On August 24, Charge d’affaires Mr. Hu Wei of the Chinese embassy and Minister of Education Prof. G. L. Peiris jointly hosted an in-depth working meeting to implement the important consensus reached by leaders of the two countries, and enhance bilateral educational cooperation especially on vocational training and skills development. State Minister of Skills Development and Vocational Education Dr. Seetha Arambepola, Secretary of Education Prof. Kapila Perera and Cultural Counselor of the embassy Mr. Liu Dong joined the meeting.
Hu Wei congratulated Prof. G.L. Peiris on his assumption of office as Minister of the newly re-structured Education Ministry and appreciated the latter’s long-time contribution to the development of China-Sri Lanka relations. Hu briefed about recent collaboration between the two countries on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic including more than 200,000 face masks donated by the embassy to Sri Lankan students across the island. The Chinese Envoy appraised that Sri Lanka has always attached great importance to education, which is believed to be a most important reason why Sri Lanka could regionally lead in developing its country and fighting the COVID-19. China would continue to strengthen cooperation with Sri Lanka on education and vocational training to better serve the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, and deliver more benefits to the two countries and the two peoples.
Prof. G.L. Peiris highlighted the solid and unbreakable friendship between the two countries is rooted in multi-layers of government to government, party to party, and people to people level. Exploring the human resources is a big priority for the new government under the leadership of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and also a practical need to promote the mega cooperation projects between the two countries including Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port & Industrial Park. The Sri Lankan government is looking forward to having deeper cooperation with China on higher education and skills training, which will provide more impetus for the country’s progress as well as the the friendship between the two nations.
Dr. Seetha Arambepola applauded China’s practice that the vocational training and skills development should be employment-oriented. The State Minister also seeks China’s support in providing faculty resources, upgrading training equipment as well as creating more jobs in Sri Lanka.
