Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Major General Jayanath Lokuketagodage (Retd) called on Finance Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar here Saturday evening and discussed matters pertaining to bilateral co-operation. He was accompanied by Ms Wijayanthi Edirisinghe, Minister / Head of Chancery of the High Commission of Sri Lanka. Jayanath Lokuketagodage said he was pleased to assume responsibilities as High Commissioner to Pakistan.
He said Sri Lanka strongly desired to expand its economic co-operation with countries in the region, especially Pakistan and it would be his endeavour to further build up Pak-Sri Lanka contacts.
Finance Minister while welcoming the Sri Lankan High Commissioner said that all possible support would be extended to him for fortifying Pak-Sri Lanka ties in different fields particularly in economic sphere. The Minister referred to his meetings with his Sri Lankan counterpart recently in Beijing and Davos and added they shared views on advancement of bilateral economic co-operation.
The Sri Lankan Envoy on the occasion also mentioned about the recent visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Sri Lanka which ushered new era of co-operation. Minister Dar said that Pakistan was keen to follow the goal of increasing bilateral trade volume with Sri Lanka and that both countries could jointly work to achieve this objective. Jayanath Lokuketagodage thanked the Finance Minister for sparing time out of his busy schedule to receive him for a meeting. Senior officials of the Ministry of Finance also attended the meeting.