President calls to promote Sri Lanka as Ayurvedic hub

By Zahara Zuhair
President Maithripala Sirisena recently stressed the importance of adapting to local healing systems in order to promote Sri Lanka as an Ayurvedic hub, assuring the present government will take initiatives and every necessary step to uplift the sector providing necessary resources. 
“When considering healthcare, though the Western medicine is much advanced, general public still face challenges in their day-to-day life. One thing is the high cost of Western medicine and also the quality and standard of medicine,”
 he said.

The President made these remarks at the inauguration ceremony of the ‘Ayurveda Expo 2016’ international indigenous healthcare exhibition organized by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, held for three days at the BMICH.
The objective of the exhibition was to promote the Sri Lankan Ayurveda system and healthcare practices locally and internationally and also to provide an opportunity for all relevant sectors to promote their products and services.  
Indicating that Western medication cannot provide complete solutions for certain illnesses, as  people are now more keen on using alternative medicine while Western countries also prefer Ayurveda medicine, Health and Nutrition Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne asserted that there are Sri Lankan Ayurvedic practitioners who are capable of completely curing illnesses such 
as diabetes. 
He said that the country needs to focus on promoting indigenous medicine internationally as well  as this exhibition is a good way to take it to the world as foreign participation also have increased than before.

“Not only for the health sector, it develops the economy and the tourism sector as well,” 
he noted.

Sharing about other countries’ health practices, the Minister said that 80 percent of people in Kerala - India still use Ayurveda remedies.In North Korea, 95 percent of people still use traditional remedies and the Chinese acupuncture is very common even among countries 
like USA.
The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka President Thilak Godamanna told Mirror Business that the exhibition held for the sixth time had the highest participation of foreign delegates. He said that their aim was to show to the world that Sri Lanka has its own system of medicine that has been healing the nation for over 1000 of years.“Foreigners thought that Ayurveda is an Indian product. 
They always think of Kerala when it comes to Ayurveda. Through this exhibition, the world will get to know about Sri Lanka and its 
Ayurvedic system. 

This time we have got 150 cubicles and last year we had 40,000 visitors, this year we expect more,” he said.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Destination and Social Responsibility Director Indrajith De Silva told Mirror Business that they are looking at developing ‘Ayurvedic tourism’.
“Ayurveda is a very rich segment combining with the tourism, but for the moment it is developing in Sri Lanka. 

According to the research what we have conducted, it says not only ayurveda even the health sector, out of the tourists who visit Sri Lanka, nearly 3 precent are in to ayurveda and health,” he said.
He said that for the moment 12-13 hotels have been registered with Sri Lanka Tourism Development  Authority (SLTDA), which has Ayurvedic centres. 

The expo had numerous stalls such as, health resorts/spas, ayurveda hospitals/clinics, herbal cosmetics, educational institutions, beauty care products, yoga, homeopathy gym and spa equipment, gem and jewellery associated with healthcare etc.