Wijesekara appointed Sri Lanka’s Ambassador/Permanent Rep. to World Trade Organisation

Wednesday, 2 August 2023 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Top professional R.G.S Wijesekara was recently appointed as the Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation. He presented his credentials to WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Wijesekara obtained his B.Sc Degree from the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka and completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Economic Development at the University of Colombo. He holds an MA (Economics) from the University of Madras, India. Wijesekara obtained a Diploma in Advanced Trade Policy conducted by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He has also obtained executive training on ‘Mastering Trade Policy’ at Harvard Kennedy School in the USA/Boston. Wijesekara is currently reading for his Phd in Economics at the University of Colombo.

Wijesekara joined the Department of Commerce as an Assistant Director of Commerce in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in 2002. Since then he served as a WTO (World Trade Organisation) Mission Intern at the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Geneva, Diplomatic assignments as the Assistant Trade Commissioner at the Sri Lanka High Commission, London, Minister Counsellor, Sri Lanka Deputy High Commission in Chennai and Minister Commercial at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Japan being responsible for Sri Lanka’s Trade, Commerce and Investment Promotion work and representing commercial and economic interests abroad.

During his tenure at the Department of Commerce, as a capital-based officer; he worked under the Directorate of Multilateral Trade Relations, Bilateral Trade and Economic Relation Division as well as the Research and Training Division.

As a career commercial officer, Wijesekara represented Sri Lanka’s delegations at various trade negotiations and provided extensive negotiation, technical and analytical support / inputs at various multilateral and bilateral fora.

Wijesekara also worked as one of Sri Lanka’s coordinators for the 3rd WTO Trade Policy Review of Sri Lanka during the year 2010 and as the deputy coordinator for the 4th WTO Trade Policy Review of 2016.

Wijesekara has been trained in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on multilateral trading systems in the areas of International Trade and participated in various other capacity development initiatives in many countries.

In October 2022, Wijesekara was appointed as a member of the National Trade Negotiation Committee by the Cabinet for the negotiation of bilateral FTAs with China, India and Thailand. He also co-chairing the Trade in Services sub-committees under these FTAs.