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Historical Context |
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Post Independence Relations |
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Agreements |
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Bilateral cooperation |
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Trade & Investment |
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Tourism |
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Culture |
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Sri Lankan Community in Belgium |
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Historical Context
Earliest contact between the two countries was when Belgian priests
and nuns played an important role in missionary work in Ceylon. From
the 17th century, they were dedicated to teaching, in addition to
being involved in religious activities. As early as 1620, Nicolao
Paludano from Liège, spent most of his life in pastoral work
in Jaffna and is said to have been fluent in the Tamil language.
The Oblate Fathers of Our Lady were also very active in Colombo
and Jaffna, and the Franciscan Sisters and the Sisters of Charity
from Ghent, did their activities in many other places. Mother Solange
from Huy was the founder of the ‘Teacher Training College of Bolawalana’.
In 1862, the Papal Seminary in Kandy was also entrusted to the Belgian Jesuits.
This seminary trained priests from 9 ecclesiastical provinces of India and Ceylon.
Earliest recorded political contact was when during his voyage to the Far-East King Leopold
II, then the Duke of Brabant, visited Ceylon in 1864, one year before he ascended the throne.
He toured the island for 16 days and visited, among other places, Galle, Colombo and Kandy.
He had the honour of inaugurating the railway line from Veyangoda to Ambepussa. He also visited the
Ramboda waterfalls and the famous Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya.
In 1911, Dr. Kamiel Vermoesen, Professor of Natural Science at the University of
Leuven, visited Sri Lanka, on behalf of the Belgium Government, to study tropical plant diseases,
mainly in the coffee plantations. He stayed in Sri Lanka for one year in Peradeniya.
In 1925, King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth visited the Papal Seminary in Kandy which was
administered by Belgian Jesuit Priests. During this visit King Albert I planted a tree
‘Amherstia Nobilis’ ( Pride of Burma) at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya. This tree,
has presently flourished into a spectacular specimen, with a height of about 15 metres.
A Sri Lankan also owns the only existing Belgian ‘Pipe ’ car remaining in the world. Available in Colombo since 1914, it is in perfect condition.
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Post Independence Relations
Diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and Belgium was established in 1953
and the Sri Lanka Embassy in Brussels was established in July 1973. The Embassy
is supported by an Hony. Consul of Sri Lanka in Antwerp,
which position has been held by Ms. Monique de Decker Deprez, since, 1997.
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The Belgian Embassy in New Delhi is concurrently accredited to cover the diplomatic relations
with Sri Lanka, while Belgium has also appointed an Honorary Consul in Colombo.
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In March 2001 President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
visited Belgium and had an audiance with His Majesty King Albert II.
She also met Hon. Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium.
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In October 2004, Hon. Anura Bandaranaike, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Tourism Promotion
visited Belgium.
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Belgium was one of the first countries to come
to Sri Lanka’s assistance at the time of the 2004 Tsunami. Soldiers
of the Belgian Army were engaged in the ‘Sri Lanka Southern Coast
Reconstruction Programme’. In January 2005, Hon. Andre Flahaut,
Minister of Defence of Belgium visited Sri Lanka. In February 2005,
Hon. Karel De Gucht, Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Sri Lanka
to support the tsunami recovery efforts and had meetings with Prime
Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium in her capacity as
head of the Belgian Red Cross, accompanied by the Belgium Minister
for Development Cooperation, Hon. Armand De Decker also visited Sri Lanka in June 2005,
to assess the operationalization of Belgium aid on the ground.
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Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Finance visited
Belgium in March 2005, and in May 2005 Hon. Anura Bandaranaike, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Tourism Promotion and Hon.
Jeyaraj Fernandopulle , Minister of Trade and Commerce, visited Belgium.
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In March 2006, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera visited Brussels.
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Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama visited Belgium
in September 2007. During this visit he called on the Foreign Minister and
the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Belgium and had an audience
with Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid. During a second visit to Belgium
in January 2009, he met with Belgian Prime Minister Herman
Van Rompuy and also re-launched the Belgolux -Sri Lanka Business Council.
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In March 2010, a high level delegation including Attorney
General Mr. Mohan Peiris, Secretary to the Treasury Dr. P.B. Jayasundara,
Secretary to Ministry of Justice Mr. Suhanda Gamlath and Secretary to the
Ministry of External Affairs Mr. Romesh Jayasingha, visited Belgium.
Mr. Romesh Jayasinghe, Secretary/Ministry of External Affairs, held bilateral consultation with
Mr. Dirk Achten, Secretary General of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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In March 2011, the Governor of the Central Bank of
Sri Lanka Mr. Ajith Nivard Cabraal visited Belgium. He met with Mr. Guy
Quaden, the Governor of the Belgian Central Bank and held discussions
with Mr. Dirk Achten, Secretary General of the Belgian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and officials of Ducroire/Delcredere SA.NV (ONDD)
on Sri Lanka’s country risk ratings. He also made a presentation
at the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) titled “ Sri Lanka’s Economic Resurgence and Future Prospects”.
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In November 2011, Hon. Rishard Bathiudeen, Minister of
Industry & Commerce visited Belgium, leading a Sri Lankan business delegation.
He also held discussions with Mr. Dirk Achten, Secretary General of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Officials of the Belgian Export Financing Department (FINEXPO).
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Agreements
With a view to strengthen relations, Sri Lanka and Belgium have entered into
a number of agreements. The two countries signed an Agreement on Development
Cooperation in March 1977, an Investment Protection Agreement in April 1982
and an Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement in February 1983. In December
1998, both parties signed an Air Transport Agreement and in March 2001 two
agreements were signed to promote investment and to strengthen
bilateral cooperation in the fields of technology and financial assistance.
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The Belgium Corporation for International Investment (SBI),
the Belgium Institution especially set up to encourage Small Scale & Medium
Industrial Investment in other countries entered into an agreement with
the National Development Bank (NDB) and the Development Finance
Corporation of Ceylon (DFCC) - the two major development banks
in Sri Lanka. An agreement was also signed in 2001 by the two
parties in order
to enable financial cooperation in the field of investment.
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Another milestone in corporation between the two countries
is the agreement signed on Maritime Transport between the Government of Sri
Lanka and Belgium in October, 2003. Besides, Sri Lanka and Belgium also have signed a number
of ‘specific agreements’ aimed at operationalizing short term projects.
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Bilateral cooperation
Belgium provides funding under their Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects to Sri Lanka.
Currently five projects worth 32.3 million Euros are being funded by FINEXPO.
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Following extensive discussions the Embassy held with the Ducroire/Delcredere SA.NV (ONDD),
in November 2010, ONDD revised Sri Lanka’s short term political risk categorization from 5 to 3,
which is more favourable than the prevailing OECD rankings.
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The travel advisory published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium on Sri Lanka was positively
revised in 2010 and has encouraged Belgians to visit Sri Lanka in greater numbers.
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Cooperation in Countering Terrorism is an important aspect
in bilateral cooperation between Belgium and Sri Lanka. During the LTTE phase
and thereafter the Mission has lobbied the Belgian Foreign Ministry and its
Counter Terrorism Coordinator, and worked closely with the Belgian Federal
Police (BFP) for country action to arrest activities by LTTE activists
and LTTE front organizations using Belgian soil. Sri Lankan authorities
have also cooperated with the BFP in particular in an investigation of
LTTE operatives in Belgium. Pursuant to the visit of a delegation
from the BFP to Sri Lanka, several arrests have been made of LTTE
operatives in Belgium and investigations are underway. In March 2011,
consultations were also held in Brussels between Mr. D.M.Rupasinghe,
Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Mr.
Jean Claude Delepiere, Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of Belgium.
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In 2012, Vlaamse Interuniversitare Raad
(Flemish Inter-University Council) of Belgium resumed their
University Development Corporation (UOS) scholarship programme
for Sri Lanka which had been suspended in 2007. Through this
programme Sri Lankan students will annually receive 13 scholarships
to follow Masters & Ph.D. level study programs in some of the prestigious
Belgian Universities including Katholieke University of Leuven and the University of Ghent.
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Trade & Investment
Belgium is the 3rd largest destination of Sri Lankan exports among EU countries
and the 4th largest destination of Sri Lanka’s exports to the world. Exports from
Sri Lanka to Belgium grew by 50.1 % in 2011 (565.4 Million $), compared to the corresponding period of 2010 (376.4 Million $).
Sri Lanka has enjoyed a favorable balance of trade with Belgium in recent years.
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Diamonds have been the main item of export from Sri Lanka to Belgium.
It accounted for 64% of the total value of the exports in 2007 and 58% of
the total in 2011. Other item of exports include apparel products, precious &
semi-precious stones, rubber products, food beverages and tobacco, tea, sea
food, natural rubber and coconut kernel products etc.
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While the trade balance continued to be very much
in Sri Lanka’s favour, Sri Lanka’s imports from Belgium, which is Sri Lanka’s
11th largest supplier, and the largest among EU countries, grew by 56.4% in the first nine months of
2011 (405.4 Million $), compared to the corresponding period of 2010 (259.2 Million $)
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Imports from Belgium to Sri Lanka are mainly
uncut diamonds which accounted for 82% of the value of total
imports in the year 2007 and 87% in the year 2011. The other import items from Belgium are medicaments, machinery &
equipment parts, organic chemical elements, medicaments, fabrics and unmanufactured tobacco etc.
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Belgium was the second largest source of investment
among EU member countries to invest in Sri Lanka in 2010, recording
investment amounting to 11.28 Million US$.
Investment in Sri Lanka generated from Belgium upto 2010 was over 100 Million US $.
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Belgian companies have invested in diverse areas
such as diamond cutting, manufacturing of jewellery, rubber based products,
coir products, food processing, IT and tobacco processing. Some of the
leading Belgian companies operating in Sri Lanka include, Loadstar (Pvt)
Ltd in Solid rubber based products/ solid tires, United Tobacco Proc.
(Pvt) Ltd in Tobacco processing , Blanka Diamond Ltd in cut diamonds,
Samtessi Brush
(Pvt) Ltd in coir products, Ecode Sri Lanka (pvt) LTD in IT solutions.
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The Embassy has continued to play a catalytic
role in promoting bi-lateral trade and business interests between Sri
Lanka and Belgium. Following the ending of the terrorist conflict, availing
of the new opportunity presented for trade and economic cooperation, the
Belgolux-Sri Lanka Business Council (BSLBC), which was originally formed
in 1997, was re-launched in January 2009. In February 2011, the BSLBC
was incorporated as a non-profit organization in Belgium. In July
2011 the BSLBC signed an MOU with the Benelux-Sri Lanka Business Council
of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, with a view to expanding their activities in Sri Lanka.
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With a view to further expand trade & investment between the two countries,
a 28 member Belgian business delegation from Belgium participated in the
‘Sri Lanka Expo 2012’, which was held from 28 March to 31 March 2012 in Colombo.
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Tourism
The Embassy has promoted tourism in Belgium since its inception. Particularly,
since the ending of the terrorist conflict in Sri Lanka, the Mission has vigorously
promoted Sri Lanka as a tourist destination. The Mission launched an ambitious
program to re-brand Sri Lanka as a tourist destination even as the conflict
was nearing its end in April 2009, which was followed by the Mission’s
participation and sponsoring of a variety of tourism and cultural
promotional programmes. Sri Lanka was the host country of the
Bel-Asia tourism fair in February 2010, and annually participated
in some of the highly reputed tourism fairs & road shows specialized
in both Business to Business (B2B) & Business to Client (B2C),
such as Salon des Vacances, Bel- Asia, BT-Expo, Bruges Travel
Expo and Jetair Road Show. The Mission is also promoting Sri
Lanka as a MICE tourism destination and has been instrumental
in arranging visits of Belgian travel television crews and
travel journalists to Sri Lanka. In 2009, a television crew
from the ‘één TV’ channel, in 2010 a group of 14 journalists and in 2011 two travel
journalists visited Sri Lanka from Belgium for promotional purposes.
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Belgian tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka which increased
from 2,617 in 2009, to 5,398 in 2010, recorded 10,122 in 2011, surpassing
the previous recorded highest number of Belgians who visited Sri Lanka, which
was 6,333 in 2006. This also reflected a growth of 87.5% over 2010, which is the
highest percentage growth of tourist arrivals from any country to Sri Lanka in 2011.
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Many Belgian tour operators have re-introduced Sri Lanka
in their tour catalogues since 2011. Also Brussels & Colombo is now connected
seven days a week through a number of airlines - Ethihad, Qatar, Jet Airways
& Royal Jordanian, besides Sri Lankan Airlines through easy connections
through London, Paris and Frankfurt.
This has given Belgian tourists greater travel options to visit Sri Lanka. |
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Culture
Since May 2008, the Embassy has introduced the practice of conducting events to
commemorate the ceremonies of significance of the great religions of Sri Lanka
- Buddhism (Vesak), Hinduism (Thai Pongal), Islam (Iftar Festival) and
Christianity (Christmas). These events have been attended by the Sri Lankan community residing in
Belgium and friends of Sri Lanka, cutting across religious affiliation.
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The Mission also organized commemoration of the 2600th Anniversary
of the Sambuddhatwa Jayanthi in May 2011 with a ‘Pirith Ceremony’ at the Sri Lanka
Residence. Seven Buddhist monks from Paris, Germany, Belgium & Sri Lanka, led by Ven.
Murungasyaye Gnanissara thero, Chief Incumbent of Jethawana Vihara in Paris took
part in this pirith ceremony. The ceremony was attended by Ambassadors and
diplomatic representatives from Asian countries, representatives
of Buddhist Organizations in Belgium, as well as members of
the Sri Lanka community resident in Belgium and Luxembourg.
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Sri Lanka food festivals have been organized in
Belgium by the Mission, as well as by the Sri Lankan community.
In more recent times, a 3-day ‘Sri Lanka Seafood Festival’
was held in April, 2009 & in February 2010 at the Radisson
BLU Hotel in Brussels. The Seva Vanitha Unit of the Sri Lanka Embassy
also organized a charity lunch in October 2009 and was instrumental in organizing a
charity bazaar in June 2010 along with the Asia Pacific Women Association.
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A Belgian food week was organized in November 2010 at the
‘Cheers Pub’ in Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo to introduce Belgian cuisine
to Sri Lankans. A Belgian chef Filip Van de Venster was flown in from the
gastronomic restaurant ’t Vensterke in Londerzeel, Belgium for
this event. In March 2011 he organized a Sri Lankan gastronomic
dinner at his restaurant in Belgium and also participated as
one of the jurists in the ‘culinariya’ festival held in Sri Lanka.
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The ‘Channa - Upuli Dance troupe’ performed in Belgium
in February 2010. Renowned sitarist Pradeep Ratnayake and his ensemble
performed sitar recitals at La Palais des Beaux Arts (BOZAR) in
Brussels on 2 October 2010 with President of the European
Council, Mr. Herman Van Rompuy as the Guest of Honour.
He also performed at the European Parliament in the presence of Dr. Libor Rouček,
Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEPs & their assistants.
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In March 2012, the film ‘Eakmath Eka Rataka’
by veteran Sri Lankan film producer/ actor, Sanath Gunatilake was
screened at the 28th Mons International Film Festival (FIFA) in
Belgium. Based on a novel written by a 19th century French
writer, Emile Zola, this movie was one of the highlights
of the Film Festival under its ‘world cinema’ category,
and was the only South Asian movie which was screened
during the film festival. This is the first time a Sri
Lankan film has been screened in Belgium. Producer of the film, Mr. Sanath Gunathilake
visited Belgium to participate in this film festival.
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Sri Lankan Community in Belgium
It is estimated that presently approximately 800
Sri Lankans live in Belgium. A ‘reaching out programme’ was
launched by the Embassy in September 2008 seeking to
re-integrate the expatriates with Sri Lanka and to
leverage their capabilities to promote Sri Lanka in
Belgium and Luxembourg. In addition to the traditional Independence
Day celebrations, and the commemoration of ceremonies of religious significance, the Embassy has continued to
involve the resident community of Sri Lankan origin in its multifaceted activities.
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Currently community organizations such as the Sri Lanka Women’s
Association, Lak Mawage Duu Putun organization, Istuti vzv, and the Sri Lanka
Students Association are also actively involved in organizing
Sri Lanka focused events in Belgium, which are supported by the Mission.
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