• Gazette on 16 tourism zones soon

In relation to lands given to the public by the Government, a committee has been appointed at the Ministerial level to expedite the issuing of land related title deeds through the Land Reforms Commission (LRC).

This committee has been appointed at the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Tourism and Land Affairs held in the Parliament recently under the Chairmanship of Minister of Tourism and Lands Harin Fernando.

Parliamentarians had brought to the attention of Fernando that the LRC is delaying the issuing of title deeds for distributed lands. Therefore, Fernando appointed this committee to take appropriate measures to resolve these issues. He said that the President expects to complete the work of providing the land title deeds that have not been issued so far and that the committee would meet and take a decision on the land title deeds that have been completed. He also instructed the relevant authorities to call all the MPs representing the Northern Province to discuss the land related issues in the said province.

Also, Fernando mentioned that a mobile phone application (mobile app) will soon be launched where foreign tourists coming to Sri Lanka can obtain complete information about new tourist centres, concessionary rates, transportation, and hotel-related facilities, etc.

The MPs also informed Fernando that attention should be paid to matters such as trade activities carried out by foreigners in tourist areas. He mentioned that the gazette announcement regarding the 16 tourism zones identified in Sri Lanka is to be published in the near future and that through that, attention can be focused on specific matters related to the tourism zones.