China has granted Rs 1.5 billion worth of humanitarian assistance, which includes a prefabricated housing scheme, fishing equipment, and packets of rice for fisherfolk communities in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
The three assistance packages, amounting to Rs 500 million each, would be the largest offered by China in the two provinces, where India has also invested heavily in development, livelihood and investment projects.
Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda told the Sunday Times that China’s generous grant was a testament to the close ties both countries maintained over the years.
“We will receive assistance from anyone willing to support our people while protecting our country’s interests,” he said while stressing the government’s diplomatic policy of not setting one country against another over their interests in the region by using Sri Lanka as a playing field.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, who was in Jaffna on Friday, took part in a ceremony held at the Jaffna District Secretariat where the first stage of distributing the packets of rice to fisherfolk communities was launched.
The containers carrying prefabricated housing units were brought to Jaffna this week. The housing units are to be distributed among fisherfolk communities in the two provinces. For the Jaffna district, 116 units were allocated, with 64 units each to be distributed in Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Kalmunai.
In November last year, China donated kerosene to 27,000 fishing boats island-wide, with one boat receiving 150 litres. This was part of a programme to help the fisherfolk communities, given the hardships they faced due to the worst economic crisis the country experienced the previous year.
Meanwhile, Minister Devananda has been invited to visit Hyderabad, India.