of the audience in Jaffna, urged the people to look to the future and not be bogged down in the past.

The sense of officials accompanying Ms. Rao on the tour was that Tamil civilians in the Northern Province were keen on having a government of their own that would give them a decisive say in the governance of their affairs.

A statement from the office of the President said that during the 45-minute meeting between Ms. Rao and Mr. Rajapaksa, she expressed satisfaction at the progress made in the resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the development activities in the North.

“She had visited Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and other places in the North, as well as the East, and had seen that conditions were quite satisfactory. She assured the President that India would expedite the projects undertaken by her country, including the housing project for IDPs and the reconstruction of the railway line in the North,” the statement said.

Mr. Rajapaksa told Ms. Rao that IDPs and other persons of the area should be involved in these projects, especially the housing projects, so that they would have a sense of ownership.

The statement said that both Mr. Rajapaksa and Ms. Rao re-affirmed the strong bonds of friendship and neighbourly ties between the two countries. On the occasion, Ms. Rao also conveyed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's good wishes to the President.

Earlier in the day, Ms. Rao visited Mullaithivu and lauded the people there for meeting the challenges during the war and beginning life anew. She hailed them for being “resilient like steel,” saying: “India is ready to open its heart to help resettle, rebuild and restore their livelihood.”

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