Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development Bimal Rathnayake has held discussions with ministers from Sweden, Finland and Norway to explore opportunities for strengthening cooperation in Sri Lanka’s transport, highways and urban development sectors.
According to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Stockholm, the Minister met Swedish Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Andreas Carlson, Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications Lulu Rane and Norwegian Minister of Transport Kamzy Gunaratnam during his visit to the Nordic countries.
The discussions focused on improving Sri Lanka’s transport infrastructure, strengthening road safety standards and developing a safer, more efficient and sustainable transport system.
Minister Rathnayake briefed his counterparts on Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and ongoing reforms, particularly efforts to address the high number of fatal road accidents.
During his visit to Sweden, the Minister also held discussions with representatives of several transport and infrastructure institutions, including the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket), the Swedish National Road Consulting Agency (Sweroad), the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) and rail sector company Alstom.
A key focus of the visit was Sweden’s ‘Vision Zero’ road safety strategy, which aims to eliminate deaths and serious injuries within the road transport system.
Minister Rathnayake explored the possibility of adopting elements of the strategy to strengthen road safety standards and infrastructure in Sri Lanka.
Discussions with Swedish transport authorities also focused on expanding existing cooperation, exchanging technical expertise and identifying measures to improve the efficiency and sustainability of Sri Lanka’s transport and highway sectors.
The Minister also visited Slussen, a major multimodal transport hub under development in Stockholm, and met Swedish government officials and business representatives at a reception hosted by the Sri Lankan Embassy.
According to the Embassy, the visit aimed to strengthen Sri Lanka’s bilateral relations with Nordic countries while exploring opportunities for technical cooperation, knowledge sharing and the adoption of international best practices to address the country’s transport and infrastructure challenges. (Newswire)
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