Mar 09, Colombo: Sri Lanka is seeking the technical assistance from India to implement a national plan aimed at making all the citizens of the country competent in all three languages.

Under an initiative of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka last year launched an ambitious ten-year plan to make the country a trilingual nation declaring the year 2012 as the 'Trilingual Year'.

The Presidential Initiative for Trilingual Sri Lanka aims to make every Sri Lankan citizen knowledgeable in Sinhala, Tamil and English.

The 10 year National Plan for a Trilingual Sri Lanka sets the foundation for a national initiative to encourage all citizens of the country to acquire trilingual skills and competencies.

The cabinet last week approved a proposal put forward by the President to seek India's Technical assistance for the purpose.

A relevant agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Government of India will be signed in this regard after incorporating the amendments approved by the cabinet to the national plan.

The plan will be implemented together with ministries of National Languages and Social Integration, Education, Higher Education, Public Administration and Provincial Councils. Sri Lanka has set a target to make the country a trilingual nation by the year 2020.

The 'Sinhala only' act in 1958 was seen as a catalyst for the Tamil Tiger terrorism that devastated the country for decades. The separatists used the policy as a ploy to promote their cause to carve out a separate homeland in the North and East where the major language is Tamil.

Trilingual initiative is one of the recommendations by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.