MFA Press Release: Transcript of Joint Press Conference by Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama following their meeting at the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 16 Oct 2009

Minister Rohitha Bogollagama: It is my great pleasure and privilege to welcome the distinguished Foreign Minister of Singapore George Yeo to Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Minister's visit is both a bilateral and multilateral visit, part of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), that we held yesterday. [inaudible] During the visit of the honourable Minister, I have been able to engage with him during the last two days. Today is the third day that we are discussing matters particularly in terms of our core bilateral relationship. The Minister's contribution at the ACD was of immense value in bringing a wider dimension to Sri Lanka's multilateral engagement. Today, the Minister visited Tangalle in order to officiate at a ceremony where a Singapore rehabilitated school in Tangalle district was handed-over to the Sri Lanka authorities. We greatly appreciate this gesture associated with the Tsunami development programme and supported directly by the Government of Singapore.

We are also looking forward to the Minister's visit to Jaffna and to Trincomalee tomorrow so that in the post conflict development agenda of Sri Lanka, the role Singapore could play could be well assessed, identified and worked towards. My discussions with the honourable Minister centred on how best we could lift up the potential of Sri Lanka Tamils in the economic areas of engagement. Today, Singapore is one of the largest trading partners of Sri Lanka. We are looking at the service sector in addition to the urban development areas, including the real estate development. Singapore has contributed immensely to the landscape of Sri Lanka and to bring about the high-rise buildings that we witness in the city of Colombo. All that has been contributed by Singapore investors for which we are grateful. We want to expand our relationship in the service sector, the industrial sector and as I said the real estate sector too. We look forward to engagement in the multi-lateral fora and in order to make Sri Lanka's potential most significant, we have also discussed or asked people to look at the comprehensive partnership between Sri Lanka and Singapore including the prospects of a Free Trade Agreement. With these words, I would now invite the distinguished Foreign Minister to speak to you and thereafter we will be available for any questions to be responded. Thank you.

Minister George Yeo: Thank you Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama. I am delighted to be here in Sri Lanka after many years. My wife and I visited this island as tourists in 1986 but I have not been back until two days ago. The links between Sri Lanka and Singapore are profound links going back to the days of the British. There is a very able and successful Sri Lankan community in Singapore. In fact, all four of my children were delivered by Sri Lankan doctors and right up to the 1950s Sri Lanka was a model for Singapore. Unfortunately during the long years of conflict even though there was some toing and froing, the bilateral relationship fell way below potential. But now, with the end of the war and your country moving onto a new phase of national reconciliation, of economic development, of emphasis on education and human resource development, I think the prospects for improved bilateral cooperation between Singapore and Sri Lanka have brightened considerably. My visit is on top of that. Yesterday, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama hosted the ACD very successfully and chaired the discussions in a very deft way. The mood was very good and the subtext was a new Sri Lanka in this new Asia, geographically very well positioned and with great potential to be a new hub in the larger Asia. In that future, I believe Singapore and Sri Lanka will have a lot to cooperate on. I support and associate myself fully with what Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has just said about what we can do bilaterally.

This morning, and early afternoon I was in Tangalle. In the school which we had refurbished, there were all these kids, fully of enthusiasm, bright-eyed, energetic and I felt "Wow, with education, with equipment, with networks, they will fly." Tomorrow, I am quite sure that when I go to Jaffna and Trincomalee, once the infrastructure is in place, once the schools are re-established, once the knowledge is there, so much can be done. We would be privileged and honoured to be part of this future. Thank you.

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