Lanka: Prez

Colombo, Feb 25: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is leading a 100-member delegation, including 15 ministers and over 40 business entrepreneurs, to China today aiming to sign bilateral agreements in several areas.

The President will leave for China today on a seven-day tour, during which he would hold discussions with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and senior government officials, a government statement said.

President Rajapaksa would meet his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday for talks on bilateral cooperation.

Among the various MoUs to be signed during the President's visit are the Hambantota Port development project, oil exploration in the Western coast, student exchange, cultural cooperation, agriculture, corporate and economic cooperation, eye donation and cooperation in urban development and water supply, the government statement said.

President Rajapaksa's visit to China coincides with the 50th year anniversary of Sino-Lanka diplomatic relations and the President will present an elephant to Chinese President Hu Jintao to symbolize the long-standing relationship between the two countries.

The statement, quoting the newly-appointed Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka Dr Palitha Kohona, as saying that the focus of the visit is to encourage Chinese investments.

President Rajapaksa is scheduled to visit Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai and meet potential investors and senior Government officials and attend several trade and investment seminars.

Dr Kohona has also said Sri Lanka had planned to tap the fast growing Chinese tourism market, adding that historical and cultural links between the two countries would be an incentive for Chinese tourists to visit the island.

The number of Chinese tourists to the island was 16,000 last year, about a 60 per cent increase from the previous year.

UNI