Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena

Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena (born June 7, 1955) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the governor of North Western Province and as the governor of Southern Province of Sri Lanka. A former representative of Matara District for the United People's Freedom Alliance in the Parliament of Sri Lanka, he served as the cabinet minister of parliamentary affairs, Minister of Media, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Minister of Foreign Employment Welfare, deputy minister of civil aviation and as the cabinet minister of Investment Promotion. He was the state minister for State Enterprise Development in the government of President Maithripala Sirisena. He has been in parliament from 1994 and 2019.

Abeywardana was born in 1955 to a political family in Matara District, in Southern Province, where his father held local and provincial leadership positions. He was educated at St. Servatius College, Matara and Mahinda College, Galle.

Abeywardana has been a proponent of various micro-level development programs to enable the people to improve their quality of life. He is the Chairman of the Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana Foundation. Abeywardana resides in Colombo. He is married and has three sons. His son Pasanda Yapa Abeywardana is a member of the Southern Provincial council.