Opportunity for Lankan to network with Asia's future leaders

A Sri Lankan has been awarded one of the most prestigious international scholarships to network with the next generation of Asian leaders by the Singaporean government.

Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) Executive Director (Investment Promotion & Media) Duminda Ariyasinghe was awarded a Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) Fellowship by the Singaporean Foreign Ministry. The objective of the scholarship is to develop the next generation of Asian leadership drawn from government, civil society, business, academia and media.

Recipients of the scholarship will study for a Masters in Public Management (MPM) with semesters at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Boston, USA. LKY Fellows who are senior professionals with a proven trajectory of leadership and a strong commitment to public service in their respective countries also benefit from an attachment to a Singapore government ministry or statutory board, connected to their field of employment.

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy was established in 2004 with the mission of educating and training the next generation of Asian policymakers and leaders. Its objectives are to raise the standards of governance throughout the region, improve the lives of the region's people and, in so doing, contribute to the transformation of Asia.

As a senior executive of BOI, Ariyasinghe was responsible for leading the development of critical sectors such as tourism, IT & knowledge services and agriculture, including strategic development projects.

He played a significant role in the development of the post-war investment strategy for tourism as well as in laying the ground work towards transforming Sri Lanka into an IT/knowledge-based economy. As head of media, he spearheaded the complete revamping of the BOI website (www.investsrilanka.com) which was recently relaunched to provide the most comprehensive and relevant information in the most user friendly manner to investors.

Prior to joining the BOI, Ariyasinghe worked as a senior executive in Marketing and Strategy with Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods and H J Heinz Company in USA and Canada. He holds a BA Honours Degree in Economics (First Class) from McMaster University, Canada and an MBA from the University of Toronto.