BOI veteran Duminda appointed new Director General

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed Duminda Ariyasinghe, an experienced senior executive with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI), as its new Director General. 

The appointment of Ariyasinghe, who has headed a multitude of key departments at the country’s investment promotion and facilitation agency, comes as the Government is setting ambitious targets for attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) including the establishment of an Agency for Development to spearhead the investment drive with the BOI.

Ariyasinghe, who joined the BOI in 2005, has specialised in investment promotion, investment appraisal, project implementation and monitoring/after-care functions during his tenure. He has played a critical role in attracting and facilitating some of the biggest investments in IT, tourism and other sectors. From inception, Ariyasinghe has also managed strategic development projects with large FDI such as the Shangri-La and ITC developments. 

Prior to joining the BOI, Ariyasinghe headed progressively senior positions in Marketing with Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz in the US and Canada. 

In 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Fellowship by the government of Singapore to complete a Master in Public Management (MPM) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, USA. During the program, Ariyasinghe was attached to the Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore, which is considered the gold standard among investment promotion agencies and has played a key role in the city state’s rapid development. 

Ariyasinghe also holds a B.A. Honours degree in Economics (First Class) from McMaster University in Canada and an MBA from the University of Toronto.