HE Dr. Chris Nonis High Commissioner for Sri Lanka to the UK spoke eloquently about the foreign relations of his country.
H.E. Dr. Chris Nonis
Bsc.(Hons.) (London), MBBS (London), MRCP (UK)
Dr. Chris Nonis qualified in London, with a First Class Honours BSc from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, having schooled at St Paul’s School, London. He obtained his MBBS from the Royal Free Hospital Medical School, University of London, having spent his electives at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. He carried out his postgraduate training at Royal Brompton, Hammersmith, and Addenbrooke’s, Cambridge . He is a member of the Royal College of Physicians, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
He has been actively involved in Commonwealth and International affairs, and is Deputy-Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, London; Board Member of the Ramphal Centre for Commonwealth Policy Studies, UK; Board Member of the Commonwealth Business Council, UK; and sits on the International Advisory Council of Asia House.
He is Chairman of the Mackwoods Group of Companies, a diversified Conglomerate established in 1841, with interests in Healthcare, Plantations, Import/Export Trading, ICT Education and Software Development, Hotels and Leisure, and Financial Services. He also chairs the Mackwoods Research Foundation, established to stimulate scientific research and innovative thought; and the Mendis-Mackwoods Charity Fund for rural upliftment and poverty alleviation.
He has also previously served on the Advisory Committee on Peace & Reconciliation of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce; as Director of Ceylon Hotels Corporation PLC; as Director of Sri Lankan Airlines Ltd; the Grants Board of the ICT agency of Sri Lanka; the Council of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon ; the Country Coordinating Mechanism for Sri Lanka of the Global Fund; Vice-President of the Sri Lanka Malaysia Business Council; Committee of the Sri Lanka-China Business Council; Committee of the Sri Lanka-Middle East and Africa Business Council; President of the India Life Sciences Institute – Sri Lanka Committee; Director of the Export Development Board of Sri Lanka, and Director of the National Enterprise Development Authority.
He commenced his tenure as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner for the UK in September 2011.
Summary points in his lecture:
His main priorities as High Commissioner in the UK is to promote a better picture of Sri Lanka.
There has been a negative image portrayed of Sri Lanka which does not give a true picture of the positive things that are going on. He says:
Sri Lanka is working hard to develop a pluralistic and inclusive society and plans to attract UK investment to Sri Lanka and organise visits for British investors to see the “very real progress that is taking place, and the progress in achieving an equitable growth”.
“After 28 years of conflict, under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa we have finally achieved peace, so we now have a historic opportunity to make that transition from a developing to a developed nation. The success of this transition depends greatly on international relationships. We have a great reservoir of goodwill in Britain, so we need to replenish that, strengthening the UK-Sri Lanka relationship and leveraging our commonalities, cultural traditions and common heritage. Post conflict there has been a reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction programme: 300,000 people have been saved and rehoused. Children as young as 12 used to be conscripted to the army; it is now a wonderful thing that children are now free.”