Miss. K. N. Kumari Somarathna

Secretary

Ministry of Fisheries 

Ms K.N. Kumari Somaratne is the present Secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries, appointed by HE The President with effect from 01^st January 2024. Ms Somaratne already has a successful and unblemished service of 30 years in the Public Service. She has started her professional carrier as a Graduate teacher and has managed to ensure successful results during that 2 year period.

She has passed and entered the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and after that on successful completion of SLIDA  training as a cadet she was appointed as the Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Agriculture at Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council where she worked for nearly 6 years. Her next appointment was Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Industries in the same Provincial Council. She was also given the opportunity to work as the Acting Director of Textiles Industries under purview of  above Ministry.

It was a time where Handloom Textile products were not so popular in the country. However , she encouraged the Textile Department to take part in various National exhibitions to make Handloom products more popular in the country and to increase the sales through promotional activities. On one occasion, the then President visited one of exhibition stall and bought several Handloom products. As a result almost all the Handloom items exhibited were sold within half an hour.

In the year 2004 Ms.Somaratne was transferred to the Ministry of Rural Industries she was held the position of Deputy Director of Textiles which enabled her to contribute to the popularization of  Handloom products Nationally and Internationally.

After two years service in the said Ministry, she was appointed as the Senior Assistant Secretary (SAS) to the Ministry of  Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion. In 2009, the Ministry of Economic Development was established by merging two other Ministries (Ministry of Nation Building and Ministry of Tourism). Ms. Somaratne continued to serve as the SAS until she was promoted to the Special Grade and was appointed as the Additional Secretary (Administration) to the Ministry of Plantation Industries in 2014. In 2017 she was appointed as the Additional Secretary (Development) to the Ministry of  Ports, Shipping and Aviation and served in that Ministry till December 2023.

She has served as the Ex – Officio member on the Board of Directors of several Statutory Boards those are Industrial Development Board (IDB), Sustainable Energy Authority, Hector Kobbakaduwa Agrarian Research & Training Institute, National Institute of Plantation Management (NIPM), Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), Export Development Board (EDB), National Aquatic Resources Research Agency (NARA).

In addition to that, she served as Capacity Building Specialist – Local Government Improvement World Bank Project in North East from 2011 to 2014 while working in the Ministry of Economic Development.

Ms Kumari Somaratne studied at Ke/Pinnawela Central Collage and obtained BSc Business Administration (Special) Degree from University of Sri Jayawardenapura. She has followed Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration from Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) University of Sri Jayawardenepura and obtained Masters of Economics from University of Keleniya. She has successfully completed Diploma in Public Procurement and Contract Administration from Miloda Academy of Financial Studies.

She has had opportunities to further enhance her knowledge by participating in short-term training and seminars in several countries.