The President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse, has welcomed the impact of the project. "I would like to express, on behalf of the people of Sri Lanka, heartfelt thanks for the contributions that Colliers, Shigeru Ban and partners have made to rebuild the community in Kirinda. They took an extremely professional approach, developed the highest standard designs, used the most appropriate local materials and consulted our experts and the local people to ensure that the end product matched displaced families' needs. The project has become the standard to compare with for ongoing tsunami reconstruction work in Sri Lanka -- and Colliers has quite rightly also received international recognition and acclaim for this."
