Information and Communication Technology Agency | Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka

BASL, ICTA and AIJA to host confab in Feb 9-10: promoting Sri Lanka as legal outsourcing hub

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 12:48

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, (BASL) in collaboration with the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA) will be holding an international conference on Legal Process Outsourcing in partnership with the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA).
“The Conference on the theme ‘Outsourcing versus Restructuring’ is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 9th and Friday, 10th February, 2012 at the Ivy Room, Cinnamon Grand and is intended to create awareness about Sri Lanka as a preferred destination of choice for Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO), which is one of the objectives of the Forum called the Legal Solutions Forum (LSF), established in 2011” BASL President Shibly Aziz, PC said.
He said so while participating at a recent media briefing held in Colombo by BASL and the young lawyers’ largest international association AIJA (Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats). “The AIJA with the active support of ICTA approached us wanting to have an international conference to popularise Sri Lanka as an outsourcing hub for legal services and we grabbed the opportunity”, the BASL President confirmed. “Thanks to this initiative, not only the lawyers but also the business people and the Government will benefit from the inflow of foreign exchange”, the BASL President explained.
Thanking the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) for its guidance and support for the up-coming seminar the BASL President introduced ICTA Director / Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando “as one of the leading world authorities on the subject of ICT Law”. Also attending the Press conference were BASL Secretary Mahinda Lokuge, Representative of AIJA Attorney John Wilson and Javed Mansoor.
Speaking briefly at the press briefing Jayantha Fernando said:

75% ICT literacy and IT a great export earner, twin aims of new Ministry

Tuesday, 21 December 2010 14:04

The new Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology aims at making Sri Lanka become 75 per cent IT literate while turning the IT industry into a major export earner.
This was expressed by Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya at a simple function for inaugurating the new Ministry at 79/1, Fifth Lane, Colombo 3 last forenoon (17). The highlight of the ceremony was the invoking of blessings on the Ministry and the country by clergy representing Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. The concurring message of the representatives of the clergy who performed the respective religious rites in front of a large gathering was that the multi-religious ceremony augured well for the country as well as the Ministry.
The Minister emphasised the challenge placed before the Ministry by President Mahinda Rajapaksa , of making Sri Lanka reach the 75 per cent mark in IT literacy in 2016 and optimising IT as a foreign exchange earner. “The efforts towards this objective should be well planned and worked out with a dedication similar to winning the war. The above-mentioned twin goal of the Telecommunications and IT ministry is an essential part of the wider goal of winning the economic war. The bench mark of this is the doubling of the country’s per capita income within the target period which in its turn will contribute heavily towards Sri Lanka becoming Asia’s Wonder ”, the Minister emphasised. The Minister said, thanks to the foresight of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the IT literacy rate that was about 4 per cent when His Excellency took over the portfolio of IT, had now reached about 30 per cent. Sri Lankans are clever. Given the proper impetus and leadership they will achieve what seemed to be impossible . We have seen this happening with regard to eradicating terrorism. We can all unite, without being distanced by language, religion or any other differences. Fifteen years ago the rural people were shy to place the receiver of the phone close to their ear and say ‘hello’ with their mouth. But today it has become both a useful and fashionable part of their routine lifestyle to use the mobile phone. The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka has contributed greatly towards making the benefits of ICT reach the people thus. All citizens should be ‘socio-economic’ soldiers in winning this economic war and making Sri Lanka the Wonder of Asia.

Sri Lanka re-elected to UNESCAP’s ICT Committee chairmanship

Thursday, 25 November 2010 11:59

Sri Lanka bagged UNESCAP’s ICT Committee chairmanship again at a UNESCAP meeting held in Bangkok yesterday (24).
The ESCAP member countries unanimously passed a proposal requesting President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga to continue as Chairman of UNESCAP’s Committee on Information and Communication Technology for another two years.
The Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) addresses the following issues: integration of ICT-related issues in development policies, plans and programmes; transfer and application of ICT at the regional and sub-regional levels; development of human and institutional capacity in the use of ICT; and ICT applications for disaster risk reduction

Sri Lanka was elected to the chair of UNESCAP’s ICT Committee for the first time and that too unanimously in 2008.
President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga attributes Sri Lanka’s unanimous re-election to the chair of the prestigious committee to the progress Sri Lanka has achieved during the past five years. The re-elected UNESCAP’s Committee Chairman says that Sri Lanka could perform a tremendous amount of work for the benefit of all as a result of the position of chairmanship to the UNESCAP’s ICT committee.
In particular Sri Lanka hopes to launch common programmes jointly with other countries to deploy ICT for national development under various sectors.
Commenting on the election of Sri Lanka to the prestigious position both at the first instance and the second time, Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chief Executive Officer Reshan Dewapura said: “The election of Sri Lanka to the chair of UN-ESCAP’s Committee on ICT at the first instance was due to the great strides Sri Lanka had made in making the benefits of ICT accrue to people. That Sri Lanka had attained great achievements is amply proved by the top regional and world awards Sri Lanka had received for several of its projects under the e-Sri Lanka initiative.”