Eran calls for dedicated institution to facilitate e-Government

SJB MP Eran Wickramaratne

Main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne yesterday called for a dedicated institution to facilitate the much needed e-Government.

Speaking in Parliament on the vote of  Ministries of Defence and Technology, Wickramaratne said that the present ICT agency - ICTA was created  when the President Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister in 2002 when he headed a committee while working as a CEO in a private bank.

“Even now, the problem is retaining the best people in the field in a typical Government service where market rates are much higher than for the senior civil officers in the public sector,” he said.

“The use of Information Communication Technology is very important as it is a huge export income sector bringing in around 1.7 billion dollars, which is second only to the garments industry. The potential of its expansion is much higher, expecting a $ 3 billion export revenue to the country by 2024,” the SJB MP said.

Therefore, Wickramaratne said that the Government should encourage ICT industry as a key export. “But it has put taxes on it at 30% which is a discrimination. The Government’s role in ICT is very critical and important. The President in his budget speech mentioned his dissatisfaction with the Government institution promoting ICT and promised to appoint a committee to go into it while mentioning the closure of the ICTA,” he said.

On the need for the ICTA to continue, Wickramaratne said that over 25,000 public servants and 650 leaders have been trained to handle the e-Government digital infrastructure and the Lanka gateway system. This digital infrastructure has been created by ICTA for the Government with the whole idea of having one Government together with ICT,” he said.

He emphasised that when the ICTA was created, the problem was retaining the best people in the field in a typical Government service where market rates are much higher than for the senior civil officers in the public sector.

Wickramaratne concluded by saying that we need to ensure that we have an organisation in Government to facilitate implementing ICT programs with critical people in the saddle.