Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has assured the newly introduced relaxed visa regulations and investment facilitation schemes of Board of Investment will help to attract more Turkish investors to Sri Lanka. He said this when Ambassador of Turkey Rakibe Demet called on him at the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday and informed him about difficulties faced by some of the Turkish businessmen in obtaining long-term residential visas.
Ms Demet thanked the Prime Minister and said this assurance would help her Embassy’s efforts to promote Turkish investments in Sri Lanka.
The Prime Minister said Turkey has the opportunities now to invest in new sectors such as production of agricultural machinery, medicine, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment and renewable energy and fisheries sectors.
The Turkish Ambassador said her country has already provided a stock of medicine and surgical equipment for the health sector last month and two more consignments of medicine will arrive in Sri Lanka next week. The Prime Minister thanked Turkey for the support and assistance provided to Sri Lanka under renewed assistance programmes of the Turkey Development and Cooperation Agency for development work as well as to help early recovery from current economic problems.
They also discussed the plans for tourism promotion and expand Turkish Airlines’ Ankara-Colombo-Male flights.
Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake was also present during the meeting.