On June 12th, Deng Huilin, a member of the Standing Committee and Vice Secretary of Politics and Law Committee of Yichang Municipal Committee of CPC met with and gave a banquet to Ranil Wickremesinghe, the head of the United National Party and former Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka as well as his delegates.

During their cordial communication, Deng made an introduction to the social and economic development. He said, in the recent years, the prosperous progress of economy has been made in Yichang and it enjoys the second strongest comprehensive power among the cities in Hubei Province and also ranks in the list of top 100 best developed cities of China. In 2011, the total GDP of Yichang reached RMB 214.1 billion and the general budget income of local finance amounted to RMB 11.4 billion. He also told the delegation that Yichang had established the tie of twin cities with eight cities of seven nations all over the world.

Ranil Wickremesinghe said, Yichang is a famous city in the world for its hydropower projects, and the rich hydraulic resources are well developed with advanced technology and facilities; all these have contributed greatly in the social and economic development of China. He also pointed that the Three Gorges Project was the result of the wisdom of the Chinese, which would significantly inspire the hydraulic project construction of Sri Lanka, which would promote the development of the industry of energy, agriculture and industrial enterprises. At the end of the conversation, he expressed his sincere wishes for communication and cooperation in more fields between Yichang and Sri Lanka in the future.