Category: Daily Financial Times

Sri Lanka Export Development Board (SLEDB) organised a seminar cum workshop on Hand Soldering Techniques and Wire Harness Techniques in association with National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA), Global Electronics Association (IPC India), and Sri Lanka Electronic Manufacturers and Exporters Association (SLEMEA) on 13 August 2026 at Kenimadala Auditorium, NAITA Head Office. This event was the first of its kind held in Sri Lanka.

The Global Electronics Association, formally known as the International Electronics Manufacturing Association, headquartered in USA, is a multinational organisation that supports Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS), Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturers, Cable and Wire Harness Manufacturers and suppliers to manufacture high-quality products and services through set international standards in order to improve the manufacturing of world class electronics and to build electronics better. The Standards are accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and some standards are adopted by US Defence, NASA, Society of Automotive Engineers and others. IPC India, the Indian chapter of the Global Electronics Association, worked closely with EDB in the recent years to support the local Electronic and Electrical industry organising several programs in Sri Lanka.

More than 150 participants attended this workshop including around 100 NAITA students who are undergoing training in areas such as Automobile, Soldering, Electronic and Electrical sectors. In addition, a delegation from IPC India, Management of EDB and NAITA, and NAITA instructors attended the interactive lectures and practical soldering demonstration.

The main objective of this event was to attract more skilled employees to the Electronic and Electrical industry and to introduce new courses and curricula to enroll more students targeting the Automobile, Soldering, Electronic and Electrical manufacturing and export sectors.

This event has provided a platform for professionals and industry experts to connect, share knowledge, and discuss the latest trends and advancements in Electronic Assembly. The Workshop featured insightful sessions by industry leaders, covering topics such as Emerging Technologies, Manufacturing Processes, Quality Standards, and Regulatory Compliances etc.

NAITA Vice Chairman Pandula Medawatte and SLEDB Director General Eranadika Dissanayake addressed the gathering, while Senior Regional Manager Vittal Vatar and Master IPC Trainer Saurabh Kumar Saxena, delivered speeches and Soldering demonstrations from Global Electronics Association (IPC India). NAITO Director General Dr. W.M.S. Wijesinghe also attended the event.

GPV Lanka Head of Quality and Production Engineering and Local Management Milroy Perera, Variosystems Manager – Training and Development Muditha Prasanna, Sri Lanka Electronic and Electrical Manufacturers and Exporters Association (SLEEMEA) President Gamini Ranasinghe delivered industry keynotes.

The country’s Electronics Industry has grown steadily thanks to government initiatives and support, skilled workforce and a favourable business environment. Due to its Advantageous Geographic Position and Highly Educated Workforce, notably in engineering and technology, Sri Lanka has the potential to become a significant player in the Global Electronic and Electrical Market.

The event was very significant for Sri Lanka’s Electronic and Electrical Industry. While continuing this endeavour, the EDB is planning to update/introduce NAITA courses and curricula with IPC standards and soldering techniques with the help of Global Electronics Association and SLEEMEA in the near future. In addition, the SLEEMEA is hoping to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NAITA to recruit skilled workforce that can cater to the requirement of the Electronic and Electrical manufacturing industry, which will be a significant milestone.

Sri Lanka needs labour reform. Businesses need room to hire, restructure and sometimes close. Workers need rules that protect them when things go wrong. Getting that balance right matters far more than simply making it easier to hire and fire.

That is why the proposal to use Colombo Port City as a sandbox for labour reform needs caution.

The argument from Port City is clear. Its Director General Revan Wickramasuriya has said rigid hiring and firing rules hold back entrepreneurship and investment, and that the zone could test change before reforms spread elsewhere. Testing before legislating across the country makes sense. But a sandbox must test what happens to workers as carefully as it measures what businesses gain.

Sri Lanka should first ask what labour flexibility means today.

For many people at the lower end of the wage scale, flexibility already exists, mainly for the employer. Casual, temporary and outsourced work can leave people working for years without the security that normally comes with a lasting job. A worker who needs next month’s wage to pay the rent does not bargain on equal terms with the company that pays it.

This matters when collective bargaining has already weakened across much of Sri Lanka’s private sector. Rights may remain in law, but the ability of workers to organise and bargain at the workplace is another matter. Casual and short-term contracts can weaken that power further.

Capitalism did not flourish by giving employers unlimited power. It learnt to survive by placing limits on that power.

Labour movements fought for limits on working hours, wages, workplace protection and collective bargaining. Governments eventually stepped in. Those changes forced businesses to share more of the gains from growth with the people producing them.

America offers a lesson. Labour reform during the New Deal years strengthened workers at a time when economic power had moved heavily towards capital. Business resisted. Capitalism survived. Indeed, rising wages helped workers consume what businesses produced. Labour gained purchasing power and companies gained customers. But the weakening of organised labour in recent decades has reopened the argument over how the gains from growth are divided.

Sri Lanka should therefore resist the easy claim that worker protection and investment sit on opposite sides of the table.

Employers do need room to act. A business cannot guarantee every job forever. Technology changes work. Orders disappear. Companies lose money. Some fail. Keeping people in jobs that no longer produce enough value eventually destroys capital and jobs together.

But making dismissal easier without building protection around workers merely moves the cost of failure downwards.

If Port City tests easier termination, it should also test faster compensation, unemployment support, retraining, portable benefits and quicker dispute settlement. It should track what happens to people after they lose jobs, not merely how quickly companies replace them.

And the results should be published. Did companies hire more? Did wages rise? Did investment grow? How many people lost jobs? How quickly did they find work? Above all, did productivity rise?

That last question should drive the debate.

Sri Lanka does not merely have a labour law problem. It has a productivity problem. Parts of business have long sought tax breaks, protection, cheap finance and Government support while demanding that workers face the market. Parts of organised labour, especially where bargaining power remains strong, have defended jobs and benefits while resisting attempts to link rewards more closely to output.

Neither can demand reform only from the other. Entrepreneurs who expect protection from competition and unions that expect protection from performance are defending the same culture of entitlement.

They are two sides of the same coin.

People’s Leasing and Finance PLC (PLC), Sri Lanka’s leading non-bank financial institution and flagship subsidiary of People’s Bank, has been recognised among the top 100 most valuable brands in the ‘Brand Finance Sri Lanka Top 100 Most Valuable Brands 2026’ ranking.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the company has secured a position among the top three most valuable brands within the non-Bank Financial Institution sector.

Brand Finance publishes annual ranking of the world’s most valuable brands across various countries. Headquartered in London, Brand Finance is one of the world’s leading independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy firms. Through its globally recognised brand valuation methodology, Brand Finance evaluates the financial values and strength of brands.

According to the Brand Finance brand valuation rankings, People’s Leasing and Finance PLC has recorded significant growth in its brand value this year. According to the Brand Finance brand rankings, People’s Leasing and Finance PLC has advanced three positions, moving up from the 25 position in 2025 to the 22nd position in 2026. Furthermore, the company’s brand value has increased from Rs. 5.4 billion to Rs. 7.5 billion, while also achieving an AA+ brand strength rating. This reflects an important milestone for the company, demonstrating its strong brand image, customer trust and outstanding performance in the financial services sector.

The Government has fully implemented over 94% of its public external debt restructuring and reached agreement on terms with just under 99% of external creditors, according to the latest investor presentation by the Finance Ministry and Central Bank, with a small number of creditor agreements still to be completed.

The presentation delivered by Treasury Secretary Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma at the investor call with Bondholders earlier this month, provided an update on debt restructuring alongside the country’s fiscal, external and economic position. The Finance Ministry has also published the presentation following the call. However, it did not include the usual questions and answers as before.

As of August, implementation had been concluded for debt owed to China Exim Bank, the Saudi Fund for Arab Economic Development and the Kuwait Fund, while agreements had also been implemented with International Sovereign Bondholders and China Development Bank. Implementation involving SriLankan Airlines Bondholders remained ongoing.

Within the Official Creditor Committee (OCC), Sri Lanka had finalised 11 bilateral agreements covering $ 4.3 billion and signed 10 as of August.

Agreements have been signed with Japan for $ 2.19 billion, India for $ 800 million, France for $ 446 million, the UK for $ 200 million, Germany for $ 215 million, Korea for $ 259 million, Spain for $ 84 million, Australia and Denmark for $ 39 million each and Belgium for $ 11 million. Two of three agreements with Hungary, covering $ 35 million, have also been finalised.

Discussions with Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and the US remained ongoing, while a component of the Spanish restructuring involving CESCE was pending signature.

The restructuring is being completed against a still-high public debt stock. Total public debt stood at $ 103.86 billion at end-2025, equivalent to 95% of GDP. Government debt accounted for $ 100.36 billion, comprising $ 62.69 billion in domestic debt and $ 37.66 billion in external debt. State-owned enterprise debt amounted to $ 3.48 billion.

Of Central Government external debt at end-2025, 75% was at fixed interest rates, 23% at floating rates and 2% interest-free. The US dollar accounted for 68% of the currency composition, followed by Special Drawing Rights at 17%, yen at 6%, yuan at 4%, renminbi at 3% and euro and other currencies at 2%.

On the economy, the presentation cited the IMF’s projection of 3% real GDP growth in 2026, down from about 5% in 2025. The IMF had revised its 2026 projection from 3.1% to 3% to reflect uncertainty surrounding the Middle East conflict, while raising its 2027 forecast from 3.1% to 3.2%.

The economy expanded by 5.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, marking the 11th consecutive quarter of positive growth.

Gross official reserves stood at $ 6.5 billion at end-June 2026, compared with $ 7.3 billion in February. The presentation attributed the decline to pressures from higher fuel costs and lower tourism following the Middle East conflict. The end-June reserve stock was around 60% of the IMF’s reserve adequacy metric.

Headline inflation was recorded at 6.8%, while the presentation cited a revised projection of around 6% by end-2026, reflecting the pass-through from higher fuel and energy prices. It expects inflation to move gradually towards the 5% target in 2027.

On the fiscal front, the primary surplus reached 5.4% of GDP in 2025, against a 2.3% program target. The presentation attributed the outperformance partly to motor vehicle import-related revenue, equivalent to 2.8% of GDP, and improved domestic VAT collection.

For the medium term, the fiscal projections envisage a primary surplus of 2.1% of GDP in 2026 and 2.6% from 2027 onwards. The presentation said a temporary relief package responding to the Middle East conflict was capped at Rs.100 billion, or around $ 323 million.

The investor presentation also identified completion of the remaining debt restructuring agreements, development of a Medium-Term Revenue Strategy and continued rebuilding of fiscal and external buffers among the authorities’ priorities.

Sri Lanka’s IMF Extended Fund Facility has meanwhile disbursed SDR 1.78 billion, or about $ 2.4 billion, following completion of the combined fifth and sixth reviews in May. The latest reviews provided access to an additional SDR 508 million, equivalent to about $ 695 million, bondholders were told.

Softlogic Holdings PLC (SHL) has announced plans to proceed with the conversion of 121.63 million Warrants into ordinary shares, subject to shareholder and Warrant-holder approval to extend the conversion date.

The company said separate Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs) of shareholders and Warrant holders will be held on 21 September 2026, with notices scheduled to be dispatched on 25 August.

Subject to the required approvals, documents relating to the conversion will be dispatched to warrant holders on 23 September, while the final date for payment will be 7 October.

The resulting shares are expected to be directly deposited to the respective Central Depository System accounts by 22 October.

Softlogic Holdings said the declaration relating to the conversion will be submitted to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) on 23 October, with trading in the new shares scheduled to commence on 26 October.

OneDriver.lk has been awarded Silver in the Best Automotive Website category at the BestWeb.LK 2026 awards, marking an important milestone in the company’s digital transformation and continued growth.

The award, presented on 12 August 2026, recognises OneDriver’s evolution from a manually operated driver-booking service into a technology-enabled Driver-as-a-Service company, while retaining its focus on safety, reliability and personal customer service.

OneDriver began with Drink’nDrive, a simple concept designed to help customers get home safely in their own vehicles after a night out. A professional driver would travel to the customer and drive both the customer and their vehicle home. The service has since expanded under the OneDriver brand to include airport transfers, corporate travel, events, long-distance journeys, tourism and vehicle servicing.

Today, OneDriver serves more than 2,500 customers through a network of over 35 professional drivers, operating around the clock. The company has positioned itself as Sri Lanka’s leading Driver-as-a-Service provider and the country’s only deeply technology-integrated operator in the sector.

A significant part of this transformation has been its partnership with HighFlyer Global, which has provided technology development, engineering and strategic guidance. The partnership has transformed OneDriver’s early handwritten booking process into an integrated ERP platform covering bookings, driver allocation, pricing, tracking, notifications, invoicing and payments.

The platform also incorporates agentic AI capabilities, enabling management to ask questions in natural language, access business insights and initiate actions. Meanwhile, OneDriver’s internal driver application is available in Sinhala, Tamil and English, helping make the service more accessible to its diverse team.

Despite its technology-driven operations, OneDriver has deliberately chosen not to introduce a customer-facing app. Instead, customers can simply call or send a WhatsApp message to make a booking.

OneDriver Founder Lakmal Wijesiri, said the company’s approach is centred on making the customer experience easier. ‘Technology should make a service simpler, not more complicated. Our customers don’t need another app. They simply want to speak to a real person, book a driver and know that they can get home safely. Behind that simple experience, we have built the technology and systems needed to deliver a reliable and efficient service.’

He added that the BestWeb.LK recognition reflects the company’s journey and its partnership with HighFlyer. ‘We started with handwritten bookings and a simple idea. Today, we have a technology-driven operation serving thousands of customers. This award is a recognition of that journey and the work of everyone who has helped us grow.’

Vietjet this week launched its new direct service connecting Colombo and Ho Chi Minh City, strengthening air connectivity between Sri Lanka and Vietnam while opening a new travel link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.

The inaugural flight, with two Sri Lankan pilots among the three-member cockpit crew, was celebrated with a vibrant ceremony bringing together government officials, diplomatic representatives and aviation stakeholders from both countries.

Prior to the departure of Flight VJ1875 from Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on the evening of 18 August, Vietjet leaders presented flowers to the flight crew and passengers, sending their best wishes for the inaugural journey. Notably, two of the three pilots operating the flight were Sri Lankan – Captain Yonmeregngna Seemon Hewage Thiwanka Silva and First Officer Randil Hashen Perera – highlighting the strong local connection behind the new service. Upon arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport, the aircraft received a spectacular water cannon salute. Passengers were then greeted with flower garlands and Sri Lankan tea gift packs as a warm gesture of local hospitality.

The celebration continued with a traditional Sri Lankan cultural dance at the arrival pier before guests returned to the Silk Route Lounge for the official ceremony. Ports and Civil Aviation and Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka, Tourism Deputy Minister Prof. Ruwan Ranasinghe, Vietnam Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Trinh Thi Tam, Sri Lanka Ambassador to Vietnam Poshitha Perera, General Sales Agents Andrew The Aviation Company Ltd., Managing Director Mahen Kariyawasan, together with senior representatives from Vietjet and Bandaranaike International Airport, took part in a traditional Sri Lankan oil lamp lighting ceremony and inaugural cake cutting, followed by remarks celebrating the new direct service.

The Colombo-Ho Chi Minh City route operates three round-trip flights per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, providing Sri Lankan travellers with a convenient direct link to southern Vietnam. Flights depart Bandaranaike International Airport at 23:00 and arrive in Tan Son Nhat Airport at 05:55 the following morning, while the return service departs Ho Chi Minh City at 18:15 and arrives in Colombo at 21:50 local time.

The new service brings Colombo and Ho Chi Minh City, two dynamic commercial and tourism hubs in South and Southeast Asia, within convenient reach, creating new opportunities for leisure, business and cultural exchange. For Sri Lankan travellers, Ho Chi Minh City offers a gateway to Southeast Asia, combining a vibrant mix of history, cuisine and modern urban life with Vietjet’s extensive network connecting the city to destinations across Vietnam and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

The direct link also makes it easier for travellers from Vietnam and Vietjet’s international markets to discover Sri Lanka. Colombo provides a convenient starting point for exploring the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean,’ from its tropical beaches and lush tea-growing landscapes to its rich cultural heritage and diverse natural attractions.

For travellers flying with Vietjet, the experience extends beyond connectivity, with a modern in-flight experience aboard the airline’s fuel-efficient fleet and attentive service from a professional and energetic cabin crew. Passengers can also enjoy freshly prepared hot meals featuring Vietnamese and international favourites, including Pho, Banh mi and Vietnamese iced milk coffee, bringing a taste of Vietnam to the journey.

GALLE: India wrapped up the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka by 165 runs, 39 minutes after lunch on the fifth and final day at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday to go one-up in the two-match Test series.

The win was even sweeter for India for it came in their 600th Test match.

The writing was on the wall for Sri Lanka after they lost their first four wickets for 47 runs chasing a tall target of 372 and were eventually bowled out for 206. Manav Suthar, with a classical left-arm spinner’s action despite being the most junior of the three spinners India played in the Test, out bowled the other two – Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav – to finish with ten wickets in the match, which included 6/55 in Sri Lanka’s second innings.

That the match dragged onto the second session was mainly due to a gritty 95-run partnership between Dhananjaya de Silva and Sonal Dinusha. Jadeja, who thought that he had dismissed De Silva early in his innings only to discover that it was a no-ball, found his redemption by dismissing the Lankan captain for 59 (151 balls, 7 fours) to break the threatening partnership.

Niroshan Dickwella who played a plucky knock of 80 in the first innings in his return to Test cricket seemed distracted by Yashashvi Jaiswal’s words (goading him to hit a six that he will take him to play in the IPL) and fell to Prasidh Khrishna for 10. Dinusha fought a lone battle and found support from debutant Kheshara Nuwantha with whom he added 43 for the seventh wicket. But once Suthar ended Dinusha’s fighting innings of 84 of 128 balls (8 fours, 1 six) at 199 there was hardly any resistance coming from the rest of the batters. Suthar picked up four wickets within a span of 10 deliveries which included three in one over to bring a swift end to the Lankan innings and the match.

India’s biggest positives were their two left-handers – Devdutt Padikkal and Suthar. In his comeback Test, Padikkal batted almost faultlessly in both the innings (167 and 44) to take the Player of the Match award.

From Sri Lanka’s point there were a couple of positives too. The two 25-year-olds – Keshara Nuwantha and Sonal Dinusha. The off-spinner bowled with a lot of spirit after a tough opening day and Dinusha was easily Sri Lanka’s best batter in both the innings with 100 and 84.

Sri Lanka have now gone 11 consecutive Tests without a win against India, including 9 losses. Although India were in a dominant position throughout the Test, a good duel was witnessed between bat and ball over the five days.

The second Test begins at the SSC grounds on 23 August.

At the recent World Bank/KPMG Validation Workshop on Sri Lanka’s IT Industry Strategic Roadmap, a target was proposed to reach

$ 5 billion in revenue by 2030, representing a $ 2 billion policy-driven revenue increment over current, based on: 35% of growth from Global Capability Centres (GCCs), 25% from IT Products and SaaS, 25% from IT Services, and 15% from Freelancers and Digital Talent.

Five strategic enablers were identified including ‘Skills, Literacy, and Jobs’. However, the roadmap makes four critical miscalculations in relation to this enabler: misjudging current English proficiency levels; assuming Sri Lanka’s English proficiency makes it competitive in attracting investment; omitting any linked investment in raising English proficiency; and relying on the State education sector to deliver the English proficiency outcomes required for AI.

AI fluency demands higher English competence

AI literacy is understanding what AI-powered systems do and evaluating their output. AI fluency is the ability to apply AI productively within a discipline and is what the revenue targets directly depend on. For Sri Lanka, both depend on English language competence.

AI is transforming all four strategic growth sectors. AI is absorbing the work that requires little in the way of English language and leaving behind the work that requires a great deal of it at increasing levels of understanding.

GCCs: No longer back-office processing centres following scripted, rule-based procedures. They now integrate AI into product development, conduct research, run negotiations, and make critical decisions.

For IT Products and SaaS: AI capability means building AI-native features, integrating and evaluating models, and exercising product judgement.

In IT Services AI-assisted delivery is compressing the build layer leaving only the client-facing layer (e.g. Forward Deployed Engineers who understand business workflows, how to integrate AI, and code generation.

Freelancers and Digital Talent: Lacking an employer buffer, this pathway is most exposed to AI displacement, as generic, low-complexity work is automated.

The IT Strategic Roadmap uses the Education First (EF) Global English Proficiency framework to argue that Sri Lanka is well-placed. However, the EF framework averages proficiency across a convenience sample of online test volunteers. It is not population-representative like OECD surveys (e.g., PISA, PIAAC).

EF maps to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) as shown in the table below. CEFR is used to assess individual language competency across six levels (A1 to C2) including:

B1 (Intermediate): Competence in routine tasks, precisely the work AI is absorbing.

B2 (Upper Intermediate): The working floor for entry-level GCC roles (handling unfamiliar technical material, internal documentation, and abstract content)

C1 (Advanced): Required for client-facing and team-lead roles (negotiating, handling ambiguity, writing under pressure).

The NIE 2022 DRAFT English Curriculum for General Education sets CEFR B1 as the benchmark for Grades 10-11, and B2 for Grades 12-13.

A digital skills baseline that counts digital competence, while assuming English, will produce a baseline with a built-in binding constraint. The proposed digital skills survey and national professional skills framework must include an appropriate CEFR metric for English proficiency and the OECD’s AI Literacy Framework (the basis of PISA’s Media and AI Literacy student assessment in 2029).

The talent pipeline: A misleading baseline

For GCCs, success depends on the absolute size of the talent pool entering the workforce at B2 and C1 levels. If supply is insufficient, the cost of competing for talent threatens investment.

The roadmap claims Sri Lanka’s score of 486 is a differentiator against India (484) and Thailand (402), while citing Philippines, Vietnam, and Armenia – all well ahead in English proficiency – as benchmarks. This comparison is misleading. Even though India’s EF score is almost the same as Sri Lanka, India’s annual engineering and IT graduate output alone is many multiples of Sri Lanka’s total annual graduate output.

The roadmap targets an IT workforce of 200,000 by 2030, set against a current base of 175,000 professionals and 17,000 annual ICT graduates. The current pipeline is already acknowledged as too small, and filtering for required English proficiency based on CEFR shrinks it further.

The English proficiency trajectory in absolute numbers needs to be reverse-engineered from 2030 demand. That means establishing how many graduates from relevant post-secondary educational sectors and providers (State and NHSE) currently reach B2 and above, and setting the annual rate of improvement required to fill the demand the revenue target implies. Without this calculation, revenue targets are numbers without a workforce behind them, and no one can say how big or small the gap is.

English language as national economic infrastructure

The third miscalculation which follows from the above is that targets can be achieved without any investment in English language infrastructure.

An interim solution is needed until the general education system can deliver English language and AI literacy skills at volume. One option is for the NSHE agile skills pathways to include English and AI literacy. This is a cost that needs to be factored into the roadmap. This capability has in itself export revenue potential as unique ed-tech.

But English proficiency and AI literacy are shared national infrastructure on which the digital roadmap, the labour migration strategy, tourism, and higher education all draw. Worker remittances reached $ 8.08 billion in 2025, the largest single foreign exchange earner, against IT exports of $ 1.6-2 billion. Housing core curriculum and standards inside a single sector plan long term guarantees it will be under- and under-funded.

Fixing delivery: Why institutional reform is vital

The fourth miscalculation is the assumption that the general education system will deliver the required English proficiency in CEFR terms at scale through ongoing reforms.

The argument for reliance on NSHE to deliver professional skills based on a digital skills survey and national skills professional framework, is that a much greater agility is needed beyond what can be achieved by the State sector, in particular Universities, in adapting to constant change driven by AI.

English and AI literacy both fall squarely within the responsibility and accountability of the general education system. However, the assumption that the latter can deliver what is needed in the timeframe is highly unstable given the slow rollout (reaching Grade 10 only by 2030) and lack of clear AI literacy curriculum framework.

The strategic solution is institutional change. At present there is no ownership of standards and curriculum and pedagogy, policy research, delivery, and quality assurance are shared across different State and Provincial entities.

A model which would ensure better alignment with the demands of the economy would involve separation of standard-setting and quality assurance from curriculum and delivery. A new independent statutory body would be established to own national skills benchmarks across sectors, specify required proficiencies for educational and career pathways, commission independent assessments, and report annually to Parliament.

Malaysia reached EF 581 by establishing the English Language Standards and Quality Council, which produced a ten-year CEFR-referenced roadmap covering preschool to university and began with a target of all 40,000 English teachers at C1.

The argument in support of this is the same as that which created GovTech itself. A nationally critical capability cannot be built at the pace line ministries operate at, so a separate agile vehicle needs to be created and given a mandate.

A four-point course correction for 2030

To hit $ 5 billion by 2030, the IT Strategic Roadmap needs four corrections. It needs to:

Count how many graduates reach B2 and C1 each year, not cite a national average, so that the talent gap is sized before it is priced;

Build English proficiency and AI literacy into the digital skills survey and the professional skills framework, so that the baseline reveals the binding constraint instead of concealing it;

Fund an interim English pathway through the NSHE sector, so that revenue does not wait on a curriculum reform reaching Grade 10 in 2030; and

Establish a new statutory body owning standards and assurance across sectors, accountable to Parliament, so that English and AI literacy are built as national infrastructure rather than as one sector’s afterthought.

(The author is the President of Partners In Micro-development (PIMD – https://microdevpartners.org/), an international NGO with over 20 years of experience in educational development in Sri Lanka. Based in Sydney, she works extensively with Sri Lankan State universities providing online training for English teachers in English literacy instruction based on the Science of Reading and the Science of Learning. PIMD was founded by Dr. Vaughan’s late husband, Dr. Mahesan Kandaiya)

WSO2 has announced the appointment of Harry Ault as Chief Executive Officer. He will assume day-to-day leadership of WSO2 immediately, working closely with the executive team to advance the company’s strategy and drive continued momentum across its global customer base.

Ault succeeds Founder and former CEO Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana, who stepped down from the role in May 2026. WSO2 Chief Revenue Officer Devaka Randeniya, has served as Acting CEO during the transition period and will continue to partner closely with Ault as he steps into the role.

Ault joins WSO2 with over 20 years of experience in revenue leadership, strategic partnerships, corporate development, and go-to-market strategy across global markets.

Prior to taking up this role, he was Chief Revenue Officer at SambaNova Systems, a pioneer in AI inference chip technology, where he led the company’s global sales, marketing, field engineering, and global support organisations. Throughout his career, Ault has built a track record of driving above-market growth, leading successful M and A integrations, and scaling go-to-market strategies across diverse industries.

His appointment follows a year of significant leadership expansion at WSO2, which has added a new Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. These are part of efforts in building a senior team designed to support the company’s next stage of growth as it advances its vision for Trusted AI Governance, bringing API management, integration, identity, engineering, and agent platforms together into the WSO2 Agentic Enterprise Fabric (AEF), so governance extends to both the agents themselves and the foundation they run on, built in natively and not added on.

Chairman Jonas Persson said: ‘We are thrilled to welcome Harry to WSO2 at such a pivotal moment for the company. Harry’s proven ability to build winning teams and scale go-to-market strategy globally makes him the right leader to take WSO2 into its next chapter.’

Incoming CEO Harry Ault said: ‘Over the past two decades, WSO2 has built a remarkable platform and a loyal customer base of more than 700 enterprise organisations, and I’m honored to join at such an exciting inflection point. As organisations transform into AI-driven, agentic enterprises, they need a trusted open-source partner to navigate the change with speed, control and confidence without adding complexity. I am looking forward to deepening our engagement in the open-source community, growing our global partner ecosystem, and expanding WSO2’s value to customers and developers everywhere.’