Sri Lanka and Tanzania travel and economic partnership

TANZANIA (eTN) – Looking at strengthening economic and travel partnerships with Tanzania, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa is set for a five-day official visit to Tanzania this week.

Reports from the Sri Lakan capital of Colombo said President Rajapaksa will arrive in the Tanzanian capital city of Dar es Salaam mid-this week in his “Look Africa” policy which he had adopted when he became Sri Lanka’s President in November 2005.

No more details were available about the Sri Lanka President’s visit to Tanzania, but reports say the Sri Lanka statesman will center his talks on economic and trade partnership with Tanzania and other African countries, among areas of priority cooperation will be tourism and travel interactions.

Mr. Rajapaksa will be in Tanzania shortly before the official tour of US President Barack Obama, scheduled for next Monday.

This will be the first visit of a Sri Lanka President to Tanzania. He earlier visited Uganda last month (May).

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete is expected to receive the Sri Lanka President and enter into a few agreements to lay a foundation for strong bilateral relations with Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka President is also expected to participate in the Smart Partnership Dialogue Forum for Developing Countries in Tanzania from June 28 to July 1 this year.

Sri Lanka is a tourist paradise island offering visitors incomparable beach holidays. With the aquamarine waters of the Indian Ocean gently lapping its pristine shores, Sri Lanka’s beaches are covered with soft warm sand. With over 1,300 km of beach on offer, it is boastful of hours of fun in the sun.

These parks, and the rest of the country, harbor an astonishing range of fauna and flora, many of them endemic to Sri Lanka. This includes over 4,000 species of flowering plants, 245 species of butterfly, 85 species of freshwater fish, 207 species of reptiles, 108 species of amphibians, 492 species of birds, 95 terrestrial species of mammals, and several thousand invertebrates.

Sri Lanka tourists prefer to visit African safari destinations including Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, and South Africa, all rich in wildlife tourism. Tanzania. which is one the world’s prime wildlife destinations, attracted almost one million visitors last year of which 90 percent visited national parks.