A four member delegation from the Municipality of Xi’an City Municipality of China is visiting Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Pathfinder Foundation (PF). The main objective of their visit is to explore developing a Sister City Programme initially with Kandy and/or Colombo for mutually beneficial relations.

The delegation consists of Xi’an Municipal Foreign Affairs Office Deputy-Director Wang Xiaozhen, Xi’an Municipal Finance Bureau Kong Hong Deputy-Director Ma Shaomin, Xi’an Municipal Auditing Bureau Deputy-Director and Xi’an Municipal Foreign Affairs Office Staff Quan Di.

The visiting delegation officially invited the Mayor of Colombo or Kandy to attend the ‘2015 Euro-Asia Economic Forum’ in Xi’an in September.
This delegation met Pathfinder Foundation (PF) Founder Milinda Moragoda at the Peliyagoda office and the delegation discussed the potential for cooperation between the two cities i.e. Xi’an – Colombo/Kandy in the areas of culture, heritage preservation and tourism on mutual benefits for both countries.

PF Chairman Bernard Goonetilleke, PF Executive Director Luxman Siriwardena and Project Manager Ameera Arooz also participated in this discussion.
Xi’an City is one of the most prominent cities in China, being the centre of the ancient Silk Road. It is also the birth place of the current President Xi Jinping. The city is internationally famous for historic sculptures of Terra Cotta warriors, which attract millions of tourists every year. Forming a Sister City relationship with a historically important city in Sri Lanka will benefit mostly the local city in terms of cultural and educational exchanges, business-to-business relationships and in promoting Chinese tourism to Sri Lanka.

The PF, a prominent economic think tank in Sri Lanka has been diversifying its international cooperation by developing links with similar think tanks in India, China, the USA, Norway and exploring similar opportunities in other parts of the world. As a result of this, the foundation has already developed Track II dialogues between Sri Lanka - USA, Sri Lanka - India and Sri Lanka – Japan while a similar initiative with China is well in progress. All such initiatives lead to strengthening people-to- people relations, cultural and educational programmes and mutually beneficial business promotions.