Sri Lanka to chair UNESCAP’s ICT Committee

Secretary to the President Mr. Lalith Weeratunga has been unanimously elected by ESCAP to chair its Committee on Information and Communication Technology.

The election took place at the ESCAP- the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific - meeting in Bangkok which opened onTuesday (18), bringing together ICT experts from governments, academia, UN and other international agencies and the private sector.

“Sri Lanka’s unanimous election to chair the prestigious Committee out of several high-calibre countries in the field of computer technology including China, India, Laos, Malaysia, Japan, Nepal, and the Republic of Korea is very significant”, ICTA Chairman Professor P.W Epasinghe says.
“This signals the view in ESCAP of the island’s considerable progress in ICT development. During the past three years computer literacy in the country has increased from 5 per cent to over 20 per cent with the emphasis placed on ICT development,” he added.

This huge progress in computer literacy is due to the successful implementation of the ‘e-Sri Lanka’ initiative of the Government of Sri Lanka. People see tangible fruits of this ICT success story in their day-to-day transactions at Government institutions. Thanks to ‘e-Sri Lanka’, people’s needs that involved much time-consuming procedures years ago for completion are fulfilled within a ‘miraculously’ short time. For example, now people are able to obtain authenticated copies of Death, Marriage or Birth Certificates, essential documents in Sri Lanka, in as short a time as five minutes. The Government’s arm that acts as the apex body offering such ICT solutions through the ‘e-Sri Lanka’ programme functioning under the Presidential Secretariat is the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). (www.icta.lk).The ‘e-Sri Lanka’ initiative uses ICT to develop the economy of Sri Lanka, reduce poverty and quality of life of the people under a six-pronged strategy.

The United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Bangkok was particularly a hive of activity last week with the two-day (18-19) meeting of the Expert Group on World Summit on the Information Society and Emerging Issues in Asia and the Pacific followed by another three-day meeting. At this latter three-day session ESCAP’s Committee on ICT presented to the member states the recommendations of the preceding two-day meeting.

“ ’How to overcome the existing ‘digital divide’ between high-income and low-income countries’ was the focus of the above-mentioned two-day (18-19) session,” ICTA COO/Director Reshan Dewapura explained.

Among the Sri Lankan speakers at this session were Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunga, Chairman, Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Prof. P. W. Epasinghe and Chief Operating Officer, ICTA Reshan Dewapura.

Other countries and organisations whose representatives addressed the Tuesday-Wednesday session are India, Laos, Malaysia, Japan, Russia, Nepal, and the Republic of Korea, ESCAP, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Food and Agriculture Organisation, International Telecommunication Union, United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation, Asian Development Bank, Pacific Island Forum Secretariat and Microsoft.

Headquartered in Bangkok ESCAP is the largest of UN's five Regional Commissions in terms of its membership, population served and area covered. ESCAP which works to promote sustainable and inclusive economic and social progress is also the only inter-governmental forum covering the entire Asia-Pacific region. Its ICT Committee monitors the progress made at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) for Asia and the Pacific.