Sri Lanka_ President Ranil Wickremasinghe and officials of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) held a discussion at the Presidential Secretariat on the 30th of May, pertaining to matters of the automation and modernization of the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka. Speaking at the meeting, President Wickremasinghe emphasized the urgency of continuing the government’s initiatives to remodel the agriculture sector through the digitization of data while also focusing on improving nutrition, addressing climate change, and strengthening financial security.
The President’s Media Division reported that the representatives of the BMGF announced their enthusiasm to support these projects, keeping in line with the government’s policies and regulations regarding financial aid and the use of modern technology. The proposed establishment of the world’s first international university for climate change and environmental studies, which was announced by the President recently, was another topic of discussion at the meeting between BMGF and President Ranil Wickremasinghe.
In November 2022, President Ranil Wickremasinghe made remarks on labor shortages as a side effect of the rapid increase in skilled and unskilled labor migrating to foreign lands, as well as Sri Lanka’s aging population which is considered to be the country with the highest proportion of older adults in South Asia. With a 12.3% percentage of individuals aged 60 and older in the country and a statistic of more than 1 in 4 (25%) Sri Lankans being over 60 ages of age by 2037, the country is set to inevitably face several social, economic, and health challenges.
Thus, the automation and use of robotics in a number of industries and trades, as a possible alternative to future and current labor shortages in Sri Lanka, are being explored by the government of Sri Lanka. However, whether or not the country is economically and socially equipped to finance and embrace such technological advancements is a question yet to be answered.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an American private foundation, launched in 2000 by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. In 2020, the BMGF was reportedly the second-largest charitable foundation in the world. The foundation was strategically divided into five key areas of focus in 2014; Global Development Division, Global Health Division, United States Division, Global Policy & Advocacy Division, and Global Growth & Opportunity Division, to achieve the foundation’s vision of funding social, health and education developments around the globe.
