The Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando attended the Doha Forum 2025 in Qatar, from 6 to 8 December 2025.
The Doha Forum is a global platform for dialogue, bringing together leaders in policy to discuss critical challenges in the world and to build innovative and action-driven networks. Under the 2025 Theme ‘Justice in Action: Beyond Promises to Progress’, the Forum called on stakeholders to move beyond rhetoric and take concrete actions to support sustainable prosperity and address injustice while also emphasizing the need for an integrated approach that combines policy innovation, fair and transparent resource allocation and collaborative solutions to build a more just and sustainable future.
During the Panel Discussion featuring Labour Minister Dr. Fernando, under the theme ‘The Digital Dimensions of Human Trafficking: Emerging Threats, Innovations, and Global Responses,’ Sri Lanka’s Minister of Labour expressed his perspectives and explained the background to the issue in Sri Lanka. He called on national and regional international organizations to work together to identify the root cause which he stated was connected to social justice, the theme of the Doha Forum 2025. Labour Minister Dr. Fernando also explained the various mechanisms that were available and were being enforced in Sri Lanka in order to address this scourge.
Articulating his views further, Labour Minister Dr. Fernando also stated that the Government of Sri Lanka is in the process of creating more awareness programmes and campaigns on human trafficking including interviewing victims of human trafficking to give a greater emphasis to the dangers of this illegal activity.
In addition to attending the Panel Discussion, Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Fernando, met with Minister of State for International Cooperation, Dr. Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al-Misnad. During the meeting Labour Minister Dr. Fernando briefed the Minister of State for International Cooperation on the current situation in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah and the efforts that are currently underway by the Government of Sri Lanka. He also sought the support of Qatar in Sri Lanka’s rebuilding efforts, to which Qatar’s State Minister for International Cooperation positively responded.
Labour Minister Dr. Fernando also met with Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour, Qatar, Sheikha Najwa bint Abdulrahman Al Thani and discussed avenues for enhancing further cooperation between Sri Lanka and Qatar in the area of labour migration. They also discussed new initiatives that would augment the welfare of Sri Lankan migrant workers in Qatar.
On the sidelines of the Doha Forum 2025, Labour Minister Dr. Fernando also met with Director General of the Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD), Fahad bin Hamad Sulaiti and the Chief Global Programme Officer of Qatar Chairty, Nawaf Abdullah Al Hammadi. Both QFFD and Qatar Charity are already supporting Sri Lanka’s relief efforts in collaboration with Qatar Charity's office in Sri Lanka. More support was assured for Sri Lanka in the rebuilding efforts by QFFD and Qatar Charity.
During his stay in Doha, Labour Minister Dr. Fernando was also interviewed by The Peninsular newspaper, a leading English daily in Qatar, the Doha News and Al Jazeera on Sri Lanka’s post-cyclone recovery during which he made an appeal to the international community to support Sri Lanka in the relief and rebuilding efforts.
Minister Dr. Fernando was joined by Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the State of Qatar, Sithara Khan, Ministers of the Mission, Kashyapa Ukwatte and Dharmasiri Wijewardhane, Director General, Department of Finance, Prasad Manjula Hettiarachchi, Additional Director General, Corporate Affairs Division, Finance, Ainkaranathan Saarrankan and Assistant Director, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, Sanju Dassanayake participated at the Doha Forum 2025 sessions, bilateral meetings and sideline events.
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Doha
10 December 2025
