ERIA is pleased to announce that Datuk J. Jayasiri, the new Secretary General of Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry's (MITI), has been appointed to ERIA's Governing Board. Datuk Jayasiri is replacing Tan Sri Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria, who served in the Governing Board since 2014.

Datuk Jayasiri has served in the civil service for 35 years since he joined Malaysia's Ministry of Primary Industries in 1981 as the Assistant Secretary of International Affairs dealing with international commodity issues. Since then, Datuk Jayasiri has served in various positions such as the First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of Malaysia in Geneva, the Principal Assistant Director of Multilateral Trade Relations in MITI, Malaysia's Senior Official to APEC, the Senior Director of Bilateral and Regional Relations, and the Senior Director of Multilateral Trade Policy and Negotiations. Prior to becoming MITI's Secretary General, he served as MITI's Deputy Secretary General for Strategy & Monitoring.

He is also very experienced in multilateral trade negotiations, having represented Malaysia in the Uruguay round of negotiations to establish the World Trade Organisation (WTO) when he served as the First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of Malaysia in Geneva from 1988 to 1997. He was also Malaysia's Chief Negotiator in the ASEAN-China FTA, Malaysia-Japan FTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations.

The Governing Board is the decision-making body of ERIA and consists of the Secretary General of ASEAN and representatives from 16 countries.