Sri Lanka appointed Vice Chair of UNESCAP’s ICT committee

Wednesday, 22 October 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka was selected as a Vice Chair of the UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) Information and Communication Technology Committee last week. The bearer of this great honour for Sri Lanka is the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) CEO Reshan Dewapura. Dewapura was unanimously selected by ESCAP as one of the two vice chairs of its ICT Committee.

ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura chairing the joint plenary session of the ESCAP ICT committee held together with the ESCAP transport committee at the UNESCAP headquarters in Bangkok Dewapura’s selection for the next two years occurred at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Bangkok. The unanimous election is significant in view of the aspiration for the position by several high-calibre countries. Speaking about the appointment, THE ICTA CEO said that being called up to serve in the committee was not an honour bestowed him personally but on the country. Commenting on the election for the prestigious post ICTA Chairman Professor P.W. Epasinge said: “This UNESCAP ICT committee to which ICTA CEO has been elected as Vice Chair is the same committee that was chaired two terms by Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga. This says much about the importance of this post. The selection is a corroboration of the noteworthy strides Sri Lanka has made in ICT. It is a tribute to the country in terms of ICT development, among all member countries as well as the observers like EU.” In a further gesture of honour to Sri Lanka, Dewapura was also appointed to chair the heavily attended joint plenary session of the ESCAP ICT committee held together with the ESCAP transport committee. This joint session on Wednesday (15) was the first such session at UNESCAP between two committees. A significant outcome of this joint session was the adoption of the resolution to use the Asian Transport Network (both Railway and Highway networks) to implement the Asian Information Superhighway. Explaining the objectives of the joint session that he chaired, THE ICTA CEO said: “The aim of the joint session was to highlight the synergies between the ICT and transport sectors. These sectors aim to develop regional framework for addressing the digital divide, including the development of stronger Internet infrastructure in Asia-Pacific region.” United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Bangkok was particularly a hive of activity last week with a two-day (14-16) meeting of the relevant experts of the region. Among the members of the Sri Lankan delegation were member of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Board of Directors and Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (Sri Lanka CERT) Chairman Earle Fernando, ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura ICTA) and ICTA Monitoring and Evaluation Programme Head Jagath Seneviratna. The Sri Lankan delegation also made a country statement to support the UNESCAP initiative on the Asian Information Superhighway, and leveraging on the Asian Transport network for its implementation. The delegation’s country statement also showcased the progress Sri Lanka has made in achieving the targets and ICT Indicators of the WSIS (World Summit on Information Society) declaration.