During an operation conducted in the dark hours of 20 Jan 26, the Sri Lanka Navy seized two (02) Indian fishing boats and apprehended seven (07) Indian fishermen while they were poaching in Sri Lankan waters, off Kovilan, Jaffna.

The seized boats and Indian fishermen was to be handed over to the Fisheries Inspector of Myliddy, Jaffna for onward legal proceedings.

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya participated in a series of high-level bilateral meetings on January 20 on the sidelines of the 56th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

The Prime Minister attended a productive bilateral meeting with Mr. Jozef Síkela, European Commissioner for International Partnerships. During the discussion, both sides focused on strengthening Sri Lanka–EU cooperation and advancing mutual interests.

Prime Minister Amarasuriya also met with Mr. Masato Kanda, President and Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), at the WEF Congress Centre. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss ongoing engagement and future collaboration between Sri Lanka and the ADB.

In addition, the Prime Minister held discussions with Mr. Hassan El Houry, Chairman of Menzies Aviation, where opportunities for collaboration in aviation services and connectivity were explored.

The Prime Minister also participated in a high-level dialogue at the Global Tourism Forum held at the Euronews Hub, Piz Buin, Davos, as part of the World Economic Forum engagements.

Dr. Anil Jayantha, Minister of Labour, and the Deputy Minister of Finance were also present at these meetings.

[Prime Minister’s Media Division]

A discussion to review the progress of projects implemented under the Ministry of Digital Economy in 2025 and to examine new projects planned to be implemented under the 2026 budgetary allocations was held on Monday (19) morning  at the Presidential Secretariat under the patronage of the Minister of Digital Economy, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Special attention was paid to the plans and progress of programmes to promote a cashless economy.

Accordingly, an extensive discussion was held on the progress of projects planned by the Government to promote a cashless economy in Sri Lanka, including the digitalisation of government institutions, promotion of QR transactions, establishment of a Cloud infrastructure centre, a national programme to provide high-speed broadband facilities, provision of single-window facilities, the digital identity card project and the project to digitalise payment of traffic spot fines.

Noting that much of the economic activity of rural communities remains in the informal sector, the President emphasised the need to formally document these activities and stressed that this is essential when formulating future economic and development plans.

The performance, progress and future plans of institutions under the Ministry of Digital Economy, including Sri Lanka CERT, the Data Protection Authority and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), were also reviewed.

The current status and new recruitments of the GovTech institution, established to implement the Government’s digitalisation programme, were also discussed.

Deputy Minister of Digital Economy, Eranga Weeraratne, Secretary to the President, Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, Senior Presidential Adviser on Digital Economy, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Senior Additional Secretary to the President, Roshan Gamage, Secretary to the Ministry of Digital Economy, Varuna Sri Dhanapala, senior officials of the Ministry and heads of institutions under the Ministry also participated in the discussion.