The government is seeking Indian assistance to implement a programme that would take computer education to rural Sri Lanka.

Economic Reforms, Science and Technology Minister Milinda Moragoda who is currently in New Delhi said that the government hopes to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would provide Indian experience and expertise in this regard.

This would be, similar to the MOU signed with Malaysia to establish a Multi Media University in Sri Lanka.

“President R. Premadasa took the benefits of the globalization to rural areas by way of implementing the concept of two hundred of garment factories program.  Now it is high time that we take computer education to rural and remote areas of the country to create employment and business opportunities for the young people in those areas”.

Moragoda said that in order to take computer education to rural areas, Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh are successfully implementing a pilot project called “Smart College” in selected one thousand rural schools.  In addition, this project has broken the barriers and taken the computer and IT education to difficult estate villages too.

“We could learn from the Indian experience and follow their example to develop a program similar to that and suitable for us”, he added.