The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, elected the Minister Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York, Waruna Sri Dhanapala, as Vice Chair of the Second Committee for its 68th Session.

His candidature for the Bureau of the Second Committee had been unanimously endorsed by the Asia-Pacific Group, the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York said in a statement.

He is the first Sri Lankan representative in the UNGA Second Committee Bureau which deals with a range of global economic and finance issues, including the Rio+20 follow-up processes and the post-2015 global development agenda. Among Mr Dhanapala’s responsibilities in the Committee would be: ICT and Science and Technology for Development, follow up on UN Conferences on Human Settlement, South-South co-operation and Development co-operation with middle-income countries. He also assisted the Second Committee Bureau during its 67th Session by successfully facilitating negotiations on a Resolution related to the Graduation of Least Developed Countries.

Mr Dhanapala is an officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and served as a Senior Assistant Secretary to the President prior to his diplomatic posting in New York in December 2011.

Last week, the UN General Assembly elected Ambassador Dr Palitha Kohona, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN, as Chair of its Sixth Committee (Legal).