Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts is strengthening its commitment to gender inclusion across its portfolio, with female participation now at 19.5%, marking a healthy trajectory toward its 2030 goal of achieving 30% workforce representation. Women currently hold 22% of leadership positions across the group.

In Sri Lanka female participation in hospitality is barely making 10%, careers in tourism for women often carry significant social stigma, creating misconceptions that the industry is unsafe for female employment. As a leading hospitality brand, Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts aims to challenge these outdated perceptions by making hospitality a sector where women can excel and prosper, reinforcing the message that the industry is a safe, secure, and empowering place for women to work.

A key milestone in this journey is the appointment of Thanuja Mudiyanselage as Resort Manager at Trinco Blu by Cinnamon, a strategic move that not only increases female representation in leadership but also leverages that leadership to uplift and inspire others.

Thanuja, the group’s second female Resort Manager, rose to influence from humble beginnings in Welimada. Her admission to the Ceylon Hotel School in Colombo marked a pivotal shift, requiring her to adapt to the pace and demands of city life, worlds apart from her village upbringing. “I learnt very early on to embrace changes that came my way,” she reflects.

Singer Sri Lanka PLC proudly announces the revamping of its Maharagama Service Centre, reaffirming the company’s commitment to delivering superior after-sales service to its valued customers. The newly enhanced facility, now located in Maharagama, is designed to elevate and redefine the customer service experience for all patrons.

Commenting on the initiative, Mahesh Wijewardene, Group Managing Director of Singer Group of Companies, stated, “The revamping of our Maharagama Service Centre underscores Singer’s unwavering dedication to delivering exceptional services to our customers. We believe the new enhancements will provide a more convenient and pleasant after-sales experience and make their interactions with us more seamless and enjoyable.”

With a focus on personalised service, Singer continues to offer tailored solutions to meet a wide range of customer needs. Its team of highly trained technicians and customer care specialists possess extensive product knowledge, ensuring accurate and efficient resolutions for all service requests.

The centre features a dedicated spare parts counter offering genuine components for globally renowned brands such as TCL, Samsung, Beko, Hitachi, and Panasonic. As the trusted service partner and exclusive agent for many of these brands, Singer provides customers with convenient, over-the-counter access to premium spare parts.

The Sri Lanka High Commission in London recently marked a defining milestone in creative economy and craft development through the global launch of the EU–Sri Lanka Craft Matchmaking Programme, bringing the initiative’s research, collaborations, and co-created outcomes onto the international stage for the first time. The milestone comes at a critical moment for Sri Lanka, as the country navigates overlapping economic, environmental, and climate-related pressures with informal rural and craft-based communities among the most affected, underscoring the urgent role that creative economy development can play in building resilience, livelihoods, and sustainable futures.

Welcoming partners and stakeholders, Nimal Senadheera, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom, reflected on the broader importance of the programme at this moment in time. “Sri Lanka’s craft sector carries deep cultural value, but it also represents livelihoods for some of our most vulnerable communities. Strengthening international partnerships through initiatives like this is essential, not only for cultural preservation, but for economic resilience and future opportunity,” he noted.

The milestone comes at a critical juncture for Sri Lanka. Ongoing climate pressures, including recent cyclone impacts, continue to disproportionately affect informal and rural communities, many of whom are also SMEs and craft producers. These communities are often hit first and hardest by environmental shocks, while simultaneously facing limited access to stable markets, fair pricing, and long-term trade relationships. The Matchmaking Programme directly responds to this dual crisis, environmental and economic, by focusing on value-driven design partnerships, ethical production, and resilient market access rather than volume-led extraction.

The programme milestone was framed by a keynote contribution from Dr Safia Minney MBE, whose long-standing work in ethical fashion and social justice connected climate resilience, fair trade, and craft economies. “When climate disruption and broken trade systems intersect, it is informal makers who bear the greatest burden. Craft-led value chains, when designed responsibly, can be part of the solution, supporting livelihoods while respecting environmental limits,” she observed.

At the core of the milestone was the presentation of research findings and collaborative outcomes from the EU–Sri Lanka Craft Matchmaking Programme by Robert Meeder, Lead EU Consultant and Founder of The Institute for Future Creations (TIFC), together with Hannah Middleton of University of the Arts London (UAL). Their presentation outlined how the programme moves beyond short-term interventions, reflecting the ambitions of Sri Lanka’s Creative Sri Lanka 2030 vision by establishing a model based on education, collaboration, and innovation to support long-term creative economic growth.

Hannah Middleton emphasised the role of research and education in supporting systemic change. “This programme demonstrates how academic research, design practice, and policy can work together to create pathways that are both culturally sensitive and economically viable. It is about equipping craft communities to engage with global markets on their own terms,” she said.