Samantha Pathirathna, Maheswary Vengadasamy and Hilmy Ishak are the founder directors of PASS Research and Consultancy (Pvt) Ltd which was branded as PASSAsia. In 1999 it was a home-based office at a rented annex in Borella.

We commenced our first office in Ethul Kotte. Small office space was rented out from the Sarvodaya Kotte office complex. At that time, team strength was 4 members.

We were able to innovate small business development solutions and services for women and youth with Swisscontact Sri Lanka. Under this consultancy we were able to offer our services in all districts in Sinhala and Tamil languages.

With the partnership of the Asian Development Bank funded SPREAP project as a Business Development Service provide, our first sub- office was opened in Tangalle town in Matara district in Southern Province. Hambantota Sanasa provided us the office space.

PASSAsia was among top 10 consultancy firms and also was within the top 10 for most of the similar bidding process. Most of the stakeholders recognized us as being the most innovative consultants . Universities and university students were followed us to begin more self-employment.

Company Chairman Mr. Samantha Pathirathna received The Most Outstanding Young Person (TOYP) Entrepreneurship award from Junior Chamber International (JCI)
December 2004.

With the Tsunami devastation and its negative impact, we have to close down sub– office and compelled to once more again centralize all operations in Colombo. With this the decision to commence second sub office in Jaffna also was withdrawn.

As a realization of one its major dreams, PASSAsia was able to establish its office building in Pitakotte with all modern facilities and features with an excellent TEAM work and the team synergy.

Become a partner with ILO SIYB to offer business development services for SMEs. At this time PASSAsia was able to win the second-round best partner organization and the best Tamil medium Trainer awards.

PASSAsia was selected as the national consultancy partner through FORUT for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Under this consultancy we undertook the post – tsunami desk review for Sri Lanka as a part of a global study.

PASSAsia was selected as the national level training partner to design and facilitate Training of Trainers programme for senior government officers in all Tsunami affected districts in Sri Lanka. Project was funded by GTZ and implemented by Ministry of Public Administration.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka selected PASSAsia as its consultancy partner for PAMP project which was funded by JABIC. Under this PASSAsia was able to provide human resources for 06 project districts.

Chairman of PASSAsia Mr. Samantha Pathirathna was recognized as one of the very exclusive US-SL Fulbright scholarship winners for 2009/2010 to study small business administration attached to The American University of DC – USA.

PASSAsia commenced it MF service unit with the cooperation of GTZ ProMis project and accordingly the team of consultants were trained on MF management tools and training techniques as international training.

PASSAsia was selected by the Ministry of Economic Development and JICA to design and develop national level front-line government officers training and capacity building consultancy.

Re-birth of PASSAsia to align with external environmental changes was realized. Accordingly PASS Asian (Pvt) Ltd was registered by maintaining the same brand and the intellectual capital of PASSAsia.

The Consultancy business was also badly affected the by global financial crisis. Some of the external environmental (political) threats also adversely the progress and performances of PASSAsia. Challenges were faced with difficult decisions and major strategic and structural changes.

To maintain its business competitive advantage PASSAsia was diversified with ICT, Human Resources, Community Tourism consultancy and advertising and Mass communication fields with other national and international business partners.

PASSAsia commenced its operations to offer cloud accounting for SMEs and mobile data collection solutions for NGOs and government organizations with amazing results.

PASSAsia established a strategic business partnership with Integrated Risk Management Associates LLC – USA to undertake advance qualitative research studies for NGOs, universities and government projects.

From April to August 2019 most of the regular operations were disrupted. Diversification related to Tourism was also threatened. We were able to manage with some of the ICT service provisions.

PASSAsia has recorded its highest number of business contracts signed within 30 days in its history. Clients including SMEs, Fortune 500 company, INGOs, NGOs, Government organization and leading Universities.

While praying and hoping for the well-being of humans, we are exploring all possible ways and means to support our clients to be resilience and competitive to deal with COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, our team is functioning well with a virtual office platform and we are ready to support government organizations, NGOs and SMEs. We strongly believe that building such partnerships are essential and use of technology with creative and innovative solutions are a must at this juncture. Rejuvenating micro, small and medium business and livelihoods will be one of the key priorities for the entire world.

PASSAsia partnered with Ministry of Small & Medium Business and Enterprise Development of Sri Lanka together with University of Colombo, Sabaragamuwa University and Peradeniya university to design and execute a rapid study “COVID-19 Impact on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Sri Lanka” using virtual meeting facilitation and remote data collection.

PASSAsia was a pioneer to design, develop and facilitate Participatory Action Research training course for Sri Lanka youth in 11 districts for one of the Youth Empowerment program of Sarvodaya.  Virtual courses were offered in Sinhala and Tamil languages. It was ended as a great success with a new its kind of innovation in Sri Lanka.

The Decade of EVALUATION for Action, also the Eval4Action campaign, calls upon all actors, everywhere to accelerate the delivery of Sustainable Development Goals, by advocating for stronger evaluation capacities and evidence-based policies. PASSAsia is one of the partners of this global effort.

Chairman of PASSAsia Mr. Samantha Pathirathna was awarded as Start-up expert/mentor for HULT Prize 2020 programme. Building Startups That Have a Positive Impact on our Planet With Every Dollar Earned. HOW WILL YOU CHANGE THE WORLD WITH US$1 MILLION is the theme for start-up teams.

Chairman of PASSAsia Mr. Samantha Pathirathna contributes as the National Consultant for ILO Micro and Small Entreprise (MSEs) COVID Recovery project together with government stakeholders, chambers and private sector.

Chairman of PASSAsia Mr. Samantha Pathirathna contributes as a member of Asia Pasific Evaluation, Strategic Planning Committee and PASSAsia, volunteered to host AP Regional Stakeholder consultation session on 9th Oct 2020.

Sri Lanka Evaluation Association (SLEvA) and PASSAsia has signed a MoU to introduce a novel M&E course as a Virtual Learning opportunity and facility.