Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka

‘2013, year of excellent public service’ President’s Secy explains way to meet challenge

Tuesday, 22 January 2013 09:58

Kicking off last Friday a project that can make State land management unimaginably easy, Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga showed the way to make 2013 the excellent public service year.

Beginning his address as Chief Guest at the inauguration of the State Land Information Management System (e-SLIMS) with due recognition of the achievements in past years the Presidential Secretary said: “It is not that in the past years we have not made great improvements in public service. Indeed we have made great strides in making public service unimaginably comfortable both for the public and the Government staff. Obtaining of Birth, Marriage and Death certificates which took three months in the past could be obtained in five to 10 minutes now. Vehicle Revenue Licence could be received in the comfort of our home without the hassle of visiting Government offices. People experience this vast difference in ease and efficiency as compared with the past in many areas, be it pension, online visa in the case of foreigners wanting to visit Sri Lanka, crop price information for farmers, just to mention a few”.

Minister praises ICTA for making ICT part and parcel of people

Friday, 11 January 2013 12:53

Participating at the e-Swabhimani 2012 award ceremony held last evening (10) Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya commended ICTA for its great role in making ICT part and parcel of the people.

Gracing the Award ceremony held at Cinnamon Grand, Colombo as Chief Guest, in spite of a tight schedule, the Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology stated further as follows:
“Sri Lanka’s children or adults will do great things if properly guided. Everyone, child or adult likes appreciation. It boosts everyone’s spirit. That is why this e-Swabhimani event that gives recognition to best e-content and e-content developers is so important. Referring to the great importance His Excellency the President attaches to ICT as evidenced by the facilities for ICT given through the 2013 budget the Minister said: Praise from opposition is a rare commodity. But the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka received even that towards the close of the 2013 budget debate.

e-Swabhimani 2012 winners to be announced tonight

Thursday, 10 January 2013 12:07

The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka will be hosting the e-Swabhimani Award Gala 2012 today (10) at the Cinnamon Grand under the patronage of Hon. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology. Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga will be the Guest of Honour at this event aimed at recognising the creativity and innovation of the country’s developers of digital content and applications.

World Bank Financial Sector Specialist Henry Bagazonzya , Daily FT editor Nisthar Cassim, Sri Lanka Telecom CEO Greg Young, University of Kelaniya Fine Arts Department Senior Lecturer Rohana Beddage and Veteran Film Director Asoka Handagama will also grace the occasion as special guests of e-Swabhimani 2012.

Recognising the fact that the disparities in accessing information and communication technologies that exist in our society today stem not only from inadequate infrastructure but also from the lack of appropriate content, the ICTA initiated the e-Swabhimani Award in 2009. The aim of this Award is to encourage and incentivise local developers to come up with innovative applications and digital content that will impact on society as a whole. The design and development of good quality content and applications require creative imagination, engineering know-how as well as financial resources. Moreover creation of content and applications for societal use is often not addressed by commercial software developers since it does not generate much profit. It is therefore recognised that there is a need to incentivise and facilitate content creation.