CEO of Etisalat Lanka addresses the ‘First Geneva Dialogue’
Thursday, 16 January 2014 00:00
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Etisalat Lanka, Director/CEO Dumindra Ratnayaka was invited to be a part of the ‘Geneva Dialogue’ organised by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as part of a series of policy briefings to discuss recommendations for the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Ratnayaka had the opportunity to contribute to a high level UN panel and share his vision for sustainable development.
Earlier this year, Sri Lanka was featured in the ‘Information Economy Report’ prepared by UNCTAD as an economy whose software industry is facilitating an inclusive development. The report is an indicator of growth in ICT industry across 194 member countries of the UN and amongst South Asia, Sri Lanka had shown rapid growth, showcasing expertise to support domestic market needs as well as the ability to capitalize on emerging opportunities in the mobile application realm.
The first of the series of policy briefings, the ‘First Geneva Dialogue’ on Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda calls for structural reforms to the global economic and financial system, and a greater level of ambition in tackling poverty. The series of ‘Geneva Dialogue’s’ are a means for UNCTAD to identify ways to harness the success of identified trade and private sector to ensure that the post-2015 strategy is in place to help poor countries to arrive at maximum productive capacity and be less vulnerable to damage.
Ratnayaka shared his views at the ‘Geneva Dialogue’ on how Etisalat Lanka continuously seeks to foster social inclusiveness and combat poverty through technology. Ratnayaka used three main services of Etisalat Lanka as drivers of change; App Zone, Android Village Hub and Web Patashala.
As one of the clear focus segments of Etisalat Lanka, the App Zone was developed especially for the SMEs to promote and drive entrepreneurship. The Android village hub, created with the aim of empowering and connecting communities using technology is an initiative to minimise poverty by setting up local resource hubs using Andriod technology. Android village hubs are being implemented with the assistance of Sarvodaya-Fusion under the leadership of Dr. Harsha Liyanage. The Web Patashala project was implemented in both urban and rural areas of the country to promote web based audio visual learning from grade 4 to Grade 10.
Ratnayaka was identified to be part of the ‘First Geneva Dialogue’ to contribute to the debate on how Etisalat helps build the Sri Lankan post war economy through innovative software initiatives and featured as an exemplary case study in the ‘Information Economy Report’ for their emerging android ecosystem business model successfully executed in Sri Lanka.
“It was a great honour and privilege to be a part of a team whose task is to drive world change through experience and intellect. Etisalat has continuously focused on improving living standards and creating better environment conditions through our products and services, the recognition by UN and UNCTAD is a testament of our honest aspiration for a better Sri Lanka,” commented Ratnayaka.
