 In 1977, Ratwatte was appointed by President J. R. Jayawardene as Chairman of the National Youth Services Council and became the Director General of Youth Services in 1979.He was later appointed as Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Affairs.Since 1994, he has been the managing director of the Sri Lanka Business Development Centre, with the exception of 2002 to 2004, when he was appointed as Secretary to the Treasury and Ministry of Finance.