US embassy cable - 02COLOMBO2178

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 002178 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE FOR ECA/PE/V/P-ALISON MOYLAN/DEBORAH THOMPSON; 
ECA/PE/V/G/N-ALICE SHIFFLETT; SA/PD 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OEXC, SCUL, KPAO, OEXC - Exchanges 
SUBJECT: FY-2003 INTERNATIONAL VISITOR PROGRAM: SRI 
LANKAN NOMINATIONS FOR MRP ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 
AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 16, 
2003 
PROJECT NO. E/VP-2003-0041 
 
REF: (A) STATE 50054, (B) STATE 129406, (C) COLOMBO 
 
01899 
 
1. POST NOMINATES MR. NISSANKA WEERASEKERA, MANAGING 
DIRECTOR, NEXTVENTURES, FOR PARTICIPATION IN SUBJECT 
PROJECT. 
 
2. PART I OF NOMINEES' BIO DATA FOLLOWS: 
EXPORT-SOURCE: USIS EVDB 
VERSION: 3.0.0 
POST-EMAIL: rscmb@pd.state.gov 
TRANSMITTING-POST: PAS  Colombo 
TRANSMITTING-POST-ID: 2929 
EXPORT-TYPE: BIO DATA 
START NOMINATION: 
USIA-OFFICE: E/VGN 
PROG-AGENCY-NAME: 
POST-PROJ-ID: 69 
USIA-PROJ-NO: 
PROJ-NAME: Electronic Commerce and The Global 
Economy - September 25 - October 6, 2003 
START MEMO PROJ-DESC: 
 
END MEMO PROJ-DESC: 
PROJ-TYPE: Multi-Regional 
PROG-TYPE: IV Grant Visitor 
FY: 2003 
DEPART-POST: 09/23/2003 
SESSION-DATE: 09/25/2003 
RETURN-POST: 10/09/2003 
NO-OF-PART: 1 
RANK-ORDER: 11 
START MEMO POST-OBJ: 
In compliance with MPP Goal: To support economic 
reforms and boost US trade and investment 
END MEMO POST-OBJ: 
START MEMO POST-RCMD: 
 
END MEMO POST-RCMD: 
USIA-OFFICE-ID: 1039 
PROG-AGENCY-ID: 
PROJ-TYPE-ID: MRP 
PROG-TYPE-ID: 29 
NOMINATING-POST-ID: 2929 
FUNDING-CNTRY-ID: 
STATUS: N 
ORIGINATOR: P 
SUBJ-DISC: Economics (General) 
START BIO: 
PREFIX: Mr. 
F-NAME: Nissanka 
M-NAME: 
L-NAME: WEERASEKARA 
SUFFIX: 
PRINCIPAL?: Yes 
M-ADDR1: Nextventures 
M-ADDR2: Level 2, No.34 
M-ADDR3: Sir Mohamed M.M. Mawatha 
M-CITY: Colombo 3 
M-STATE: 
M-CNTRY: Sri Lanka 
M-ZONE: 
M-ZIP: 
M-PHONE: (94-1) 308-803 
M-FAX: (94-1) 304-457 
M-EMAIL: nissanka@nextvc.com 
M-CNTRY-ID: CE 
M-ADDRTYPE: B 
GENDER: M 
DOB: 11/30/1959 
MAR-STAT: M 
BIRTH-CITY: Colombo 
BIRTH-CNTRY: Sri Lanka 
CITIZ-CNTRY: Sri Lanka 
RES-CNTRY: Sri Lanka 
START MEMO POSITION: 
Managing Director, Nextventures, March 2001- to date 
END MEMO POSITION: 
START MEMO OTHER-POSITIONS: 
 
END MEMO OTHER-POSITIONS: 
START MEMO PREV-POSITIONS: 
December 1995-February 2001 - General Manager/CEO, 
Peoples Venture Investment Company 
December 1993-November 1995 - Project Manager, 
Financial Markets Project (FMP), USAID 
September 1990-November 1993 - Project Manager, 
Technology Initiative for the Private Sector 
(TIPS), USAID 
July 1989-August 1990 - Manager, Centrifuging 
Factory, Dipped Products Ltd., Hayleys Group 
May 1985-June 1989 - Management Accountant, Dipped 
Products Ltd., Hayleys Group 
END MEMO PREV-POSITIONS: 
START MEMO US-TRAVEL: 
1991 - Stanford Research Institute - for short 
training course on Fundamentals of Asian Private 
Equity Investment 
1993 - George Washington University - for course on 
Promoting Global Trade and Investment: Strategies 
for Competing Effectively in the 1990s 
END MEMO US-TRAVEL: 
START MEMO OTHER-TRAVEL: 
Finland - 1989 - Attended a diploma course in Export 
Marketing and Export Market Research, Helsinki 
School of Economics 
END MEMO OTHER-TRAVEL: 
START MEMO EDUCATION: 
B.Sc. (Special) in Physics Upper Second, University 
of Peradeniya 
M.A. in Economics, University of Colombo 
Fellow, Chartered Institute of Management 
Accountants  (CIMA) 
Level I, Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Program 
END MEMO EDUCATION: 
START MEMO MEMBERSHIPS: 
 
END MEMO MEMBERSHIPS: 
START MEMO PUBLICATIONS: 
 
END MEMO PUBLICATIONS: 
START MEMO SPEC-CONSID: 
 
END MEMO SPEC-CONSID: 
FIRST-LANG: Sinhala 
ENGL-READ: 4 
ENGL-SPEAK: 4 
ENGL-COMP: 4 
START MEMO NOM-POST-OBJ: 
In compliance with MPP Goal: To support economic 
reforms and boost US trade and investment 
END MEMO NOM-POST-OBJ: 
START MEMO NOM-POST-RCMD: 
 
END MEMO NOM-POST-RCMD: 
START MEMO VIS-OBJ: 
 
END MEMO VIS-OBJ: 
START MEMO VIS-REC: 
 
END MEMO VIS-REC: 
NOMINATING-OFFICER: Teresa Manlowe 
START MEMO NOMINATING-JUSTIFICATION: 
Nissanka Weerasekera (42 Years) is currently the 
Managing Director of Nextventures, a leading venture 
capital company in Sri Lanka.  In 1999/00 he served 
as president of the venture capital association of 
Sri Lanka.  He is one of the leading financial 
professionals in Sri Lanka and has an excellent rack 
record.  Nissanka's farsighted thinking made 
Nextventures (previously known as People's Venture 
Investment) invest in seed capital of Millennium IT 
(MIT) at a time when most banks were reluctant to 
invest in IT sector, as software development was 
still new to Sri Lanka.  This investment has paid 
rich dividends with MIT today ranked as a world 
class company winning contracts in Sri Lanka and 
abroad.  Nextventures has many other successes under 
Nissanka's management.  Recently, the company also 
took equity in Textcentric, which is a US-SL joint 
venture to promote e-learning. 
 
Nissanka had his entire education in Sri Lanka.  His 
qualifications include a MA in Economics from the 
University of Colombo and a B.Sc. in Physics from 
the University of Peradeniya.  He also has 
professional qualifications in accounting being a 
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management 
Accountants (CIMA, UK). In addition, he is enrolled 
in Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Program. 
Previously. he has followed two short training 
courses in the U.S. at George Washington University 
(1993) and USAID/Stanford Research Institute, 1991. 
Nissanka continues to be a useful contact for us in 
Sri Lanka's business sector.  He has excellent 
presentation skills and leadership skills.  His 
professional background, strong personality and 
leadership skills made him an ideal candidate for 
higher positions within the government (such as BOI, 
PERC, Bank of Ceylon or People's Bank, Finance 
Ministry) or in the private sector.  We expect the 
IV program on Electronic Commerce in the Global 
Economy to help Nissanka to gain knowledge of e- 
commerce as his company is investing in equity in IT 
startups. 
 
END MEMO NOMINATING-JUSTIFICATION: 
NOM-OFF: Econ/Commercial 
SPEAKER?: No 
NOTIFY-EMB: Yes 
MEDIA?: No 
HOME-STAY: Yes 
HOME-HOSP?: Yes 
E-I-TYPE: 
NOMINEE-ID: 101 
PERSON-ID: 105 
BIRTH-CNTRY-ID: CE 
CITIZ-CNTRY-ID: CE 
RES-CNTRY-ID: CE 
FIRST-LANG-ID: SI 
E-I-TYPE-ID: 
NOM-POST-ID: 2929 
NOM-FUNDING-CNTRY-ID: 
NOM-STATUS: N 
END BIO: 
END NOMINATION: 
 
3. PLEASE ADVISE ACCEPTANCE OF THIS NOMINATION. 
WILLS