{"id":113882,"date":"2021-04-28T16:17:39","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T23:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113882"},"modified":"2021-04-28T16:17:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T23:17:39","slug":"opening-remarks-by-the-hon-prime-minister-mahinda-rajapaksa-at-the-bilateral-discussion-with-general-wei-fenghe-state-councilor-and-minister-of-national-defense-of-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/28\/opening-remarks-by-the-hon-prime-minister-mahinda-rajapaksa-at-the-bilateral-discussion-with-general-wei-fenghe-state-councilor-and-minister-of-national-defense-of-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Remarks by the Hon.Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Bilateral Discussion with General Wei Fenghe State Councilor and Minister of National Defense of CHINA"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Prime Minister\u2019s Media Unit<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Hon. Minister, I\u2019m am very happy to welcome you to Sri\nLanka. We appreciate your deciding to visit despite the pandemic situation. We\nhave had a number of high-level visits from China since the outbreak of the\npandemic. I look forward to our discussion today and the opportunity, through\nthis visit, to further strengthen our already strong and friendly bilateral\nrelations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the outset, allow me to convey my warm wishes on\nthe 100th year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party this year and for all\nits achievements.&nbsp;It is indeed an important milestone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, let me also congratulate you on your\nachievements in poverty alleviation. China has uplifted nearly 100 million\nrural residents out of absolute poverty. And you have accomplished this 10 year\nin advance of the completion of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal in\npoverty alleviation. This is an impressive achievement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hon. Minister, I think we can agree that it has now\nbecome very clear to the entire world that vaccines will be the only way to\novercome this pandemic. On that front, on behalf of all Sri Lankans, I extend\nmy sincere appreciation for the generous donation&nbsp;of&nbsp;600,000 doses of\nSinopharm&nbsp;vaccines and Personal Protective Equipment&nbsp;since the\noutbreak of the pandemic. We look forward to China\u2019s continued support in\ndealing with this crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the increase in COVID-19 cases in recent\nweeks, our Government has decided not to pursue country-wide lockdowns due to\nthe impact such lockdowns have on our economy and society. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll\nagree that there is still a lot that needs to be done for post-pandemic\neconomic recovery. One of our main priorities in this effort is to attract\ninvestments from around the world. I look forward your support in rebuilding\ninvestor confidence in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hon. Minister, I thank you once again for your visit\nand look forward to working closely with you and your Government to overcome\nthe challenges posed by the pandemic and further enhance our cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister\u2019s Media Unit Hon. Minister, I\u2019m am very happy to welcome you to Sri Lanka. We appreciate your deciding to visit despite the pandemic situation. We have had a number of high-level visits from China since the outbreak of the pandemic. I look forward to our discussion today and the opportunity, through this visit, [&hellip;]<\/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-113882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113882","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=113882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}