Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka

Technology and Research Minister Tissa Vitarana paid a glowing tribute to both the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and the private secto  for their role in making  the benefits ICTA  accrue to people island-wide. “We must congratulate both the ICT Agency for the e-Sri Lanka Programme which has been forging ahead successfully despite various problems and the private sector for joining in to advance ICT in this country”, the Minister said.

The Minister said so while addressing as Chief Guest at the inaugural session of the28th National Information Technology Conference organised by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) Sin Colombo recently (11-12).  The two-day conference “ICT 2.0:  ‘Empowering Sri Lanka to a New Social Order” had more than 24 high quality paper presentations and was marked by   a distinguished panel speakers.

Continuing the address, the Minister said that the President had made a historical input into the concept of Nenasalas by having them set up in places where devotees of the major religions of the country congregate.   Due to that input today 601 Nensalas are successfully spread across the country in a manner that is people friendly. The Minister added that if not for that village-friendly cultural change initiated by the President the Nenasalas would have been restricted to an elitist society as internet cafes even today. “These Nenasalas are complemented currently by 257 Vidata centres. Plans are under way to have a Vidata centre in each of the 331 administrative areas.” the Minister said. The Minister emphasised that it was encouraging that an all-out effort was being made both by the Government and private sector including the Computer Society of Sri Lanka to make peoples’ lives comfortable through ICT.

Speaking as Guest of Honour President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga praised ICTA and also drew attention to the prime mover - so to say – of this national endeavour of making people’s lives comfortable through ICT: “You have heard from Jayantha Fernando (ICTA Programme Director / Legal Advisor) what the ICT Agency had achieved in this regard over a period of time. But I must also tell you that the cause behind the success of this great set of activities is also the Head of the Country, the Head of State, H. E. the President.   The President has taken a lot of pains thoroughly interested in seeing that every child in this country has access to ICT. “Pointing out that in Sri Lanka’s schools alone there were 4.2 million children and that this populace formed one fifth of the total population, the Secretary called for a concerted effort to meet the challenge.  Relating a true anecdote from Mahavilachchiya the Presidential Secretary kept the audience spell-bound when he recounted how the knowledge of computers a daughter of a 60 year-old farmer had imparted to her father had paid great dividends. The benefit the farmer gained included the reading of 10-minutes old news in newspapers on the internet instead of travelling five kilometres away to get to know at best only 18-24 hour old news.  The President’s Secretary also called for efforts to create as many e-villages, like Mahavilachchiya, as possible and to reach 60% ICT literacy by 2012, both targets set by the President

Addressing the audience, on behalf of Chairman and the Leadership Team of ICTA, Programme Director / Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando recapitulated the salient contributions of ICTA towards taking ICT to the villages. Referring to Nenasalas he said that it had been found by independent assessment by World Bank  that 67% to 70%  per cent of  the Nenasals would be sustainable after the subsidy period. Mr. Jayantha Fernando  also referred to  several successes  under the Re-gov program referring the BMD Project (which had digitized about 7.5 million birth certificates enabling citizens to obtain copies in one hour) and the Lanka Gate initiative, which facilitated the implementation of the e-Revenue License  (where citizens could renew motor vehicle licenses through the Internet). In addition Mr Fernando emphasized on the ICT legal framework done through ICTA to facilitate ICT 4Development, referring to the “policy and regulatory reform manifested in the Electronic Transactions Act of 2006, the Computer Crimes Act of 2007 and even the Intellectual Property  Act of 2003, providing the enabling policy framework for ICT development to take off in the country”.

CSSL President Chrysantha Silva,Tata Consultancy Services   Limited, India Vice - Chairman and former CEO S. Ramadorai, Novell India / Sri Lanka. Country Head Sandeep Menon also delivered scintillating addresses at this inaugural session.

 
This article appears in the Daily FT & Daily News of today (23.8.2010)
 

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