Sri Lanka Plants 1.1mn Trees and Sets a Guinness World Record

15th November 2010, www.news360.lk

The tree planting campaign is one out of many activities planned out during this week to mark the swearing-in ceremony of President Mahinda Rajapaksa for a second term in office.

The Swearing in ceremony will take place later this week.

Chairman of the Environmental Authority Charitha Herath said “we have planted 1.1 million trees across the Island”.

However he said the unofficial figure is even higher.

Public institutions such as Schools, Banks, Provincial and local Government office’s and also a large number of private sector entities along with the General public took part in this campaign.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa joined the campaign by planting saplings of “Kiripalu” and “Sudu Handun”.

Herath said “This campaign is going to be a Guinness record”.

He added the record has been already informed to the Guinness Book officials here in the country.

The Environmental Authority Chief also noted “We have signed the required papers to obtain the record for planting 1.1 million trees”

The previous Guinness record for planting most number of trees was set in India which saw nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand trees been planted within a day in August this year.

Dr. Geethanjana Mendis who is the Coordinator in Sri Lanka for the Guinness Book office said the final status of the record will be known within few hours.

Image: President Rajapaksa awaits until the auspicious time arrives to start planting trees.

Sri Lanka President Tells UN, We are on Course for Peace & Prosperity. Sri Lanka to be One of Top 30 Countries for Doing Business by 2014

23rd September 2010, www.bloomberg.com

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he has set the nation on a course toward political reconciliation with the Tamil minority and economic recovery following a three-decade civil war.

“The entire focus of our nation is now on building a lasting peace, healing wounds, ensuring prosperity and guaranteeing the rights of the whole nation to live in harmony,” Rajapaksa said in a speech today to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Sri Lankan soldiers defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May last year, ending their struggle for a separate homeland. The war killed more than 100,000 and has left about 76,000 Tamils displaced.

“No nation on earth can wish Sri Lanka’s Tamil community more good fortune than Sri Lanka itself,” Rajapaksa said. “Sri Lanka has already returned over 90 percent of the internally displaced persons to their original villages that were previously riddled with landmines and provided the essential infrastructure necessary to resume normal life.”

The economy expanded 8.5 percent in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 2002, the statistics department said on Sept. 16.

Rajapaksa said the aim of his second term in office, which begins in two months, was to make Sri Lanka “one of the top 30 countries for doing business by 2014” and to double per capita income by 2016.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva in Washington at msilva34@bloomberg.net