Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Commander of the Army, now in China on a formal visit was invited to visit the Nanjing Army Command and Staff College, one of the first Colleges of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China that opened up to the outside world with a history spanning over 50 years.

Sunday’s (10) visit of the Sri Lankan Commander of the Army made history since it was the first time a Commander from Sri Lanka was visiting the Army Command and Staff College in the heart of Nanjing city.

The Commander upon arrival at the College was warmly received by Major General Li Ai Ting, Political Commissioner of the School.

Afterwards, the visiting delegation received a briefing from College authorities before he was shown around the premises. It was told that the Foreign Students Training Department at the College receives some 100-odd students from foreign Armed Forces of more than 5 continents, including Sri Lankans.

Three Sri Lanka Army officers undergoing training in this College greeted their Army Chief from Sri Lanka and he shared a couple of views with them.

Meanwhile, Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya and his entourage on the fourth day of their stay in People’s Republic of China (PRC), consequent upon an invitation, extended to the Army Chief by PLA were invited on Saturday (9) to visit PRC’s two mega industrial complexes, Norinco and CETC where high-tech defence products, military hardware, heavy vehicles, machinery, optical-electronic items, chemicals, explosives, civil and military firearms are manufactured for export and researches are carried out.
 
The Sri Lankan military delegation’s during near one-hour stay in the Norinco (North Industries Corporation) complex made them learn how the processes, connected to production, assembling, packing, labelling, etc of hardware are streamlined, using the most modern sophisticated technological innovations and  techniques that are very much in vogue and widely used world-wide through different auxiliaries.
 
Lt General Jayasuriya, himself an officer of the Armoured Corps made specific inquiries pertaining to a couple of military hardware, arms and state of the art precision strike systems, long-range suppression weapon systems, anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, amphibious assault weapons and several other newly crafted electronic systems. During the tour, Chinese experts and senior PLA officers, accompanying the Commander, kept the visitors thoroughly briefed on their dynamics and responded to their queries.
 
Later on, the Sri Lankan military delegation had the privilege of receiving a comprehensive picture of the workings of the China’s Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), which has spread its wings with expertise to varying international engineering turnkey projects, exhibitions, marketing and advertisements as one of the world’s most renowned leaders of electronic and information products’ research, development, production and system integration.
 
The visiting Lieutenant General Jayasuriya after being informed of its routine roles in another special briefing was shown a wide range of the latest innovative products that have been so far produced by the CETC with its technical know-how, but awaiting their induction to the competitive market in the near future.  Some of those exceptionally sophisticated products that were shown to the visiting Sri Lankan delegation included Command and Control Systems, Radars, Electronic Warfare and Intelligence Systems, Communication and Equipment Systems, Anti-Terror and Security Products, Optic Devices, etc.
 
Lt General Jayasuriya, highly impressed with the CETC’s unique ability in developing its business domain based on the use of resources within and outside CETC such as strong Research and Development capability, ocean of CETC’s experience in production and international marketing, etc thanked the organizers for their invitation to visit the CETC since their wide experience in the future could be tapped by a country, like Sri Lanka, trying to be the ‘Miracle of Asia’.