Voice of America. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exterior_view_of_the_Wilbur_J._Cohen_Federal_Building,_Washington,_D.C_LCCN2013634385.jpg)
Voice of America. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exterior_view_of_the_Wilbur_J._Cohen_Federal_Building,_Washington,_D.C_LCCN2013634385.jpg)
Rohitha Bogollagama is a Sri Lankan lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He represented Kurunegala in Parliament from 2000 to 2010, held several ministerial portfolios including Foreign Affairs, served as Governor of the Eastern Province from 2017 to 2019, and was High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2023 to 2024.
Background
Rohitha Bogollagama was born on August 6, 1954, in Nikaweratiya in Sri Lanka's North Western Province. He is the son of Chandrasekera Malala Banda Bogollagama, who chaired the National Lotteries Board from 1966 to 1970, and Vinitha Bogollagama. He grew up in a family of five children.
Nikaweratiya is in the Kurunegala region, an area that later became central to Bogollagama's parliamentary career. His public life combined legal practice, national politics, executive administration, and diplomacy.
Education
Bogollagama attended Ananda College in Colombo, one of Sri Lanka's prominent Buddhist-oriented schools, founded in 1886 during the growth of Buddhist educational institutions under British colonial rule. He later studied at Sri Lanka Law College and completed his legal training in 1976.
Sri Lanka Law College is the country's principal professional institution for legal education and admission to practice. Bogollagama was called to the Bar and enrolled as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in October 1976.
Career
Bogollagama entered legal practice in 1976 and continued working as a lawyer until 1999. His legal work included commercial, trade, shipping, dispute-resolution, and arbitration matters. He served as legal consultant to the Ceylon Fertiliser Corporation from 1985 to 1993 and as legal adviser to the United States government-run Voice of America from 1991 to 1999. He also served as chairman of the Sri Lanka Cement Corporation and as chairman and Director General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka.
His political career developed alongside his legal work. He was active in the United National Party Students Front in 1972 and later became chief organizer for the Nikaweratiya electorate. After an earlier parliamentary candidacy in 1989, he was elected from the Kurunegala District in 2000 and served in Parliament through 2010. Parliament is Sri Lanka's national legislature, while its consultative committees examine policy and administration within particular sectors.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed Bogollagama Minister of Industries on December 12, 2001. During that period he initiated Yuga Dekma, a large industrial exhibition in 2002. After crossing to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party-aligned governing alliance in November 2004, he became Minister of Advanced Technology and National Enterprise Development and subsequently Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion.
As an enterprise and investment minister, Bogollagama advocated restoring Sri Lanka's time zone to Greenwich Mean Time plus five hours and thirty minutes, the standard used before 1996. He represented the Sri Lankan government at two rounds of peace talks with the LTTE in Geneva in 2006, when negotiations formed part of international efforts to address the country's civil war.
Bogollagama served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from January 28, 2007, until April 2010. His foreign-ministerial work included engagement with governments and international organizations on investment, tourism, trade, and bilateral relations. After losing his parliamentary seat in the general election of April 8, 2010, he left the cabinet.
President Maithripala Sirisena appointed Bogollagama Governor of the Eastern Province in July 2017. The governor is the constitutional head of the province and exercises executive authority over subjects devolved to the provincial administration. Bogollagama held the office until January 2019.
He became Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in November 2023. The Sri Lankan High Commission in London, opened in 1948, is one of the country's oldest overseas diplomatic missions and also handles relations connected with the Commonwealth. Bogollagama presented his credentials to King Charles III on May 30, 2024, and represented Sri Lanka in the United Kingdom during 2023 and 2024.
Bogollagama was elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka from the Kurunegala District in 2000 and served as a national legislator for approximately a decade.
As Minister of Industries, he initiated Yuga Dekma, a major industrial exhibition held in 2002 to promote Sri Lankan industry.
He represented the Sri Lankan government at Geneva peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2006.
As Foreign Minister, he conducted diplomatic engagement concerning investment, tourism, trade, and Sri Lanka's bilateral relations.
He served as Governor of Sri Lanka's Eastern Province from 2017 to 2019 and later represented Sri Lanka as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Politics
Bogollagama began his political career in the United National Party and was elected to Parliament from the Kurunegala District in 2000. He served as Minister of Industries in the United National Front government from 2001 to 2004 and participated in parliamentary consultative committees dealing with finance, foreign affairs, defence, industrial development, investment promotion, and power and energy.
In November 2004, he crossed from the United National Party to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party-aligned governing alliance and entered the cabinet as Minister of Advanced Technology and National Enterprise Development. He later served as Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion and as Minister of Foreign Affairs. His political career therefore spanned two major Sri Lankan party traditions: the United National Party's liberal-conservative parliamentary tradition and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party's broader nationalist and state-oriented coalition politics.
As foreign minister, Bogollagama represented the government in international diplomatic engagements and in Geneva peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2006. He later held appointed executive offices as Governor of the Eastern Province and High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom.
Connections
Bogollagama is married to Deepthi Bogollagama, née Samarakone. They have a son, Dhakshitha Bogollagama, and a daughter, Dilshani Bogollagama. Dhakshitha has served as an independent non-executive director of Pine Capital Group in Singapore and has been associated with Sri Lanka's National Enterprise Development Authority. Dilshani studied medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Wife:
Deepthi Bogollagama
Née Samarakone; spouse of Rohitha Bogollagama.
Son:
Dhakshitha Bogollagama
A finance graduate of Singapore Management University who has served as an independent non-executive director of Pine Capital Group and has been associated with Sri Lanka's National Enterprise Development Authority.
Daughter:
Dilshani Bogollagama
A physician who studied at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
References
Parliament of Sri Lanka: Bogollagama, Rohitha
Official parliamentary profile documenting Bogollagama's date of birth, qualification as Attorney-at-Law, legislative service, ministerial portfolios, and political career.
