Consulate General of Sri Lanka, Toronto

Minister of Buddhasasana and Wayamba Development Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, designated as the Special Envoy of President Maithripala Sirisena, to gift a sapling of the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi Tree to Thailand, called on Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha on 18 February 2019 at the Government House in Bangkok. This sacred gifting is following an initiative of President Sirisena. The Minister having conveyed President Sirisena’s regrets on his inability to participate personally at the gifting ceremony of the sacred bo sapling, also outlined the advent of Buddhism in Sri Lanka 2600 years ago.

Prime Minister Chan-o-cha while warmly recalling his last official visit to Sri Lanka acknowledged its outcome as fruitful, and expressed thanks to President Sirisena for the Buddha statue gifted to Wat Dhammaram during his official visit to Thailand, enabling the exposition of the Mahiyangana sacred relics which were worshiped by 500,000 Thai people on that occasion and the present gifting of the sacred bo sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi, which will be enshrined in Ayutthaya, and easily accessible to the Thai people. It may be recalled that when the foundation of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist monkhood eroded during the colonial period, it was the King of then Siam with the capital of the Kingdom being Ayutthaya, that re-established the higher ordination tradition by sending a delegation of monks from there.

The Matara Regional Consular Office of the Foreign Ministry was declared open today (15) jointly by Minister of Foreign Affairs Tilak Marapana and Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera. Several members of the Southern Provincial Council, members of local government bodies of the Matara District and senior government officials including the District Secretary of Matara and Divisional Secretaries of the Southern Province attended the opening ceremony.

Following the ceremonial opening, documents attested by the Matara Regional Consular Office using the e-DAS system were handed over to their owners by the two Ministers, as the first consular service provided by the new office.

Addressing the gathering, Foreign Minister Marapana stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take steps to open more regional offices in future particularly in the areas where a substantial number of families of migrant workers reside, enabling them to obtain consular services in their own districts, without travelling to Colombo. He appreciated the contribution of Minister Mangala Samaraweera as his predecessor towards taking the services of the Foreign Ministry to the people by first opening a Regional Consular Office in Jaffna.

With the opening of the Regional Consular Office, the general public is able to obtain consular services including attestation of birth, marriage and death certificates and other legal documents for their use abroad, assistance to family members of Sri Lankans stranded abroad, facilitation of redress and compensation claims of families of migrant workers and repatriation of human remains from abroad, among a range of services.

Minister Samaraweera thanked Minister Marapana for choosing Matara to open the Ministry’s second Regional Consular Office.

Earlier on, Acting Foreign Secretary, Ahmed A. Jawad, welcomed the Ministers, representatives of government agencies and the general public and thanked them for their support and presence. The Vote of Thanks was delivered by Director General Administration of the Ministry, Aruna Fernando.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Colombo

15 February 2019

Text in Sinhala (PDF)

Text in Tamil (PDF)

The Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Toronto conducted a Consular Mobile Service to assist Sri Lankan pensioners living in Canada on 09 February 2019 at Sri Varasiththi Vinayagar Hindu Temple in Toronto. This was part of the Consulate’s efforts to bring consular services closer to the Sri Lankans living in Toronto.

The mobile service extended assistance to nearly 250 pensioners. The second Consular Mobile Service for pensioners will be held during the first week of March 2019.

Consulate General of Sri Lanka

Toronto

11 February 2019

As a part of the initiatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take its consular services to the people, without having to travel to Colombo, the formal opening of the second Regional Consular Office in Matara will take place on Friday, 15 February 2019 at 10.30 a.m.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tilak Marapana and Minister of Finance and Mass Media, Mangala Samaraweera will declare open the office in the presence of Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Members of Parliament representing Southern Province.

Consular services to be extended to the public would include attestation of birth, marriage and death certificates, educational and other legal documents for their use abroad, extending assistance to family members of Sri Lankans stranded abroad, facilitation of redress and compensation claims of families of migrant workers and repatriation of human remains from abroad. The Regional Consular Office is located at No.391, Anagaraika Darmapala Mawatha, Matara. A regional Consular Office has been functioning in Jaffna since 26 January 2017.