President’s Counsel Sumathi Dharmawardena, formerly serving as an Additional Solicitor General, has been promoted to the post of Senior Additional Solicitor General, the Attorney General’s Department announced.

The AG’s Department currently has two positions at this senior level.

One of the posts was previously held by President’s Counsel Rohantha Abeysuriya, who was appointed President of the Court of Appeal, while the other was vacated following the retirement of President’s Counsel Susantha Balapatabendi.

With Dharmawardena filling one vacancy, reports indicate that President’s Counsel Harippriya Jayasundara is expected to be appointed to the remaining position.

Everyone has tasted honey. Sweet, golden, and familiar. But very few have ever had the chance to bite into a honeycomb—the pure, chewy treasure that bees craft from nature’s bounty. Such opportunities are rare today, reserved mostly for children, women, and young people in remote villages. In the past, village bees produced honeycombs in abundance, but now, spotting one on a tree is a rare delight.

In the Kudumiriya area, adjacent to the Sinharaja Forest, we met a man who is changing that—bringing honeycombs back to life and making it accessible to those who rarely get to taste it.

Duminda Kumara, 47, is a professional beekeeper who has turned the forest’s natural abundance into both a livelihood and a labor of love. Kudumiriya, a small village surrounded by lush greenery, sits at the edge of the Sinharaja forest, where flowers bloom year-round. For decades, Duminda has nurtured bees that collect nectar from this extraordinary ecosystem, producing honey known for its medicinal value and rich, unique flavor.

“What I had in mind was simple,” he explains. “I wanted to start a honey business using the forest honey from Sinharaja. I began on a small scale, gradually expanding my hives and creating a small bee community. I’ve been doing this for about 30 years. Because the bees collect nectar from so many different flowers, the honey is highly nutritious and flavourful. Officials have confirmed this.”

For the past decade, Duminda focused on selling honey. But recently, he decided to experiment with honeycombs. Rather than cutting and packing it the conventional way, he lets bees build honeycombs directly inside clean, jam-jar-shaped bottles. The result is a product that is completely natural, ready to eat, and even chewable like gum.

“I started this because children outside the village rarely get to taste honeycomb,” he says. “Some places cut it up and package it, but I prefer to let the bees do it naturally inside the bottles. Then I seal them and send them to market. Tourists can also buy them because the village is near Sinharaja. If there’s a way to sell this product abroad, I can supply it and bring foreign exchange into the country. With proper guidance, I can improve and expand this venture further.”

Duminda’s vision is simple yet ambitious: to give children, urban and rural alike, the rare opportunity to taste pure honeycomb, and to introduce tourists to a product that combines the richness of nature with sustainable village enterprise.

Sinharaja, often called the queen of flowers, provides the nectar that makes this honeycomb truly unique. With his dedication, Duminda Kumara is not only preserving a traditional craft but also creating a product that could delight taste buds far beyond his remote village.

Soon, even city children who have never seen a honeycomb may finally experience its chewy sweetness, directly from the forest to their hands. With support and guidance, there is no doubt that Duminda’s venture could grow into a model for rural innovation, sustainable livelihoods, and natural delicacies from Sri Lanka’s lush heartlands.

Text and Pix by Upendra Priyankara Jathungama ✍️

From left: Dr. Dirk Willem T. Velde, Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja, and Yvette Fernando presenting the edited version of Sustaining Transformative Growth in Sri Lanka (2025–2030).The book titled “Sustaining Transformative Growth in Sri Lanka (2025–2030)”, jointly produced by ODI Global and the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), was officially launched on 8 January 2026 at the Sri Lanka Foundation in Colombo, under the patronage and participation of the book’s eight authors.

Sri Lanka stands at a critical crossroads. Having emerged from its worst economic crisis since independence, the country now faces the dual challenge of sustaining hard-won macroeconomic stability while igniting transformative growth. This report provides a timely and evidence-based roadmap for navigating this complex transition. While recent stabilisation efforts have delivered encouraging outcomes—including renewed economic growth and a sharp reduction in inflation, poverty levels remain alarmingly high, underscoring the limits of stabilisation without deeper reform.

The study argues that continued structural reforms are essential to prevent future crises and unlock Sri Lanka’s long-term development potential. It identifies six interlinked policy priorities: maintaining macroeconomic stability; integrating more effectively into global supply chains; improving factor markets such as labour, land and capital; implementing targeted sectoral policies; accelerating poverty reduction; and building political and social consensus for reform. Through coordinated action across these areas, Sri Lanka can capitalise on opportunities in tourism, the digital economy, niche manufacturing, and agriculture to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth between 2025 and 2030.

The book is authored by a group of leading economists and policy practitioners: Dr. Sirimal Abeyratne, Dr. Chandranath Amarasekara , Raveen Basnayake , Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Yvette Fernando , Dr. Dirk Willem T. Velde, Asela Wijesinghe, and Shiya Wickramasinghe and Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja.

Commenting at the launch, Dr. Sirimal Abeyratne, Executive Director of CEPA, stated “Sri Lanka’s challenge is not simply to return to growth, but to secure growth that is transformative in nature—one that reshapes the structure of the economy, creates productive employment, and delivers tangible improvements in living standards. This book outlines a realistic and coherent policy direction for the critical 2025–2030 period.”

The report emphasises that the coming years represent a narrow but decisive window of opportunity for Sri Lanka. Locking in reforms, strengthening institutions, and fostering collaboration between the state, private sector, and civil society will be crucial to placing the economy on a more resilient, equitable, and future-ready growth path.