Ceylon Chamber re-elects leadership at 183rd AGM 

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce held its 183rd Annual General Meeting at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel yesterday, re-electing the leadership team.

The Chief Guest was the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Julie Chung.

Vish Govindasamy was re-elected as Chairman of the Chamber for the year 2022/23.

In his capacity as Sunshine Holdings Group Managing Director, Govindasamy heads a diversified conglomerate that operates in the healthcare, agribusiness, consumer goods, investment and energy sectors.  

Speaking at the AGM, Govindasamy drew attention to the concerted role the Chamber has played and continues to play in the national economic reform agenda at this time of unprecedented crisis.

He said that the Chamber urged the Government to seek assistance from the IMF through the Rapid Financing Instrument as early as March 2020 when the pandemic broke out. He stressed that while this avenue was not pursued, the Chamber, along with several other reputed economists and research institutions continued to call for the Government to seek IMF assistance to resolve the emerging Balance of Payments crisis.

“Having been convinced the crisis was beyond a mere liquidity crisis but also one of solvency we urged the Government to consider a debt restructuring process,” Govindasamy said.

He added that through the Joint Chambers Forum and in collaboration with other like-minded institutions such as the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Chamber continued to advocate for policy corrections to maintain stability in Sri Lanka.

“The Chamber continues to highlight and communicate to the Government the enormous hit on the economy due to the lack of foreign exchange and the resulting shortage of fuel, food and medicine. We have proposed several mechanisms to correct the situation and use every opportunity to push the Government to consider our solutions,” Chairman Govindasamy added.

The Chamber’s nine-member Board, including the Chairman, was re-elected for the year 2022/23. Ernst & Young Senior Partner Duminda Hulangamuwa and John Keells Holdings PLC Chairman Krishan Balendra will continue to serve as Deputy Chairman and Deputy Vice-Chairman respectively.

Members of the Board for the following year comprise Lion Brewery (Ceylon) PLC, Sunshine Holdings PLC, Silvermill Investment Holdings, CIC Feeds Group of Companies and Ceylon Beverage Holdings PLC Chairman Amal Cabraal, Cargills Food Company Ltd. Managing Director and Cargills (Ceylon) PLC Director Asoka Pieris, Standard Chartered Bank Sri Lanka CEO Bingumal Thewarathanthri, Hayleys PLC Executive Director Sarath Ganegoda, Jetwing Travels Chairman and Managing Director and Jetwing Hotels Chairman Shiromal Cooray, and Ceylon Chamber CEO and Secretary General Manjula de Silva in addition to the three office bearers.