NITC 2020 to foster digitally sustainable Sri Lanka

The 38th National Information Technology Conference (NITC), the country’s flagship ICT event themed ‘Towards a Sustainable Digital Sri Lanka’ and organised by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) will be held on 14 and 15 October at the Shangri-La Hotel Colombo.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will attend the conference inauguration as the Chief Guest and ICTA Chairman Jayantha De Silva will be the Guest of Honor. 99X Technologies Founder/CEO and ICTA Board Director Mano Sekaram will deliver the keynote address on inauguration day.  

A fireside chat with the key industry stakeholders Prof. Kapila Perera, Secretary, Education Ministry, Jayanatha De Silva, Chairman, ICTA, Oshada Senanayake, Director General, Telecom Regulatory Commission, on the theme ‘Digital Sustainable Sri Lanka’ moderated by Indika De Zoysa will be a key feature of the inauguration day.

CSSL National ICT Awards recognising outstanding national contributions by ICT professionals of the country under the presence of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will also be a key highlight at the inauguration of the National ICT Conference 2020.

NITC 2020 also features an annual colloquium track in which more than 15 papers shortlisted after an assiduous selection process will be presented by prominent local and international researchers on the third day of the conference.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Computer Society of Sri Lanka President Prabath Samindra Wickramaratne said, “Rapid digital transformation is a key need of any country to stay ahead in today’s globally competitive world and Sri Lanka has to be more proactive in digital policy making, adaption and use of digital technologies on all spheres of the society. NITC 2020 will be an international platform to deliberate latest developments, trends, and challenges of the digital era, and thousands of ICT practitioners are expected to gather at the largest and longest running annual ICT conference in the country.”

NITC Conference Chair Heshan Karunaratne said: “For the first time in history, we have a president who has a sound knowledge on Technology advancements and has a vision to establish a digitally inclusive Sri Lanka, with a citizen-centric digital government for the convenience of every Sri Lankan. Therefore, we at CSSL have also considered our theme in line with this vision and are working closely together with ICTA and other industry partners towards making this event a successful one. Also, there will be several panel discussions which would also discuss some of the key topics in Sri Lanka’s digitalisation journey.”

This year’s version of the NITC will be focused on positioning Sri Lanka as a digitally sustainable nation. As the new Government of Sri Lanka strives for rapid digitalisation of the country NICT 2020 is held with the intention of creating a common platform for effective interaction among all stakeholders locally and internationally. NITC 2020 has lined up more than 25 eminent international and local speakers under the themes Industry 4.0& IOT, Robotics, AI, Deep Learning and Digital Health, Towards $ 3 Billion Journey, Sustainable Digital Innovations, Digital Payments and Digital Media.

The Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) which was established in 1976 is the apex body representing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) professionals in Sri Lanka. The CSSL organizes the National Information Technology Conference (NITC) annually, which is the flagship ICT event in Sri Lanka. Last year, the event was Sri Lanka’s biggest ever international ICT event. This event involves key ICT decision makers in private and public sector together to share and discuss latest trends in Information and Communication Technology with over 30 foreign and local prominent speakers and 1,500 plus ICT professionals. The Conference is organised under the leadership of CSSL President Prabath Samindra Wickramaratne. The Conference Chair is Heshan Karunaratne while Professor Koliya Pulasinghe is spearheading the academic track and colloquium of the conference NITC 2019, supported by the Presidential Secretariat and Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka as the National Partner.

This year’s event would also not be possible if not for the valued sponsors. Huawei is the Platinum Sponsor and Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel are the joint Principal Sponsors. Bank of Ceylon is the Banking Partner and CryptoGen, SLIIT and Axiata Digital Labs have joined as sponsors.