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Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - 06.15 GMT |
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Iran, SL
discuss tourism, oil |
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Iran has supported technical and engineering services in Sri Lanka to the extent of US$ 520 million, Iranian Commerce Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said on Monday during a bilateral discussion with Sri Lanka's Minister of External Affairs Prof. G L Peiris on the sidelines of the 9th Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD).
The Iranian Minister told Minister Peiris that Teheran is ready to further boost economic cooperation with Sri Lanka, the Iranian News Agency, IRNA reported.
The two ministers discussed the construction of a new oil refinery in Sri Lanka by Iranian experts, exporting Iranian LNG to Colombo, and boosting tourism.
Prof. Peiris has expressed his gratitude on behalf of Sri Lanka for the assistance given by the Iranian government and called for expansion of economic ties between the two countries.
The two-day ACD meeting titled, "Towards Asian Convergence and Unification: Promotion of Progress, Peace and Justice," commenced Monday in Teheran.
The Iranian Minister visited Sri Lanka to participate in the 9th meeting of the Iran and Sri Lanka's joint economic committee in Colombo from September 13-15. During this meeting Sri Lanka and Iran inked six Memorandum-of-Understandings in different fields such as science, culture and art, standardization, customs, and a sisterhood agreement between Iran's Shahid Rajaei port and Colombo port.
Iran is currently the major crude oil supplier to Sri Lanka. In April 2008, Iran began work in several infrastructure development projects in Sri Lanka under a US$ 1.5 billion loan to the country.
Iranian President during his visit to Sri Lanka in September agreed to provide financial assistance to several development projects including the Uma Oya 450 MW power plant project at a cost of US$ 450-500 million.
Iran has also agreed to set up a LNG terminal at Mirissa coastal town with a fishing harbour in Southern Province. The facilities at Sapugaskanda Oil refinery is to be augmented with Iranian technical and financial assistance.
Sri Lanka last year signed a US$ 106 million agreement with an Iranian firm to provide electricity to roughly 1,000 villages in Sri Lanka.
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