The National Digitization policy of the future Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) government was unveiled by the Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa this week.
The Digital Policy for Sri Lanka by the future SJB government was launched in Colombo in the presence of Parliamentarians Eran Wickramaratne and Professor G.L Pieris with the participation of a host of academia in the relevant sphere of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence.
SJB MP Eran Wickramaratne, who was the pioneering chairman of the ICTA in Sri Lanka, has led the team of experts who prepared this policy document intending to take the country into Artificial Intelligence with a leap forward beyond Information Technology.
Speaking on the occasion, articulating the overview of the importance of digitization to Sri Lanka as a country, its government and the people, MP Eran Wickramaratne said that the importance of information technology to a country today cannot be overstated. “Even though the world is living in an artificial intelligence technology beyond information technology, Sri Lanka is twenty years behind in information technology.
“Therefore, since these technologies are needed, the Samagi Jana Balawega has decided to give priority to popularising this digital technology in the country during its term of office to take a leap and move forward, second only to school education,” he said.
MP Eran Wickramaratne pointed out that, as such the SJB is focusing on the development of human resources as the basic need. “Sri Lanka’s geographical location and human resources are advantageous for this. Earlier, literacy was measured by being able to write and sign one’s name,” he said.
MP Eran Wickramaratne emphasized that since it is now measured on digital literacy, raising all citizens to that position is the basic priority of the policy of the future Sajith Premadasa Government.
He further said that the digital Sri Lanka policy will have a positive impact on the economic development of the country as the nation has a digital literacy human resource and it can be used to make inputs to global needs which in turn provide the economic and financial benefits to the country and the households and individuals.
“A conducive atmosphere is needed to expedite accruing benefits, with high-speed internet connection covering the whole country. Korea gave high priority to internet connections and IT, so when there was a technological innovation in the world, Korea became one of the first countries to such innovations. Expertise and the requisite investment may come through private sector participation,” he said.
The SJB MP said that the Leader of the Opposition is of the firm view that the contribution of the private sector participation in this field is inevitable to reap the benefits of IT.
He further said that since technology always raises legal issues, Sri Lanka as a country should also prepare the necessary laws for that, adding “Now that Chat GPT has jumped forward under artificial intelligence over information technology, laws should be made for it now.
MP Wickramaratne asserted that as a banker about 20 years ago realizing the needs of IT, he along with Dhusantha Soza went to the USA and had a discussion with Bill Gates and made arrangements with Microsoft to open up their branch in Sri Lanka. He said “We had a plan to bring multi-national companies to the country by first bringing SAMSUNG into the country. Unfortunately, as we missed the opportunity with the change of Government in 2004, SAMSUNG started their project in Vietnam and that country made it a success in the field of IT.
“But we were able to bring in IT companies to provide BPO services and HSBC was one such company, but very unfortunately for the last 15 to 20 years, there have been no major advancements in the use of IT in this country. Enactments are needed to make IT workable efficiently. The piece of Law on IT by the EU has been made a law now in,” he said.
MP Eran Wickramaratne urged that, however, its duration for compliance should be expedited in Sri Lanka. (Newswire)