Gotabaya Chief Guest at ICASL’s 32nd National Conference

Ministry of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be the honoured Chief Guest at the inauguration of the 32nd National Conference of Chartered Accountants to be held on 20 October at Waters Edge.

He will speak on ‘Expectations from the Private Sector and the Leadership Required for Economic Resurgence’. This year’s conference revolves around the theme ‘Quest for Balance’.            

Rajapaksa assumed duties as the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence in November 2005. He guided the Sri Lankan defence services to victory against the separatist terrorism of the LTTE in his capacity, thereby ending a 30-year long conflict in Sri Lanka.

Since this triumph, Rajapaksa has also become one of the foremost architects of a post-war Sri Lanka. The massive infrastructure developments countrywide and, in particular, the construction and rebuilding of arterial highways, roads and bridges is being undertaken on an urgent footing to stimulate economic activity across the island, while improving market access for farmers and other entrepreneurs.

Rajapaksa’s talk on ‘Expectations from the Private Sector and the Leadership Required for Economic Resurgence’ will be an extremely interesting session, as it will reveal the Government’s expectations of the private sector, offering companies and corporate decision-makers a unique opportunity to align their objectives with that of a national economic vision.

The timeliness of the national conference and indeed his chosen topic is expected to attract participants and his speech is a much-awaited one. The Guest of Honour at the event will be Tony Hegarty, Chief Financial Management Officer and Head of Financial Management Sector Board, World Bank, who will speak on ‘Government and Public Sector Role in Sustainable Economic Development’.

Hegarty is Co-Chair of the OECD-DAC Task Force on Public Financial Management, Co-Chair of the INTOSAI/Donors Steering Committee and Chair of the Multilateral Development Banks Financial Management Working Group on Harmonisation. He is a Member of the Multi-Donor Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Steering Committee and the World Bank’s Public Sector Governance Board. Hegarty was a founding member of the International Federation of Accountants’ Developing Nations Committee.