Question:
How can regulators balance innovation, investment and consumer protection without over-regulating or under- regulating ?
Chair,
Excellencies, Ministers,
Distinguished Heads of Regulatory Authorities, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a privilege to participate in this WSIS Forum 2026 Regulators Roundtable and to reflect on how we can collectively translate the GSR-26 Governance Essentials into practical, implementable regulatory approaches for digital markets.
Across our jurisdictions, the digital economy is evolving at a pace that increasingly outstrips traditional regulatory cycles. In this context, the Governance Essentials provide a valuable shared reference point to support regulatory coherence, predictability, and investment confidence, while safeguarding public interest.
Sri Lanka’s National Digital Economy Strategy 2030 sets out an ambitious vision for a trusted, inclusive, and globally competitive digital economy. Within this national framework, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) has been progressively advancing a set of regulatory reforms designed to operationalize these principles in practice.
A central priority has been strengthening a predictable and investment-enabling regulatory environment.
In this regard, the Radio Frequency Spectrum Auction Regulations have enhanced transparency and efficiency in spectrum assignment, supporting fair access to a critical national resource and improving investor confidence. Complementing this, the Telecommunications Infrastructure Sharing Regulations encourage both passive and active infrastructure sharing, helping to reduce duplication of investment, improve cost efficiency, and accelerate the extension of connectivity, particularly to underserved and rural communities. In parallel, we continue to place strong emphasis on fair and well-functioning digital markets. The Competition Rules are being supported by enhanced market analysis capabilities, enabling more structured assessments of market dynamics, market power, and consumer welfare outcomes, based on robust evidence and data.
The modernization of the licensing framework through the Provider License Rules further strengthens regulatory clarity and adaptability. The introduction of differentiated license categories—including telecommunication service, infrastructure, and cable landing station licenses also helps facilitate broader participation in the sector and encourages new investment models. On the consumer side, the Broadband Quality of Service (QoS) Standard Rules reinforce our commitment to measurable service standards, ensuring accountability in network performance and improving the overall user experience in an increasingly digital dependent society. In addition, enhanced SIM registration frameworks are being implemented to strengthen trust, improve security, and reduce misuse, thereby supporting the integrity of emerging digital identity and digital financial ecosystems. Across these areas, we are increasingly integrating cost modelling approaches to support transparent and evidence-based regulatory decision-making, particularly in relation to pricing, access, and interconnection. This contributes to a more balanced approach that supports both sustainable investment and consumer protection. Taken together, these initiatives reflect the core intent of the GSR-26 Governance Essentials promoting transparency, accountability, predictability, proportionality, and data-informed regulation in a rapidly evolving digital environment.
In this context, we also welcome the development of the Actionable Core Toolkit (ACT), which we see as a valuable mechanism for supporting regulators in self-assessment, peer learning, and continuous institutional strengthening. In conclusion, Sri Lanka’s experience reinforces the view that governance essentials are most effective when translated into practical regulatory instruments and measurable actions. This approach helps ensure that digital transformation is not only technologically driven, but also institutionally grounded, inclusive, and sustainable, fully aligned with the objectives of the National Digital Economy Strategy 2030.
Thank you.
Every great technological revolution has lowered the barriers to knowledge, but not always equally.
The Internet democratised access to information, but language, literacy, and connectivity still determined who could benefit fully.
Now, AI has the potential to democratise knowledge and understanding, by simplifying access through natural communication, and adapting to language, context, and individual needs.
The promise of this AI dividend is revolutionary, but if AI evolves purely according to market forces,
It will naturally prioritise the most commercially attractive markets and their corresponding language variants, train on the richest datasets, and infer from the context of more homogeneous and advantaged societies.
Many of the world's low-resource languages, together with their ethnic and cultural context risk being excluded.
Inclusive AI therefore cannot simply mean multilingual AI. It must also mean culturally inclusive AI:
AI that embeds local context and knowledge, draws upon millennia of history and civilisation, and embodies the diversity of societies.
Sri Lanka's AI-first, Digital Transformation on the backdrop of a multilingual, multi-ethnic society with a 2500-year recorded history, illustrates both the opportunity and the challenge.
Sri Lanka’s whole-of-economy Digital Transformation blueprint places language equalisation capabilities as Horizontal Digital Public Infrastructures.
We also aspire to deploy AI DPIs which capture ethnic and cultural nuance.
The first manifestation of the model will prioritise citizen services delivered through an AI-powered Government Information Centre engaging citizens through natural conversation.
A farmer will engage with an Agri-AI, a child will access a tutor, all through natural and context enriched conversation. Persons with disabilities will use models which adapt to their individual needs.
An AI DPI based approach will reduce barriers that have existed for generations.
Inequal access to Sovereign AI challenges this inclusive ideal.
Collective action must ensure that Smaller and lower income nations have access to a minimum level of Sovereign AI, so that they can localise AI,
without being forced to compromise Privacy, Policy Autonomy or national resilience.
Our goal must go beyond simply making information available. It should be to ensure that every person can understand and benefit from information, regardless of language, abilities, or the opportunities into which they were born.
If we action these choices today, AI can become, not just another source of inequality,
but the most powerful instrument for Human Development and equalisation of opportunity, the world has ever known.
Thank you.
Ambassador Sumith Dassanayake, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Switzerland, reaffirmed Sri Lanka's commitment to strengthening a modern, inclusive and effective intellectual property (IP) system while addressing the Sixty-Eighth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), held on 8 July 2026 at WIPO Headquarters in Geneva.
Co-Chairs, Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
As AI increasingly becomes the interface between people and knowledge, public services and economic opportunity, inclusion will no longer be determined simply by whether people have access to AI.
Inclusion will depend on whether AI understands the people it is intended to serve.
The first dimension of this challenge is language. Today, several hundred languages and dialects remain under-served, in terms of limited datasets, language technologies and AI models.
If left solely to market forces, AI will naturally evolve around the world's largest languages, leaving many communities on the margins of the AI economy.
Closing this gap requires investment in language equalizing technology, linguistic datasets and foundation models
But language parity alone will not suffice. True symmetry also requires culturally inclusive AI.
An AI system that understands my language and dialect perfectly, but does not understand my cultural context, is only partially inclusive.
If AI cannot recognize local value systems, traditions and institutions, farming practices, legal systems or cultural norms, it cannot provide advice that is trusted or relevant.
AI must understand not only how we speak, but also how we live within our societal construct.
Deep and meaningful inclusion then raises the imperative of Sovereign AI – the ability for countries to deploy AI in ways that reflect their own National Priorities, Cultures and languages, without having to compromise independence, sensitive data or national resilience.
To reach these ideals, Sri Lanka's digital transformation architecture places AI powered language equalizers as Digital Public Infrastructures.
Language models, speech recognition, optical character recognition and translation services will become Horizontally platformed shared capabilities, that can be reused across government, industry and society.
Simultaneously, AI will also enrich adjacent DPIs – such as conversational government information services and multi-lingual farmer advisory services.
Investments in these capabilities are investments in equal opportunity, but smaller and less affluent nations will not achieve these ideals, unless international cooperation bridges both the Sovereign AI Gap as well as Gaps in Localization.
Deep inclusion requires decisive action from the international community on the multiple fronts of Sovereign AI Infrastructure, Low Resource Language Support, Open-Source Models and research partnerships.
Smaller and Developing nations must not be constrained to being just consumers of AI, but be empowered as contributors to the knowledge, language, and cultural perspectives upon which future AI systems are built.
Ultimately, the success of AI will not be measured only by the intelligence of our models. It will be measured by the diversity of the people they empower.
Thank you.
The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka participated at the ‘WTO Open Day 2026’, held at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Headquarters in Geneva to mark the 100th anniversary of the Centre William Rappard.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the WTO who visited the Sri Lanka stall was received by Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Sumith Dassanayake and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the WTO, Ambassador Samantha Wijesekara.
The Sri Lanka stall offered visitors an authentic Sri Lankan culinary experience, including the much-loved Sri Lankan Kottu, showcasing the country’s rich food culture, hospitality, and people-to-people connection with the international community in Geneva.
The event opened the WTO’s historic headquarters to the public, offering visitors guided tours, exhibitions, cultural activities, children’s programmes, live music, and an international buffet featuring cuisines from WTO members. The Centre William Rappard, the WTO’s home, is recognized as the first building in Geneva specifically constructed to house an international organization.
Ambassador Samantha Wijesekara, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the WTO, guided Sri Lanka’s unique contribution to the Open Day which highlighted not only the diversity of its culinary traditions but also its continued engagement with the WTO community and its commitment to cultural diplomacy. The event provided a valuable opportunity to share Sri Lanka’s identity, warmth, and traditions with visitors from Geneva and beyond.
The event was supported by the Sri Lankan community in Geneva, specailly, the Sri Lanka Association in Geneva (SLAG).
Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Geneva
06 July 2026
The Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Sumith Dassanayake addressed the Second Preparatory Meeting of the Third Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), on 01 July 2026 at the Palais des Nations, Geneva. In his statement Ambassador Sumith Dassanayake, outlined constructive observations for further improvement of the Zero Draft of the Vientiane Capital Action Plan (VCAP) 2027–2031.
The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) concluded its second visit to Sri Lanka on 24 June 2026. The visit took place from 15 to 24 June 2026.
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