Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2023-10-23

Entering into a Memorandum of Understanding between the National Archives of Sri Lanka and the National Archives of the Netherlands

- Archives of about 310 liner meters consisting of approximately 7,500 volumes created by the Dutch East India Company, which have been included in the Memory of the World Register by UNESCO recognizing the importance of the same for the study of both Asian history and world history are in the custody of the National Archives of Sri Lanka. Under 04 joint Agreements entered into between the National Archives of Sri Lanka and the National Archives of the Netherlands during the period from 2001 to 2013, 1,701 copies of negative microfilms of 5066 volumes have been sent to the Netherlands and microfilms made using them have been preserved by the National Archives of Sri Lanka at present. It has been proposed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Archives Cooperation for a period of five years from 2024 to 2028 to continue this cooperation. Accordingly, the proposal made by the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs to sign the relevant Memorandum of Understanding between the National Archives of the Netherlands and the National Archives of Sri Lanka, was approved by the Cabinet.