Traditional Friendship on 21st Century -Maritime Silk Road An Exclusive Dialogue with Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku,Ambassador of Sri Lanka in China

Guo Jieru I Reporter

Traditional Friendship on 21st Century -Maritime Silk Road An Exclusive Dialogue with Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku,Ambassador of Sri Lanka in China

Guo Jieru I Reporter

大使和中國朋友親切交談

IDC:Sri Lanka’s map looks like a pearl of the Indian Ocean. Last year, a journalist of IDC Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, with a cultureexchanged group organized by China Publication & Promotion Association. The beautiful city is decorated with tropical trees and lakes. And the Sri Lankan peoples’clear and virtuous eyes impressed me deeply. As Ambassador of Sri Lanka in the People’s Republic of China, it’s necessary to introduce your beloved country to the external world. Our readers tend to want to know it more. If they want to do a tour in Sri Lanka, where would you like to recommend? Which sites can be the Top 3?

Ambassador: At the outset I would like to extend my warm greetings to your readers and sincere thanks for your management for the opportunity offered to me, as well as to the Journalist of IDC who visited Sri Lanka to open this friendship between your readers and my beloved country, Sri Lanka.

I fully agree with you that Sri Lanka’s map looks like a pearl of the Indian Ocean. This is why many people introduced Sri Lanka in different ways from ancient times. Sri Lanka was known as “Lanka” in the ancient Indian Epic “Ramayana” which means resplendent island. In China the reference to Sri Lanka, particularly to its people, was “Seng Kia Lo”. In the great Indian Emperor, Dharmashoka’s time (03rd century B.C.), Sri Lanka was known as “Thambapanni”. The ancient Greeks called it “Taprobane”.

It is not an exaggeration to introduce Sri Lanka as one of the most beautiful countries in the world, which is why it’s known as “a Land Like no Other”. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the famous British Science fiction writer and prophet of space technology who made Sri Lanka his permanent home since the 1950s till his death a few years ago, said of it: “The island of Sri Lanka is a small universe. It

contains as many variations of culture, scenery and climate as some countries a dozen time its size”.

Sri Lanka provides a number of options to tourists who wish to have a memorable visit in a foreign country. Among them are seven World Heritage Sites, as declared by UNESCO. There are also clean sea beaches where tourists can enjoy the sunny weather all year around, as well as opportunities around the island to watch dolphins, whales and sharks, and wild life such as elephants in the many wild life parks in the country. They can also have a unique experience at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, which is the only such orphanage in any part of the world. Visitors will also have the opportunity to do some shopping, particularly gems and jewellery. As you may have heard, Sri Lanka is the land of Blue Sapphire.

It is difficult for me to name only three top places to visit in Sri Lanka as there are so many. However, among these options, some attractions tourist must not miss are Colombo, the Cultural Sites and particularly its world heritage sites, the wild life parks and the elephant orphanage, the sunny beaches and of course shopping to at least buy a souvenir. Since any one can now check what attractions they want to check online, I strongly suggest tourists to choose wisely as there are so many beautiful places to see in my country.

IDC: Before being appointed the Ambassador to China, you held the same position in Japan and Korea. As a 70-year-old diplomatic officer, why did you decide to accept this nomination? Is it relevant to your sense of mission? Could you tell the difference of the work between Japan, Korea and China?

Ambassador: It is true that I had the opportunity to serve my beloved country as a young Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Japan and the Republic of Korea, almost a quarter century ago. Following those, I worked as a Member of Parliament and a Cabinet Minister in Sri Lanka for a decade. Now I have come here as a senior Ambassador at a very significant juncture of the relations between Sri Lanka and the People’s Republic of China. Your country, under the farsighted leadership of your President H.E. Xi Jinping, has initiated the very ambitious “The Road and Belt” drive to connect the world meaningfully, encompassing nearly half of the countries in the world – and particularly the countries in Asia, including West and Central Asia, Africa and Europe.

Under this “Road and Belt”initiative, the Maritime Silk Road is most critical as international trade is dependent more on shipping. Your readership must be well aware of the fact that Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean has catered to Asia-Pacific-Europe sea routes for centuries. Historical records have, very correctly, mentioned the important role my country played in this area during ancient times. If we were to use today’s terminology, we can say Sri Lanka was the Transshipment Centre among Asia and Africa and Europe. Our historical documents mention that traders from East Africa, Middle East, Europe (from 16th Century onwards) and China sailed to Sri Lanka. These records further indicate that Chinese Silk was traded in Sri Lanka as far back as the 5th century AD.

From 1405 to 1433 AD, the great Chinese navigator Zheng He led seven expeditionary voyages to South Asia, the Arabic world and East Africa. He has stayed in Sri Lanka

six times, which proves the importance of Sri Lanka’s strategic location. During his 2nd visit to Sri Lanka in 1409, he has erected a tablet, which can be still observed at the Colombo Museum. It’s in three languages, and explains the role of international trade.

Therefore, in today’s context, Sri Lanka’s location is very vital for the success of your President’s “the Road and Belt” initiative. Both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremasinghe of Sri Lanka have pledged to cooperate with your President’s initiative. Therefore, as their accredited Ambassador to your great country, I accepted this nomination to serve both of our countries, as well as the whole world, through becoming an effective bridge between our two countries.

To respond to the last segment of your question briefly, I would like to say that it was almost a quarter century ago. At that time, Japan was the 2nd largest economy in the world and they extended a hand of friendship, particularly economic cooperation, to developing countries, which included both your country and my country at that time. During my tenure in Tokyo, Japan became the largest provider of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Sri Lanka. Similarly, when I was in the Republic of Korea, they were accelerating their economic growth very aggressively and relocating some of their industries to developing countries. So I was able to use that opportunity to invite many industrialists to invest in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the Republic of Korea became the country that had the highest number of FDI projects in Sri Lanka in the 1990s. I was extremely happy when I served in those two countries as I accomplished my mission of serving Sri Lanka to the best of my ability.

Today it is a different world; the position of each country has changed. In other words, it is a changing world, and those changes give different responsibilities – or rather challenges – to different countries. As I mentioned earlier, the role your country is playing today is a different to the role it played there decades ago. Therefore, it is difficult to compare the differences among countries. Hence, my view is that we must correctly understand today’s realities and respond to them effectively and timely.

IDC: It is said that education in Sri Lanka is free. As a former Minister of Education, what is your opinion of it? What does it bring to students and beautiful Sri Lanka? One of your daughter’s is a teacher and another daughter is a writer. Did they benefit from free education?

Ambassador: Yes, in Sri Lanka, Free Education has been in existence since 1945. Under this concept, of free education is provided from the kindergarten (in other words from Grade One) till the Undergraduate degree (in a state-owned university). A hundred percent of the tuition is given free of charge, which means students do not pay a single cent for tuition. This is unique to Sri Lanka, and in fact I must say it is a wonder in the world.

Even in ancient times, according to historical records, the village Buddhist temple provided education - free of tuition fees - at the temples. In Buddhist terminology, the educational section was known as a Pirivena or Monastery. However, the parents of students (the devotees) had given the first portions of their harvest to the temple to feed the inmates of the temple.

The main advantages we have derived by providing free education is human resource development. The level of literacy in Sri Lanka is above 95%. Free healthcare facilities are also given to every citizen, which is another world wonder. This, together with free education, has extended the life expectancy of our citizens to be beyond 75 years. Sri Lankan professionals who received the benefits of free education in their motherland are now serving mankind all over the world. We Sri Lankans are very proud of this accomplishment.

Yes, my children received the benefit of our system of national education, which is also available in fee-levying private schools in Sri Lanka. My two daughters attended a leading private school, which charges school fees. However, my son was at a public

school, which does not charge fees. They wanted to go abroad for their university education, although both my daughters were offered places at the free national universities on the basis of their General Certificate Advance Level Examination results. If I respond to your question objectively, I would say that my children received the benefit of our system of national education, as they followed that curriculum, which is available free of tuition fees to any Sri Lankan student who wishes to use the opportunity.

IDC: Thank you. Your explanation give us a whole frame of Sri Lanka. It’s beautiful, peaceful and positive. Besides Zhenghe and Chinese silk trade back to 5th A.D., there’s another important person whose name is Faxian, a Chinese monk who lived in DONGJIN Dynasty. The group led by him had visited more than 20 countries including Sri Lanka and started a thousandyear relationship between us. Until now, it has expended to the area of official development aid and economic cooperation. How many Chinese enterprises are in your beloved country? What is your impression of them?

Ambassador: Yes, according to historical records of both Sri Lanka and the Chinese scholar and Buddhist monk Rev. Faxian from the Shanxi province in China, who was the first Chinese who visited Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 5th century AD. However, there would have been unrecorded visits by Chinese visitors before him, as there was Chinese Silk in Sri Lanka by the time. Rev. Faxian arrived in our country.

When we discuss the contemporary world, Sri Lanka re-gained its independence in 1948. The New China was born in 1949. For your records I would like to inform that Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia that recognized the People’s Republic of China diplomatically within three months, in January 1950 itself, and accepted the One China Policy.

Unfortunately, the establishment of diplomatic relations to set up embassies in our two countries was delayed till 1957, due to fact that the Soviet Union blocked our admission to the UN till the end of 1955. This was due to the Cold War atmosphere that prevailed at that time. The USSR prevented our admission to the UN as Sri Lanka had entered into a Defense Agreement with the United Kingdom in 1948 as, at the time of our independence, Sri Lanka did not have its own defense forces. Just after the regaining of independence, some South Asian countries, particularly extremist groups of those countries, were violently aggressive. Therefore, Sri Lanka had no option other than going into a defense agreement with a country that could be trusted to guarantee our independence. This situation was interpreted by the USSR as Sri Lanka being an ally of western countries, and so it blocked our admission into the UN by using its veto power. That was the reason behind why Sri Lanka had to delay its diplomatic relations being commenced with the socialist block of countries.

However, Sri Lanka entered into the historic Rice and Rubber Trade Agreement with the People’s Republic of China and Sri Lanka in 1952, when Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon. Sri Lanka was the first non-communist country with which China entered into a trade agreement. Some Western countries were not happy about Sri Lanka’s decision, but we have had our own independent foreign policies since regaining independence in 1948, particularly with regard to the Asian countries. Sri Lanka’s independent foreign policy on the San Francisco Peace Agreement in 1951, which provided the opportunity for Japan to rise, is also well known. When Indonesia was fighting for independence and its colonial power, Netherlands, wanted to use Sri Lankan sea ports for their defense forces Sri Lanka denied port facilities to them.

Now, however, the world political order is different. More than political relations, economic relations have emerged as paramount factor. Both China and Sri Lanka have realized this reality and are doing well using this economic bridge for the well-being of the people of our two countries. The economic cooperation between our two countries is excellent, although the trade balance is much in favor of China. However, we hope this unfavorable trade balance will be compensated by the increasing numbers of Chinese tourists who visit Sri Lanka, as well as by the investments that are coming from China, from both state-owned and privately-owned Chinese entrepreneurs. I must thank the political leadership of China who has encouraged Chinese investment in Sri Lanka.

My impression of the Chinese enterprises in Sri Lanka is very positive. Chinese investment, the Chinese market for the exports of many countries and Chinese tourists for the tourism industry of most countries are becoming indispensable to most nations. Sri Lanka is no exception.

IDC: Yes, just as what you introduced, frequent bilateral high-level official visits make an effective bridge between China and Sri Lanka. What’s your opinion on the economic cooperation? What’s your advice to those Chinese enterprises who would like to invest in Sri Lanka?

Ambassador: Yes, both countries are very fortunate because there were a number of high level official visits between our two countries. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Sri Lanka in 2014, which was followed by our President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit in 2015. Then our Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe visited China a few months ago, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is due to visit Sri Lanka during the first quarter of 2017. When our Prime Minister met the Chinese President in April this year, he expressed his desire to visit Sri Lanka again after the Chinese Premier’s visit. Therefore, these frequent visits will pave the way for more cooperation between our two countries.

As I explained earlier, the Belt and Road initiatives have given tremendous opportunities to the countries that are connected to this longstanding, multipurpose development drive. As Sri Lanka’s strategic location has naturally given us a golden opportunity, Sri Lanka is prepared to use this wonderful chance. We want this opportunity to share our resources with Chinese entrepreneurs. Therefore we extend the hand of friendship to Chinese enterprises to come to Sri Lanka to share this great opportunity by investing your capital, technology and, most importantly, your entrepreneurship with Sri Lanka.