Deputy Foreign Minister Perera highlights Sri Lanka’s achievements in ICT

Monday, 20 April 2015 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith P. Perera participated at the Global Conference on Cyberspace, from 16-17 April in the Netherlands. Speaking at the conference, the Deputy Minister underscored that Information and Communication Technology was the tool and enabler that would push the boundaries of socio-economic development in Sri Lanka and that e-Government led reforms would be a catalyst in bringing greater transparency, efficiency and accountability. He also briefed on various initiatives underway in the ICT sector that had brought Sri Lanka to the lead position in South Asia on the UN e-Government Readiness rank.

The Sri Lanka delegation to the conference included Chargé d’Affaires a.i Wathsala Amarasinghe, Senior Deputy Solicitor General Neil Unamboowe, Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) Chairperson Chitrangani Mubarak and ICTA Board Director Chanuka Wattegama. The Statement of the Deputy Minister is below: “I wish to express my sincere congratulations to the Kingdom of the Netherlands for hosting this landmark Global Conference on Cyberspace. I also wish to express my appreciation to the Government of the Netherlands and Bert Koenders, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the invitation extended to Sri Lanka and for the gracious hospitality extended to my delegation. Sri Lanka strongly believes that Information and Communication Technology is the tool and the enabler that will push the boundaries of socio-economic development in countries such as ours. While harnessing the full potential of ICT for development, e-Government led reforms will be a catalyst in bringing greater transparency, efficiency and accountability. Substantial investments are already made in the deployment of ICT in key sectors of the economy under the ‘e-Sri Lanka Development initiative’, supported by the World Bank. Our Networked Readiness Index has improved steadily and the UN e-Government Readiness rank has also jumped 41 places bringing Sri Lanka to No. 1 position in South Asia. A large number of government services are now available on line to citizens through our country portal (LankaGate), facilitated by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka. The new Government’s 100 day program has guaranteed access to free Wi-Fi as a citizen’s right. This free Wi-Fi program was launched in several key public places across the country. The Government expects to increase it to a thousand hotspots in the coming months. Sri Lanka has had a long-standing tradition of supporting an open, interoperable and secure Internet. It remains an active participant of ICANN and supports the Internet Governance Forum. Whilst protecting the freedom of the internet, several policy and institutional measures have been adopted to combat internet crimes. Recently, Sri Lanka was invited to join the Budapest Cyber Crime Convention of the Council of Europe. We are strongly committed towards fast tracking our accession to this global convention.”