President Mahinda Rajapaksa who arrived in Turkey on an official visit at the invitation of the President of Turkey will chair Turkey-Sri Lanka Business Forum today attended by leading business persons from Turkey and Sri Lanka to discuss the possibilities of Turkish investment in Sri Lanka.

Some of the areas identified are agriculture, infrastructure development, dockyard facilities for boat and yacht building, the IT sector and the possibility of assembling small motor vehicles in Sri Lanka.

The Chairman of BOI Sri Lanka Dhammika Perera and several other prominent businessmen from Sri Lanka have already had some bi-lateral talks with counterparts in Ankara and Istanbul. They will participate in this forum which will also be attended by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and Minister of Enterprise Development Mano Wijeratne.

This Forum is organised by the Confederation of Businessman and Industrialist of Turkey (TUSKON), the Embassy of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka BOI.

Later the President will visit the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace.

The Blue Mosque was built in 1609 by Sultan Ahmet I. Its name is derived from the blue tiles that decorate its interior. Unique features of the Blue Mosque are its six minarets and the cascade of domes that seem to spill down from the great central dome.

Hagia Sophia is a former Byzantine church and former Ottoman mosque in Istanbul that is now a museum. Nothing remains of the original church built by Constantine the Great in the 4th Century . In 1934, under Turkish President Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey Hagia Sofia was secularized and turned into the Ayasofya Museum.

Built by Sultan Mehmet II in the 15th Century the Topkapi Palace is a vast complex of buildings and other structures encircled by ancient walls. It used to be the abode of Sultans.