Sri Lankan cabinet of more than 30 members under constitutional amendments –PM says

New constitutional amendments provide for an expanded Sri Lankan cabinet in the next parliament with parliamentary sanction even though there is a restriction of 30 members, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said tonight (Wednesday). Speaking at a dinner at the Cinnamon Grand organized by Hemas Holdings to welcome the chairman and CEO of Minor Group, which owns a string of hotel brands including Avani and Anantara, the Premier said that an expanded cabinet is inevitable in a national government of two main parties and parliament has authority to sanction any increased number. Referring to tourism, he said that an overall tourism policy will be announced after the next parliamentary election with many surprises. Mr. Wickremesinghe said Europe should be Sri Lanka’s main source market while not ignoring India and China. Wherever Europe goes, China and India follow, he said explaining his understanding of the global tourism market. Europe as a region is still Sri Lanka’s source market while India is the single largest source with China set to beat the UK into second place this year. Announcing that another hotel school would be set alongside the current 45-year old Sri Lanka Hotel School, the Prime Minister said Sri Lanka was selling itself cheap and advocated going upmarket. (Feizal)