Sri Lanka debate: Participants

Duminda Ariyasinghe (DA) is director general at the Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka. Before taking the helm of the BOI, Ariyasinghe spent 10 years as an executive director at the BOI, spearheading the development of critical sectors including tourism, IT, and knowledge services. 

Indrajit Coomaraswamy (IC) is senior adviser to the minister of development strategies and international trade. He spent 16 years at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, having first joined in 1973, and has worked in numerous other posts, including as director of economic affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat and in the ministry of finance and planning. 

Aswin De Silva (ADS) is the chairman of the National Savings Bank. He has worked as a director of corporate banking at American Express, as head of business intelligence at NRMA Group in Sydney, and as general manager and CEO at Ceylinco Savings Bank. He is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Sri Lanka, the UK and Australia.

Ravindra Karunanayake (RK) is finance minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. He was first elected as a member of parliament in 1994, has served as a minister of trade, commerce & consumer affairs, and as the chairman of the Institute for Democracy and Leadership. In January 2015, he delivered his first interim budget as Sri Lanka’s finance minister, just 17 days after taking office.

Aravinda Perera (AP) is managing director at Sampath Bank. A member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the UK, Perera is also a director of the Colombo Stock Exchange and the Lanka Financial Services Bureau, and a governing board director of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka.

Ranjith Samaranayake (RS) is group chief financial officer at Sampath Bank. He has spent more than 38 years in Sri Lanka’s financial sector, including as the head of finance and planning at National Savings Bank, Commercial Bank and Sampath Bank. He was appointed to the board of Sampath Bank in 2009 and is also a director of Siyapatha Finance.

Mahinda Siriwardana (MS) is director of economic research at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He was a non-executive director at the Bank of Ceylon, where he was a member of their Audit Committee and Integrated Risk Management Committee. He is also a current member of the Board of Directors of Sri Lanka Vocational Training Authority.

Anushka Wijesinha (AW) is chief economist at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. He works closely with the government, international development agencies, and private sector institutions. He serves on the board of Union Assurance General and HNB Grameen Finance, and is a consultant to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.