President appoints Chamath Palihapitiya as Digital Ambassador of Sri Lanka

From left: State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene, President Maithripala Sirisena, Digital Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Silicon Valley Chamath Palihapitiya and Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando

Chamath Palihapitiya, a Sri Lankan-born businessmen and investor in the Silicon Valley, was appointed as the ICT Ambassador of Sri Lanka by President Maithripala Sirisena to promote Sri Lanka in the Silicon Valley as well as to provide necessary support to bring down the latest technology from the Silicon Valley to Sri Lanka.

Palihapitiya first joined AOL and paved his way through the ladder to become the head of AOL’s instant messaging service. Later on, he joined a startup which was over a year old and this was none other than Facebook. He was actively involved in the growth of the company and helped it achieve what it has become today. He moved on from Facebook to start his own venture capital firm, Social Capital in 2011. By the end of 2015, the firm had assets worth more than $1.1 billion.

In 2015, Palihapitiya met with the President and expressed his willingness to support the digital economy efforts being undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka. Following this, he played a pivotal role in getting the Google Loon project to Sri Lanka to provide universal connectivity to all Sri Lankans and help the digital transformation of Sri Lanka. With the support of Palihapitiya, the Government of Sri Lanka expects to bring down venture capital investments to the country. 

Palihapitiya’s expertise is undoubtedly going to be invaluable to the digital transformation of Sri Lanka and to position Sri Lanka as a tech-rich country. Connectivity provided throughout the nation will make the Sri Lanka the first country in the world to achieve such a milestone.