Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka

May 30 South Asian Mobile Confab in Colombo, a rare opportunity

Monday, 28 May 2012 11:28

Participants in the third South Asian Mobile Conference at Cinnamon Grand Colombo on 30th instant will enjoy a rare chance in interaction with world’s top experts on the mobile.

The conference, the biggest of its kind in the region brings together developers of next generation mobile content and applications, visionaries, researchers, academics, investors, policy makers and civil society activists. Internationally renowned experts will address the Conference sharing their experiences and vision on creativity and innovation, and their vision for the future.

Among the leading resource persons lined up for enriching the conference are Ralph Simon, Tomi T. Ahonen, Idrees Butt, Sanjaya Karunasena, Osama Manzar, Suren Pinto, Harsha Purasinghe, Shamal Ranasinghe, Dr. Madanmohan Rao, Dumindra Ratnayaka, Dinesh Saparamadu, Hassan Shahid, , Dr. Hans Wijesuriya.

According to the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the hosting organisation, the conference objectives are: (1) To stimulate new thinking and vision for the future , (2) To create awareness on current trends and business opportunities and models in mobile content and application development, (3) To share experiences in developing and deploying mobile applications for the wider society and (4) To create awareness on policies affecting Mobile Telecommunication in the South Asian Region.

Registration for the conference is on and the website for online registration is www.southasiamobicon.org, ICTA sources said.

Sri Lanka ready for providing optimum service via mobile phone

Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:25

“With mobile phones becoming integrated into our lives their use for providing public service is becoming more and more pervasive”, says ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) CEO Reshan Dewapura. He said so while participating at the internationally renowned World Summit Awards (WSA) ICT conference held in Cairo, recently.

ICTA CEO shared the success of the e-Development programme in Sri Lanka with the world ICT leaders. He asserted that the Government was ready to provide key citizen services via the mobile phone within the next two to four years.

“In Sri Lanka, we have a great potential for providing public services via the mobile phone. We have technology, creativity and a growing demand for such services,” he explained.

ICTA CEO was among the distinguished ICT leaders in the world who shared the common platform of the World Summit Awards in Egypt. More than 40 countries participated in the conference, which honoured the best e-content creators around the world in 2012.

Explaining the ICT road map of the country, Dewapura says that the past experience will help harness a fruitful future in mobile technology. Sri Lankan talents and innovations will induce further growth.

'Dividends of ICT must be taken to the village in Sinhala and Tamil'

Tuesday, 08 May 2012 14:49

“ ‘If the dividends of ICT are to be taken to every village, every citizen and every business’ it has to be done in Sinhala and Tamil”. This was stated by ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Board Member and Local Language Initiative (LLI) Chairman Dr. R. B. Ekanayake.

Dr. Ekanayake said so while participating at a multi-pronged launch that took place at Jaic Hilton, Colombo recently (Wednesday May 02).

Presenting an overview of the LLI during the past seven years Dr. Ekanayake said ‘If the dividends of ICT are to be taken to every village, every citizen and every business’ it had to be done in Sinhala and Tamil. Explaining the rationale for the LLI Dr. Ekanayake said: “Most people in Sri Lanka use Sinhala and Tamil. Most are not conversant in English. English is necessary but learning a foreign language takes time. The ICTA Local Language Initiative (LLI) therefore had to be implemented immediately after ICTA was set up”.

This implementation took place and in the recent past several projects have been completed under ICTA’s “Local Language Initiative” and the Wednesday event was held to launch the following:-