Srilanka

The ‘Udarai Oba& musical extravaganza organized by the Seva Vanitha Unit (SVU) of the Ministry of Defence was held at the Nelum Pokuna theatre, yesterday (14) and President Maithripala Sirisena participated as the chief Guest in the function.‘Udarai Oba& musical extravaganza held with the aim to raise funds for the establishment of a Vocational Training Centre (VTC) for Tri Forces, Police and Civil Security Department personnel and their family members.The Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, tri-forces commanders and many others participated on this occasion.

Sixty-four police officers including two DIGs and the Director of the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) SP A.K.D.U. Hemantha, two DIGs and 62 Officers had been transferred on service requirement, police said. Accordingly CCD Director SP Hemantha has been transferred to the Trincomalee Division while SP G.J. Nandana had been appointed as the Director CCD from the Ratnapura Division.

SLNS "Sindurala" and SLNS "Suranimila" which left for India on last 5th September to participate in Sri Lanka India Naval Exercise-2019, arrived the island.Accordingly, SLNS "Sindurala" arrived at Naval Dockyard Trincomalee ‍on 14th September while SLNS "Suranimila" arrived the port of Colombo on 15th September and the two ships were welcomed SL Navy in accordance with Naval traditions. Commander Eastern Naval Area Rear Admiral Meril Wickramasinghe and senior officers in the command, were also present on the welcoming of SLNS "Sindurala". Officers attached to the Western Naval Command attended the welcoming of SLNS "Suranimila"at the port of Colombo.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) is aggressively working to promote Sri Lanka by investing Rs. 1.5 billion. To this end it has identified five clusters which generate highest number of arrivals including the countries such as USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium with concentrating more on European market. &The aim of focusing attention on the European market is because they are regarded as high spending tourists. With the introduction of a visa-fee free scheme we saw a growth in Indian tourists while a decrease was recorded in Chinese tourist arrivals,& Chairman SLTPB, Kishu Gomes said.A decision has been taken to launch an incentive scheme for tour operators to encourage them to generate more business for the country,& he said.&Though the promotional campaign is on hold, we are working on an attractive marketing ad campaign aligned with a PR strategy to promote the country in an aggressive manner as never before,& he said.However, the industry stakeholders say that there is a lot more to do to put the tourism industry on track.