Chief Adviser to the President of Sri Lanka on Digital Economy Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya participated as the Special Envoy of the President at the world’s largest global digital governance forums held in Geneva from 6–10 July 2026.
The global event had three main forums vis-a vis the first United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance, World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Forum and AI for Good Global Summit 2026.
The inaugural session of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance was addressed by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Annalena Baerbock, and other high-level dignitaries.
Addressing the historic first universal, UN-led platform on artificial intelligence; the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, Dr. Wijayasuriya underlined the importance of an inclusive international AI architecture that protects the interests of developing nations. He underscored that deep and meaningful inclusion raises the imperative of “Sovereign AI,” where countries can deploy AI in ways that reflect their own national priorities, cultures and languages without compromising independence, sensitive data or national resilience.
Further expanding on these themes, Dr. Wijayasuriya participated as a featured panellist in the high-level Leaders TalkX session on “Information Without Barriers: Making Knowledge Accessible” at the WSIS Forum.
Dr. Wijayasuriya also joined the Ministerial Roundtable with participating Ministers from other States and detailed Sri Lanka’s national digital transformation strategy, which integrates AI-powered language models, speech recognition, and translation services directly into the country’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to foster civic and economic inclusion.
On the margins of the summits, the Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya engaged in a series of bilateral meetings with global tech Ministers, Heads of international organisations, and diplomatic dignitaries, including Information Technology and Telecommunication of Pakistan Minister, Justice and Digital Affairs of the Republic of Estonia Minister, Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies of South Africa, Secretary-General of Communications Ministry of Malaysia, Vice President for Digital and AI of the World Bank, Deputy-Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) etc.
Dr. Wijayasuriya also addressed the event “From India to Geneva: A Global Convening on AI Impact at Scale,” which was also addressed by the Minister of State for External Affairs; and Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India.
Through these targeted engagements, the high-level delegation of Sri Lanka explored technical cooperation, cross-border digital alignment, and knowledge sharing to accelerate Sri Lanka’s pathway towards a digital economy. These engagements further consolidated Sri Lanka’s position as a proactive and emerging digital hub in the Indian Ocean.
Dr. Wijayasuriya was accompanied by the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva Ambassador Sumith Dassanayake, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) Director General, Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Bandula Herath, and senior officials of the Permanent Mission in Geneva.