Saudi Arabia has reportedly pledged $300 million in aid to Sri Lanka for water supply projects and agricultural, education and health sector development, according to Sri Lankan media outlets.
Saudi ambassador Abdul Nazar Al Hardi announced the assistance project to reporters during a visit to a road development project in Padiyatalawa in eastern Sri Lanka on Sunday.
“We are happy to assist Sri Lanka and look forward to strengthening bilateral ties with Sri Lanka,†he said.
Sri Lanka has been actively seeking to improve ties with Saudi Arabia for the last several years, particularly in the tourism sector. In 2017, more than 50,000 Saudi nationals visited Sri Lanka.
Additionally, the Saudi Fund for Development has been operating in Sri Lanka for more than 30 years, and recently funded a 200-bed hospital for epileptics in the capital of Colombo.
Sri Lankan airlines also operates 18 return flights to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to cater to the Sri Lankan expatriate population in the kingdom, the largest Sri Lankan community in the Middle East.
For all the latest business news from the UAE and Gulf countries, follow us on Twitter and Linkedin, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube page, which is updated daily.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) said today that it has completed investigations into…
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has reported to the Colombo Magistrate’s Court today (20) that…
With projections indicating historically high levels of inflows from the services trade and workers’ remittances,…
A delegation of experts and specialists from the UK tea industry is in Sri Lanka…
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake assured that the government has implemented measures to ensure that there…
National People’s Power (NPP) Kurunegala District MP Dharmapriya Dissanayake said that all members of parliament…