International Partnerships

Vincent Subasinghe has led his entire life as a proud Sri Lankan and always looked at local and national models for building Sri Lanka as an independent nation against colonial legacies. However, he was also an internationalist by thinking as well as practise. For building his local and national movements and ventures, he has thoroughly studied the international practises and models from across the world. In a time when international travel was very difficult and costly, Vincent Subsinghe travelled extensively, spending his own money, for studies and building partnerships. He visited many cities in India to learn about the cooperatives there and used the experience to start the cooperative movement in Sri Lanka. In an era when the world was divided into two camps as socialist and capitalist, Vincent Subasinghe has been able to visit and build relationships in many diversified places such as USSR, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, UK as well as Asian countries. His special relations to Russia and China was very useful in carrying out his national services in Sri Lanka.

Vincent Subasinghe was a very good example of a personality who “thought globally but acted locally” long before the globalization became widespread and well known. His futuristic thinking will continue to amaze people even decades after his death.