Sri Lanka celebrates 50th anniversary of Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall

A celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) was held in Sri Lanka on May 10, 2023. President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe, Chairperson of the Bandaranaike National Memorial Foundation and former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumarathunga, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, and Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong attended the event.

The BMICH was constructed by the Chinese government from November 1970 to May 1973 as a grant. Covering an area of 130,000 square meters, it is a famous landmark building in Sri Lanka and a symbol of China-Sri Lanka friendship. It is also one of the largest conference and exhibition centers in South Asia, where a number of high-profile international conferences, exhibitions and seminars, including the 5th Summit Conference of Heads of State of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1976 and the 50th anniversary celebration of Sri Lanka’s independence, have been held.

In 2003, the Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Center and the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies, which were built with the aid of the Chinese government, were completed in January and April respectively within the premises of the BMICH, forming a unified whole and being hailed as a "symbol of China-Sri Lanka friendship". At the request of the Sri Lankan side, China carried out maintenance work on the BMICH from 2010 to 2014, and implemented multiple technical cooperation projects for the BMICH and the two centers.