The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce will convene its 187th Annual General Meeting on Thursday, 25th June 2026, at 5.30 PM at The Forum, Cinnamon Life.

This year’s gathering welcomes His Excellency Andrew Patrick, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Sri Lanka, as Chief Guest, who will deliver the keynote address. His presence reflects the close and longstanding ties between Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom, and is especially fitting at a juncture when strengthening trade ties, investor confidence, and sustained economic reform remain front of mind for the nation’s business community.

Chairperson of the Ceylon Chamber, Krishan Balendra, will also address the audience, reflecting on a year of progress and setting out the priorities ahead. His remarks will provide an overview of the Ceylon Chamber’s continued push to sharpen private sector competitiveness, drive evidence-based policy advocacy, and anchor long-term economic stability.

Following the formal proceedings, members and guests are invited to a networking reception.

Ceylon Chamber members wishing to attend may register by contacting Alikie at alikie@chamber.lk / 9411 558 8805.

Sumathi Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd (SIT), the technology arm and a subsidiary of Sumathi Holdings, has been named Sri Lanka’s only Gold Partner for networking by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for 2026, as enterprises face increasing pressure to modernise networks while maintaining uptime, security, and cost discipline. The recognition reinforces SIT’s position as a leading enterprise IT system integrator in Sri Lanka, supporting organisations navigating complex infrastructure decisions in a constrained operating environment.

This comes as reliable and secure network infrastructure is increasingly critical to business continuity across key sectors, including banking, telecommunications, and government. HPE’s Gold Partner status is awarded based on stringent criteria, including certified engineering capability, delivery standards, and commercial performance, offering enterprises greater assurance in vendor selection and execution.

For organisations where downtime, security exposure, and integration complexity carry direct financial implications, the presence of a locally established Gold-tier partner provides practical advantages. These include stronger access to global expertise, more structured implementation, and closer alignment between technology deployment and business outcomes.

The partnership is further strengthened by the breadth of HPE’s networking portfolio, spanning Aruba, HP Networking, and Juniper Networks. This enables SIT to support enterprises in designing integrated network architectures across campus, data centre, and high-performance environments, addressing the growing need for scalable and future-ready infrastructure.

Commenting on the milestone, S. Sivasankar, Chief Technology Officer of Sumathi IT, said, “This recognition reflects the depth of capability we have built over time and our continued focus on delivering consistent outcomes for our customers. As organisations place greater emphasis on reliability and long-term value, our role is to support them with solutions that are both robust and adaptable.”

Visa announced the launch of ‘Click to Pay’ in Sri Lanka today, marking an important step in advancing secure, seamless, and frictionless digital commerce experience for consumers. ‘Click to Pay’ massively improves the online payment checkout experience by enabling:

Consumers to enjoy faster, more secure purchases without any friction.

Merchants to improve payment success rates and customer conversions.

Issuer-banks to drive higher card usage.

As digital commerce continues to grow in Sri Lanka, consumers and businesses alike are placing greater value on payment experiences that are fast, intuitive, and secure. However, the important step in online payment experience – guest checkout across websites and apps – often remains cumbersome, relying on manual card entry, multiple form fields, and repeated authentication steps that slows down transactions and even leads to abandoned shopping carts or drop-offs – resulting in unpleasant consumer interactions and loss of business for merchants.

With ‘Click to Pay’, consumers can get started with a simple, one-time setup when they first checkout on a participating merchant website or app. Using just their email address or mobile number, they can securely enroll their Visa card in a few quick steps. For subsequent purchases, shoppers can instantly access their saved card details, select their preferred card, and complete transactions in just a few clicks -without the need to re-enter card information each time. Existing authentication methods, such as one-time passwords, will continue to apply as required, ensuring each transaction remains secure.