by Sudarshanna Perera

The Computer Society of  Sri Lanka (CSSL) opened the stage for the two major parties, the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the United National Front (UNF) on Monday in Colombo to present their policies on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector under their future governments.

Speaking on behalf of UPFA, its General Secretary and Colombo District Leader Susil Premjayantha said: The UPFA is to continue the e-Sri Lanka initiative while placing emphasis on promotion of the local ICT industry and education at grassroots level to contain the  digital divide and establish transparency if elected to power.

Premjayantha said that a program is vital to better utilize the foreign funds granted for several ICT projects in Sri Lanka.  The e-Sri Lanka initiative implemented by the UNF will be carried out with certain policy amendments to suit local requirements.

He said that ICT should be better promoted as a subject at school level to achieve long-term benefits.  Since Sri Lanka is far behind other countries in the field of ICT, a comprehensive and transparent policy should be formulated and expedited to achieve immediate goals.

“We have noticed that the funds granted for several ICT programs are not fully utilized and to contain this problem it is vital that we come out with a proper program to harness the ICT growth in the country.

“A joint effort between the government and private sectors should be implemented to improve software, hardware, education and other aspects of the ICT sector in Sri Lanka”, he said.

He called upon the private sector to come into as open forum with the government to discuss issues pertaining to the subject.

Former Economic Reform, Science and Technology Minister and Colombo District candidate Milinda Moragoda speaking on behalf of his party said:  The UNF government’s ICT policy has been made clear to the people and with the e-Sri Lanka initiative, a drastic step was taken to make the administrative, educational, economic and other sector on-line.  He said that the UNF wants to ensure that a national policy on ICT would be adopted to ensure rapid and sustainable growth while making no room for a digital divide.

He said that the already established initiatives in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will be further improved to correlate current global advances as an ongoing initiative while adopting a national ICT policy and liberalizing the telecom industry to develop ICT infrastructure.

“We were able to lay the foundation for an ICT culture in Sri Lanka and would take positive initiatives to develop the telecom and mobile sectors of Sri Lanka.  The country has the potential and resources and it is vital that we take a practical approach in this connection.  There has to be improved interaction between the government and the private sector.  A collective effort should be made while identifying the challenging areas.  We will continue to subsidize the telecom operators to improve the infrastructure in rural areas.  The donor support is a catalyst to develop the ICT sector and we will ensure that funds are better utilized”, he said.  He also outlined the benefits achieved so far and long-term results expected.  The local ICT community called upon the policy makers of the main two parties to give the highest priority for Sri Lankan ICT industrialists in awarding government’s ICT contracts.  They said the government has awarded some contracts to foreign companies when the local community has the ability to do so.