On August 13, 2020 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation Prof. M.D. Lamawansa participated at the joint video-conference organized by the SCO Secretariat and the SCO Youth Council.

Though this year the Conference was held in an on-line format due to pandemic it brought together about 13 speakers representing Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Presidential Administration, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, SCO Business Council, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs and Diplomatic Corp.
Opening the session, Mr. Denis Kravchenko, Chairman of the SCO Youth Council and the moderator of the Conference noted the discussion to be focused on development of economic and humanitarian cooperation in the SCO space. The moderator spoke about the effect of pandemic on the world economy, stressed coordinated activities to counteract growing threat to global and regional security, underlined the importance to strengthen international cooperation in trade, energy, investment, transport, agriculture, finance customs, telecommunication sectors.
Mr. Hakimov Bakhtier, the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for SCO Affairs emphasized the role of Russia in SCO development, and SCO unprecedented unique potential for equal interaction.
During his speech entitled "Youth Entrepreneurship in post Covid environment: glimpse of challenges and opportunities" Ambassador Prof. M.D. Lamawansa urged the participants of the conference and the SCO structures to engage in coordinated efforts to address all issues pertaining to youth and stressed the need to establish a dedicated committee/entity under the Youth Council on post COVID youth entrepreneurship in order to avoid long term denting in youth's life. "The economy being central to all aspects of youth, SCO countries need to concentrate on economy of the youth and how they could contribute to the economic growth as entrepreneurs", - emphasized the Ambassador
Mr. Alexander Kopkov, representative of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry referred to the speech of Ambassador M.D. Lamawansa who emphasized the paramount importance of obtaining contribution form youth to planning and implementation of entrepreneur-related projects.
The SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov in his closing remarks underscored the value of development of trade and economic relations between the countries, focus on the use and modernization of transport infrastructure, unification of transport and phytosanitary (for agricultural products) standards, digitalization of the economy.