Sri Lanka’s Human Capital Summit seen charting a course for the future

The 2-day Sri Lanka Human Capital Summit 2016 on August 11-12 is partly aimed at developing strategies for the country’s future development process and a Human Capital Vision 2020 for Sri Lanka.

“… we don’t know what talents we might need by 2020 are. We will develop a strategy with the help of other relevant stakeholders to face the global challenges at the end of this conference,” noted Chairman of National Human Resources Development Council Dinesh Weerakkody, explaining some of the goals of the event.

The Summit is also a pre-curser to the Human Capital round-table to held, three months later, in November.

The event under the theme ‘Towards a Future-Ready Workforce’ at Taj Samudra, Colombo is a public-private collaboration between the Association of Human Resource Professionals (HRP) and the National Human Resource Development Council (NHRD), the Employers Federation of Ceylon and supported by the ILO, ADB and World Bank.

Mr. Weerakkody told the Business Times that since the private sector plays a major role in generating jobs in the country, this conference will pave way to integrate with other developing industries and identify what are skills and goals needed by 2020.

Another important perspective of the Summit is to explore strategic entry points to embark on labour law reforms that are necessary to improve the country’s ‘Labour Market Efficiency Rank’ while highlighting the opportunities that Sri Lanka has on four identified growth sectors and economic drivers; Tourism and Hospitality, Financial Services, Insurance, Technology and Logistics, Manufacturing and Construction, Foreign Employment.

The Association of Human Resource Professionals (HRP) is the only professional network of practicing HR professionals in Sri Lanka. “The ultimate goal of this Summit is to prepare a skilled workforce by the end of the next four years and beyond,” said HRP President Pradeepa Kekulawala, who is also Head of HR at SriLankan Airlines.

Thushara Jayawardana, Project Chairman of the HCS Summit 2016 who is the Head of HR/GM at CIC Holdings PLC, said that they are planning to identify through engagement of all stakeholders across diverse local and international platforms at least three key solutions for each sector.