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| Wednesday, 24 July 2002 |
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US$ 6 m race course for Bentota by Ravi Ladduwahetty A Sri Lankan-Australian joint venture is in the offing for a race course and a centre for training of jockeys and horse breeding at Dedduwa in the Bentota electorate. The local promoters of the US$ 6 million race course project are Chairman of Freudenberg (Ceylon) Ltd. Devinda Senanayake and Chairman of the Board of Stewards of the Sri Lanka Turf Club Bernard Halahakone. The Sri Lankans will go into equity participation with the Australian for the formation of the joint venture company. The Board of Investment approved US$ 6 million investment will be a part of an eco-tourism promotion exercise which will be on a one thousand acre plot bordering the Dedduwa lake which will also house a golf course and chalet type hotels which will be done according to a Master Plan, Minister of Southern Regional Development Ananda Kularatne told the Daily News last night. It will be a part of a series of eco-tourism projects which will come under the five districts of Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Moneragala and Ratnapura and will be under the Southern Development Ministry. The race course and the centre for horse breeding and jockeys will initially offer around 1,500 direct employment opportunities and a further 3,000 indirect employment opportunities, he said. There are certain matters which have to be clarified such as the drainage to the project as this will be adjacent to the golf course and there are negotiations with the Tourism Ministry, he said. The horse project will encompass a two hundred acre race course and the horse breeding centre will breed over 500 horses per annum with a view of aiming at the export market, Mr. Senanayake said. We have been breeding horses in Nuwara Eliya and if the stock that we propose to rare in Bentota is good, we will have export potential, he said. Mr. Halahakone said that there was tremendous potential for trained jockeys abroad and at least fifty of them who were trained at Nuwara Eliya have been procured jobs in Cyprus and Dubai. |
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