On April 25, the Embassyhosted a reception at Colombo Port City for participants of the China-Sri Lanka Seminar on Experience Exchange in the Field of Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation.H.E. Ambassador Qi Zhenhong and Hon. Nandika Kumanayaka, Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka, attended and delivered speeches. Around 40 guests, includingparticipants of the seminar and officials from relevant government departments of Sri Lanka, attended the event.

Ambassador Qi congratulated the participants on the successful conclusion of the seminar and expressed the hope that they would become important bridges and bonds for China-Sri Lanka friendship and cooperation. He emphasized that the success of Chinese modernization shows clearly that modernization does not mean Westernization.Every country can walk its own path, based on its own history, values, and strengths. China and Sri Lanka are good partners in pursuing development. China firmly supports Sri Lanka in pursuing a modernization path suited to its own national conditions. He expressed confidence that under the strong leadership of President Dissanayake, the Sri Lankan people will overcome risks and challenges and write a new chapter of national renewal. However, development is never easy. The USrecently took the unilateral step of imposing so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on all its trading partners, attempting to deprive other countries of their rights to free trade and development for its own selfish interests. Such actions have severely undermined the interests of developing countries, including China and Sri Lanka. In the face of such tariff bullying and power politics, China has no choice but to stand firmand respond with strong countermeasures. This is not only about defending China’s own legitimate rights and interests, but also about standing up for fairness and justice, upholding therules-basedinternational order, and safeguarding the development rights of all nations.

Hon. Kumanayaka expressed his sincere gratitude to the Chinese government for organizing this important program for government officials of Sri Lanka, to exchange experiences on economic development and poverty alleviation. He noted that China has demonstrated remarkable achievements in the last few decades, becoming the world’s largest manufacturing industrial economy and exporter of goods.In near future, China will become the world leader, obtaining the largest GDP.China has been able to take nearly 800 million of people out of the poverty, and is a globalleader in innovation, 5G, Quantum Computing and space exploration.He emphasized that the new government of Sri Lanka also has a strong mandate to boost the economic growth to move out of the crisis and also to eradicate the poverty, and therefore can learn from China’s valuable development experience. The seminar perfectly matched Sri Lanka’s current development needs, and it is believed that the participants can adopt their experiences to the Sri Lankan context, making use of this program.

Representatives of the participants fondly recalled their unforgettable experience in China, expressing heartfelt thanks to the Chinese side for the precious opportunity and deep admiration for China’s achievements in economic and social development. They noted that the Belt and Road Initiative has injected strong momentum into the economic and social development of participating countries and yielded fruitful results,and that China’s success in poverty alleviation and high-quality development has brought hope and opportunities to developing countries around the world.The seminar was not just about knowledge sharing and experience exchange－it built a bridge of friendship between China and Sri Lanka, laying a solid foundation for the long-term development of bilateral relations.

To implement the important consensus reached by the two presidents in January this year, and to strengthen exchange of governance experience between the two countries, the National Development and Reform Commission of China hosted the China-Sri Lanka Seminar on Experience Exchange in the Field of Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation from March 23 to April 5. 28 senior officials from 13 Sri Lankan government departments participated in the program, engaging in in-depth study and discussion on topics such as poverty reduction, rural revitalization, green economy, digital transformation, and national governance.