{"id":108309,"date":"2020-11-03T16:33:20","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T23:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108309"},"modified":"2020-11-03T16:33:20","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T23:33:20","slug":"world-bank-congratulates-sri-lanka-on-handling-of-covid-19-pandemic-november-3-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/03\/world-bank-congratulates-sri-lanka-on-handling-of-covid-19-pandemic-november-3-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"World Bank Congratulates Sri Lanka on Handling of COVID-19 Pandemic – November 3, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u0d85\u0d9c\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dcf\u0db8\u0dcf\u0dad\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0db8\u0dcf\u0db0\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0d85\u0d82\u0dc1\u0dba<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

At a meeting with Prime Minister Mahinda\nRajapaksa this evening, World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri\nLanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos, commended the Sri Lankan Government for how it has\ndealt with the Coronavirus outbreak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expressing deep gratitude for the\nrelationship\u201d that Sri Lanka and the World Bank share, Hadad-Zervos\ncongratulated the Prime Minister not only on the election (victory) but how\nSri Lanka has managed the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wish you a speedy exit from this\nsituation,\u201d he said. He was accompanied by the World Bank Country Manager for\nMaldives and Sri Lanka, Chiyo Kanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lankan delegation thanked the\nWorld Bank for the many years of close cooperation and assured that the new\ngovernment will continue that relationship. It also appreciated the Bank for\nthe various assistance programs during the pandemic. The World Bank was the\nfirst donor agency to come forward with assistance when the pandemic first\nbroke out early this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Country Director said the World Bank\nwill assess how best to support Sri Lanka and to see how we can turn this\ncrisis into an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about Sri Lanka\u2019s priorities, Prime\nMinister Rajapaksa responded by pointing to several key sectors the Government\nwould like to priorities after the current outbreak situation is under control:\nEconomic development, roads, drinking water, sanitation and agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the area of agriculture, the two\ndelegations explored how farmers could be more empowered to produce value-added\nproducts that could be marketed internationally as uniquely Sri Lankan brands.\nThe World Bank Country Director highlight Sri Lanka\u2019s Ayurveda sector, noting\nthat there is a great international demand for Ayurvedic products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another area that was discussed was film\ntourism. With a very well-developed tourism sector, Hadad-Zervos said a\npossible next step for countries like Sri Lanka to increase tourism even\nfurther is to attract the entertainment industry from around the world to use\nSri Lanka as the location for productions. Studies have shown that seeing a\nlocation in a movie or television can have a significant impact on the number\nof tourists visiting that location. One of the most successful examples of\nfilm-induced tourism is New Zealand after being featured in the The Lord of the\nRings trilogy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Rajapaksa said the\nRanminithenna Tele Cinema Village was establish \u2014 during his presidency \u2014 with\nfilm tourism in mind. However, it was not put to good use during the past few\nyears. While there are examples of some popular films shot in Sri Lanka \u2014 such\nas The Bridge on the River Kwai, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Water\n\u2014 there is a lot of potential for growth, the two delegations agreed. The Prime\nMinister expressed a keen interest on further collaborating with the World Bank\nin this area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u0d85\u0d9c\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dcf\u0db8\u0dcf\u0dad\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0db8\u0dcf\u0db0\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0d85\u0d82\u0dc1\u0dba At a meeting with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this evening, World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos, commended the Sri Lankan Government for how it has dealt with the Coronavirus outbreak. Expressing deep gratitude for the relationship\u201d that Sri Lanka and the World Bank share, Hadad-Zervos congratulated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}