Over 2,000 Chartered Accountants were treated to two power-packed days of technical sessions at the 43rd National Conference of Chartered Accountants organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka).
The three-day mega event from 12th to 14th October 2022 at the Monarch Imperial on the theme “Transform: Self, Society, Corporate, Country” brought together a cross-section of subject experts including speakers of international repute, who steered the sessions with thought-provoking insights in a bid to help Chartered Accountants take the lead in helping transform self, society, corporate, and country.
The technical sessions kicked off with Vidusha Nathavitharana, Destiny Architect of Luminary Learning Solutions, setting the tone by delivering a presentation on self-transformation, followed by Aritha Wickramasinghe, Executive Director & General Counsel, TWC Investment Bank; Equality Director, iProbono and Randhula de Silva, Founder and CEO, Good Life X (Pvt) Ltd, sharing their thoughts on how to transform society.
The third session focused on transforming corporates with leading corporate leaders Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake, Deputy Chairman & Managing Director (Group CEO), Aitken Spence PLC and Dr. Mahesha Ranasoma, Chief Executive Officer, Global Rubber Industries (Pvt) Ltd sharing their insights with the audience comprising of business leaders as well as c-suite executives and other high-profile accounting professionals.
The fourth session on ‘Transform Country’ comprised an exciting array of speakers who presented their vision as to what Sri Lanka must do to overcome the current challenges it faces as a country, and how the country must adapt, and use its strategic location to become a key player in the region.
Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka spoke on the need for a consistent macro-economic policy framework, followed by Chanaka de Silva, President’s Counsel, Nithya Partners, sharinghis views on the importance of “governance & accountability. Anushka Wijesinha, Economist and Co-Founder, Centre for a Smart Future, delivered a presentation centered on “Tapping into Global Value Chains,” followed by Rohan Masakorala, Founder, Shippers’ Academy International, speaking on the services & logistics sector.”
The focus on transforming the country continued with Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Chair, LIRNEasia, sharing his views on the much-debated transformation of SOEs, while Mahendra Jayasekera, Former Council Member, CA Sri Lanka and Corporate Leader and President, Colombo Young Men’s Buddhist Association speaking on “Stakeholder Engagement.
With innovation and technology continuing to be a focal point across the globe, Dr. Romesh Ranawana, CEO, Enterprise Machine Learning (Pvt) Ltd and Prof. Ajith de Alwis, Senior Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering and Dean of Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Moratuwa shared their expert views on “Accelerating Innovation Eco System.
The conference dubbed as the country’s biggest business summit, came to a conclusion following a fireside chat featuring several session speakers as well as Dinesh Weerakkody, Advisor to President on Treasury Affairs and Senior Company Director, Sunil Handunnetti, former Member of Parliament and former Chairman of COPE, and Kanchana Wijesekera, Minister of Power and Energy joining the fireside chat which was moderated by Channa Gunasekera, Director – Group Finance, Laugfs Group.
