Anoji de Silva was reappointed as Chairperson of the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC), at the seventh Annual General Meeting (AGM), as per the provisions of the constitution. 

De Silva will lead the chamber for the period 2022/2023.

De Silva was a Board Member of the WCIC from 2019-2021 and was also Capacity Building Leader of the WCIC. She is a chartered accountant by profession, with over 30 years of experience and is a Partner at EY Sri Lanka and a Council Member of CA Sri Lanka.

Addressing the gathering of members, past chairpersons and founder members, in her inaugural speech of the second term in office, De Silva reiterated and pledged to stay true to its vision.

“The WCIC will continue to reinforce the vision to be the ‘think tank’ voice and ‘platform’ empowering women to be powerful nation builders by participating in transforming economic growth of the country,” she said.

De Silva affirmed that the WCIC would keep up with the strategic direction and would continue to focus and work on important areas in the new term through the strategic pillars. This will be carried out via active participation of the WCIC in policy advocacy to ensure the voice of women entrepreneurs and women in business are considered in policy development, assisting members and other women in business with the required knowledge and skills needed to take on leadership roles, building capacity and business skills of women entrepreneurs and members who own businesses and continuing our efforts to create dignity of labour for women engaged in low-skilled employment.

She also stated that Women Leadership Forum 2022, to commemorate the International Women’s Day, was conducted as a full-day leadership development forum to a packed audience of over 225 attendees under the theme ‘Breaking the Barriers for a Better Tomorrow’. 

De Silva shared some of the planned activities under each strategic pillar for the period 2022/2023 and presented her review of the year 2021/2022.

de Silva concluded her speech by thanking the members for their presence at the AGM and their continuous support and welcoming the new board members. She urged the members to live by the WCIC premise: empower, engage, enrich by “empowering yourself, empowering and engaging other women and empowering, engaging and enriching the economy”.