Sri Lankan prime minister to arrive in Dhaka on Friday

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to come to Dhaka on Friday morning on a two-day visit.

He is coming to participate in the celebration of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's birth centenary and the Golden Jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will receive her counterpart at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Friday at 9.45am.

Then, Mahinda Rajapaksa will pay homage to the martyrs of the great Liberation War of 1971 at the National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar. 

The Sri Lankan prime minister will also attend a programme at 4.30pm on Friday at the Parade Ground.

In the evening he will attend a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in his honor at the InterContinental Dhaka hotel.

On Saturday, the Sri Lankan prime minister will visit the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum and pay homage to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will have a meeting with Mahinda Rajapaksa on the same day. They will talk about bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, agriculture, education and information technology.

"A significant number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) are expected to be signed at the end of the meeting," said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen.

Mahinda Rajapakasa will pay a courtesy call on President Abdul Hamid on Saturday afternoon and leave Dhaka for Colombo in the evening.

A 28-member delegation including the minister of education, the state minister for regional cooperation, the state minister for weaving and textiles, the state minister for rural housing and housing materials, the state minister for finance and senior government officials will accompany the prime minister of Sri Lanka during the visit.