Saudi Arabia donated 150 metric tons of dates to Sri Lanka for distribution at mosques during the coming holy month of Ramadan.
Ministry of Finance official Mansour Al-Yousef handed the consignment at asimple ceremony at the Saudi Embassy in Colombo on Friday to Abdul HameedMohammed Fowzie, Sri Lankan senior minister for urban affairs, in the presenceof Farouk Mohamed Wazeer Ali, charge d�affaires of the mission.
Ali said this was a regular donation the Kingdom had been giving to SriLanka for several years.
�We have been maintaining close relations with Sri Lankan Muslims and othercommunity members in a friendly manner,� he said.
Fowzie said: �We are happy that the dates gifted by Custodian of the TwoHoly Mosques King Abdullah will be freely consumed by Muslims during theiriftar (breaking of the fast). Those Muslims will always pray for prosperity inthe Kingdom and the longevity of King Abdullah.�
Fowzie added that plans were under way to distribute these dates at allmosques throughout the country.
Some 2,000 mosques are spread throughout Sri Lanka and around 8 percent ofthe country�s 21 million population is Muslim.
The minister said the Kingdom has helped Sri Lankan in good and bad times. �Twoweeks ago, Saudi Arabia funded 500 houses for tsunami victims at a cost of SR2million. It was also with Saudi assistance that we completed a SR75 millionepilepsy and diagnosis hospital in Colombo, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka,�he said.
�This is not the first time that the Kingdom has come forward to assist theisland in such projects. We have built a neurological-trauma hospital inColombo,� he added.
He said the Saudi Fund For Development (SFD) gave an additional grant ofSR11 million for the development of health facilities at the hospital, whichwas built with Saudi aid of SR40 million.
Following the tsunami disaster in Sri Lanka in 2004, the Kingdom immediatelysent eight flights with relief materials and pledged to construct houses forsurvivors of the disaster, Arab News reports.
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