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Asia and Oceania
Sri Lanka |
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Country information
Area: 65,610 sq km
Population: 20.8 (World Bank 2010)
Capital City: Colombo (population 681,000 (2009 CIA Fact book))
People: 73.94% Sinhalese, 12.7% Tamil, 7.1% Muslim, 5.5% Hill Tamil, and 1.5% other
Languages: Sinhalese, Tamil, English
Religion(s): Buddhist (69.3%); Hindu (15.5%); Muslim (7.5%); Christianity (6.9%), other (0.8%)
Currency: Rupee, divided into 100 cents
Major political parties: Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) (President’s party and largest government party), United National Party (UNP) (main opposition party), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) (left wing, Sinhala nationalist), Tamil National Alliance (a coalition of Tamil parties), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) (Sinhala nationalist Buddhist party led by monks and coalition partner of the Government), Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) (member of the TNA), Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) (a government-aligned Tamil party), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) (represents Hill Tamils also aligned to the Government)
Government: Unicameral Parliament with Executive Presidency
Head of State (President): His Excellency Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa
Prime Minister/Premier: The Hon DM Jayaratne
Foreign Minister: The Hon GL Peiris MP
Membership of international groupings/organisations: Commonwealth, The South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC), United Nations (UN), Non Aligned Movement (NAM), Group of 77 at the United Nations (G77).
