Industry & Economy
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Tourism
Lanka eyeing joint venture tourism promotion with S. India
Our Bureau
Bangalore
,
Sept. 2
SUGGESTING that tourism promotion should be undertaken on a joint venture basis between Sri Lanka and southern India, the Sri Lanka Minister for Tourism, Mr Anura Bandaranaike, has said, "We should seriously look into the proposition."
Addressing a press conference here, Mr Bandaranaike, who is also the Minister for Industry and Investment Promotion, felt that with the South Indian States having similar tradition and cultural heritage to that of Sri Lanka, a joint thrust by both the countries could give a big boost to tourism.
He said Kerala was like Sri Lanka and with other States also endowed with similar features a joint promotional effort would be in order.
Highlighting the close ties between Sri Lanka and India, Mr Bandaranaike said the recent free-trade treaty mutual cooperation between the two countries would grow faster. He also felt that Karnataka could become a strong partner in trade and tourism cooperation and said a joint delegation of the Ministers of Industry, Tourism, and Science and Technology would be visiting Bangalore in November and discuss with their counterparts mutual cooperation.
A memorandum of understanding for bilateral economic ties would also be finalised by the first quarter of next year.
He said Sri Lanka was making a dedicated effort to increase the number of visitors from India.
The Minister also indicated that to meet the increasing tourist traffic, which had been steadily increasing since improvement in Sri Lanka's political situation, the country was planning to increase destination and improve the infrastructure.
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