President appoints Chamath Palihapitiya as SL’s ICT ambassador

From left: Defence State Minister Ruwan Wijewardene, President Maithripala Sirisena, Chamath Palihapitiya and Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando  

Chamath Palihapitiya, a Sri Lankan-born businessman and investor in Silicon Valley, has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s ICT ambassador by President Maithripala Sirisena to promote Sri Lanka in Silicon Valley as well as to provide the necessary support to bring down the latest technology from 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 start-up, 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 end-2015, the firm had assets worth more than US $ 1.1 billion.

In 2015, Palihapitiya met President Sirisena and expressed his willingness to support the digital economy efforts being undertaken by the Sri Lankan government. 
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 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 Sri Lanka the first country in the world to achieve such a milestone.