Ambassador-designate Palitha Kohona feted

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador-designate to China, Dr. Palitha Kohona was feted at a felicitation dinner hosted by Emeritus President & CEO of PATA, Lakshman and Barbara Ratnapala at their residence in Platinum Suites, Colombo 3 on Thursday.

During the pre-dinner cocktail hour, proposing a Champagne toast, Lakshman Ratnapala said he was an “old China hand” as perhaps the oldest living Sri Lankan to have visited China.

He said he had accompanied premier Zhou-En Lai, who was visiting Sri Lanka for the Buddha Jayanthi celebrations, to the summit of Sigiriya 1956. 

Ratnapala had thereafter visited China with a government media delegation in 1958.  He recounted that as PATA President & CEO, he had visited China 30 times and organized several tourism events there.  Ratnapala requested Ambassador-designate Kohona to earnestly promote Chinese tourism to Sri Lanka and assured him of any support he needed.

In response, Kohona said that he had learned a lot from his association with Ratnapala ever since he read the latter’s book on growing up in colonial Ceylon.

He said he was aware of the vast potential of China’s outbound tourism not being tapped for our benefit. 

He pledged to commit himself to promote Sri Lanka in China and that he would draw on the help and assistance of travel industry personnel in Sri Lanka.