• MOU between Board of Architect - Singapore Institute of Architects and Singapore Institute of Planners, 29 June 2005
• Presentation by Professor Roger Bristow 28 June 2005 at NUSS Guild House, Suntec City
• Report on the SIP dinner on 7 Febuary 2003, at Fullerton Hotel, Straits Room
• Joint SIP-SIA Seminar: Breaking in & Doing Well......: Planning & Architectural Services in China & India: A one-day seminar on 10th January 2003 in Singapore
• Talk at National University of Singapore on 7 November 2002
• Emerging Trends in planning and design of new generation business districts
• Visit of Sri Lanka's Minister of Western Region Development to Singapore
• Industrial Ecology: New Approaches To Economic Development and Planning talk at NUS on 14 September 2002 by Prof. Marian Chertow, Director of the Industrial Environmental Management Program at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University
• Presentation of Design Concept on the Winning Design of Duxton Plain Public Housing by ARC Studio at the URA Centre, 7 May 2002
• International Conference on Traditional Chinese Architecture and Conservation in Asia, Singapore
• URA-NUS Guest Lecture: Conservation & Change & Site Visit, 13 July 2002
• 2nd mAAN conference at NUS on 4-6 September 2002
• Liveable Cities: Public Expections And Expressions
• Report on CAP Conference

1. Mr M.H. Mohamed, Minister of Western Region Development
2. Mr M. Hussain Mohamed, J.P (Ex-Mayor of Colombo)
3. Mr A Rehab J. Ariff, Private Secretary to the Minister
4. Mr J.M.L Jayasekara, Director-General, National Physical Planning Department and Director-General, Urban Development Authority
5. Mr Hemantha K. Jayasundara, Director (Project Management)
6. Mr M.I.M Haniffa, J.P., Co-ordinating Secretary to the Minister of Western Region Development

SRI LANKA FACTS & FIGURES

Formal Name: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe

Administrative Capital: Sri Jayewardenepura since 1982. [Mr Geoffrey Bawa, pioneer in tropical Asian Architecture, designed the pavilion-style parliamentary complex on an island in the middle of an artificial lake]

Commercial Capital: Colombo, located on the southwestern coast (population 2 million)

Topography: Irregular, dissected, central massif

Geography Pear-shaped island 29 kilometers off southeastern coast of India

Ethnicity(%)

Administrative Units
9 Provinces, 25 Districts, 256 Divisional Secretariats, 160 Electorates

Religion(%)

Climate

Temperature(Mean Annual)
27°C in the lowland, 15°C at Nuwara Eliya (altitude 1800 m). Relative Humidity varies from 70% during the day to 90% at night. Rainfall (annual) 2500 mm to over 5000 mm in South West of the Island. Less than 1250 mm in the North West and South East of the Island.

Rainy Seasons
South west Monsoon - (May to August)
North East Monsoon - (November to February)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): US$48.1 billion
GDP per head: US$2,500
Annual growth: 4.7%
Inflation: 9.3%
Major industries: Processing of rubber, tea, coconuts, and other agricultural commodities; clothing, cement, petroleum refining, textiles, tobacco, rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed, spices, tea, rubber, coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, beef. Contributes about 15 %of GDP and occupies nearly 30 percent of labour force.

State plays major role in manufacturing sector, controlling some twenty large-scale enterprises and about fifty corporations. Government committed to expanding role of private sector in developing nontraditional exports, import substitutes, and employment opportunities.

The fastest growing individual sector in the 1980s was textiles, which made up approximately 29 percent of industrial production in 1986. The textiles, clothing, and leather products sector became the largest foreign exchange earner in 1986. Over 80 percent of the manufacturing capacity was concentrated in Western Province, particularly in and around Colombo.

Major trading partners: US, UK, Germany, Japan, Singapore, India, Iran, Taiwan, Belgium, Hong Kong, China, South Korea

Agriculture (includes forestry and fishing):
slightly over 25 percent of GDP in 1982-86 50% labor force employed in agriculture during same period.

Paddy (wet) rice main subsistence crop with two harvests a year; paddy hectareage and production about 900,000 hectares under cultivation and 2.6 million tons harvested in 1986, making country about 75 percent self-sufficient in rice production.

Energy:
Firewood traditional source, accounts for 60 to 70 percent of energy consumption; main commercial/ industrial sources hydroelectric and thermal power; installed capacity in 1986 slightly over a thousand megawatts. Accelerated Mahaweli Program, when completed, expected to provide extra 450 megawatts of power and render nation self-sufficient in energy production.

Services (including tourism) : Accounts for about 15.7 percent of labor force

Imports:
Equivalent to US$1.95 billion in 1986. Major imported commodities include petroleum products, machinery, transportation equipment, food (including rice, wheat, flour, sugar), fertilizer, yarn, and textiles.

Exports:
Equivalent to approximately US$1.4 billion in 1987; major exported goods ready-made clothing and processed agricultural commodities such as tea, rubber, coconuts, and spices. Dominant trading partner: United States (US$350 million 1987 or 25% of all Sri Lankan exports.

Balance of Payments:
Negative balance of payments partially offset by foreign aid and remittances from abroad. - US$425 million in 1986 Total external debt for 1986 amounted to US$412 billion, with debt service ratio about 18.4 percent.

RECENT PRESS REPORTS ON DEVELOPMENTS

"UDA and private sector to re-develop Colombo [04 May 2001]

The Ministry of Urban Development in association with Reel Exchange (Pvt.) Limited is to re-develop the city of Colombo at a cost 76 billion rupees, Urban Development Minister Mangala Samaraweera said Thursday.

Colombo and several other cities including Trincomalee, Nuwara Eliya, Matara and Gampaha have been earmarked for re-development within five years.

The proposed plan consists of the following projects:

1. Colombo Fort Regeneration Project
2. 2. Cleaning of the Beira Lake which runs through the city
3. Relocation of Defence Establishments out of Colombo
4. Galle Face Development Project : the promenade development is in progress
5. Compact townships
6. .Viharamahadevi Park Development Project. "

"Four major highways and eight fly-overs for Sri Lanka by 2005 [24 May 2001]

Sri Lanka will have four new highways connecting the capital city of Colombo to other major towns by the year 2005. Eight fly-overs will also be constructed in Colombo. They are part of the Government's emphasis on infrastructure development.

The 128 km southern highway connecting Sri Lanka's main port city Colombo with the southern city of Matara, to be built at a cost of 34 billion rupees would be the longest. The southern highway will be completed in two stages. The 54 km stretch from Matara will be the first stage, costing nearly twenty million dollars. The second phase will commence from there and will connect to a major city in the southern suburbs of Colombo. "The second stage will cost a similar amount. The funding is provided by the Japan International Co-operation Agency [JICA] and construction will begin at the end of this year. The highway will be completed by the year 2005," Minister of Highways, A H M Fowzie said in an exclusive interview with the PRIU, Monday.

Colombo's long congested Baseline Road, which runs across the city from north to south, is also being converted to a highway. This will ease the congestion within the city as road users who will no longer need to go through heavy traffic in the city to reach destinations beyond. It will be a major access road to the key commercial routes out of Colombo; one leading to the International Airport and the Free Trade Zone in Katunayake, and the other leading to the central province capital of Kandy and the north and east of the country. "The first stage of development of this road has already been completed providing easy access to various parts of Colombo. The second phase costing US$ 12 million will be completed by the year 2003," Minister Fowzie said.

Plans are also being drawn up for a highway between Colombo and the central province capital, Kandy, with Swedish government funding.

Another super highway on the pipeline is the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway, which will shorten travel time between Colombo and the airport to 15 minutes. It will be later extended to Anuradhapura, the seat of power in ancient times and a repository of the country's Buddhist and cultural heritage.

The eight flyovers are expected to come up in the areas of Orugodawatta, Dehiwala, Nugegoda, Nawala, Maharagama, Pannipitiya, Panchikawatta and Lipton Circus. "Construction of the Orugodawatta and Pannipitiya fly-overs will start within two months," Minister said. These fly-overs are expected to significantly ease the congestion on Colombo's roads."

Source: http://www.priu.gov.lk, www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/indian_subcontinent/sri_lanka/
http: //memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/lktoc.html