The Sri Lanka China Society marked its 45th anniversary on Wednesday at a commemorative event in Colombo, held ahead of China’s Mid-Autumn Festival.
The gathering at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall drew members of the society alongside Sri Lankan government officials and representatives of the Chinese Embassy in Colombo, Xinhua reported.
Society president Jinith de Silva told the agency ahead of the event that he was proud of the organisation’s record in promoting friendship between the two countries. He said the society intends to revive and hold regularly the meetings, seminars and discussions it runs to deepen members’ understanding of China — an acknowledgement that the programme had lapsed.
Ni Lisheng, head of the China Cultural Centre in Sri Lanka, thanked the society for what he described as long-standing cooperation with the centre on cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and said it had a central part in presenting Sri Lankans with a picture of modern China.
A technology theme
Prof. Chrishantha Abeysena, Minister of Science and Technology, used his address to press a practical case rather than a ceremonial one. China had become a leading player in fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics, he said, and Sri Lanka needed to draw on that experience through routine communication and exchange.
The remark sits alongside a run of technology-focused engagement between the two governments this year, including a Chinese-backed proposal to apply AI within Sri Lanka’s judicial system and a smart agriculture technology programme discussed with the Agriculture Minister.
Background
Established in 1981, the Sri Lanka China Society is one of the older civil society organisations working on relations between the two countries, operating in the people-to-people space rather than as a government body. Its anniversary falls in a period of unusually dense bilateral activity in Colombo: a new Chinese ambassador, Wei Huaxiang, took up his post in August, and the two sides held a media cooperation seminar earlier this month.
A note on sourcing: this account rests on a single report by Xinhua, China’s state news agency, which is not among the newsrooms LankaNewz counts as independently verified. No Sri Lankan newsroom appears to have covered the event. The details above — attendance, speakers and their remarks — should be read as the agency’s account.