UNPUBLISHED: Sri Lanka and the Digital Revolution

New York, N.Y. While the role of governments is central in facilitating the development of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, the international community has also recognized the critical role of civil society and the non-government sector.

In Sri Lanka, like in many other developing countries, civil society movements are still in their infancy. The effectiveness of civil society organizations is based on opportunities to exert pressure, and deliver services where both governments and the private sector are unable to or incapable of doing so. However, civil society, irrespective of its level of organization (regional, national or international), will play an important role in bringing ICT to the people. This is an area in which civil society can provide a service that will have a significant impact.

Sri Lanka's e-government policy and associated projects have ignited a rapid e-service drive. (c) World Bank.

Well established Information and Communication Technologies are now being acknowledged as being crucial to the functions of multiple service providers, as well as being a source of innovative employment creation. There is a need to be creative in this area, or to coin a term, domain. ICT can be a huge source of employment, both in the developed and developing economies.  Many countries are aspiring to developing knowledge-based economies and this may be the future trend. Educational and infrastructure facilities are being developed with this objective in mind.

Urban growth has been a key factor as countries advanced towards industrialization. In the future ICT can play a vital role in ensuring sustainability in this process. The effective exploitation of the green aspect of  technology, and ICT is central to this, would provide an important frame to this evolution and be of immense benefit to the people, businesses and governments and, of course, to the environment. Already, ICT has contributed to reducing congestion in cities, minimizing fuel consumption, regulating heating and air-conditioning, etc.

At a practical level, delivering cost-effective e-services, especially to distant communities via the internet, limits unnecessary and costly travel by rural folk to cities to access different services, particularly government services. There was a time in Sri Lanka when rural folk would spend days travelling to the big city to obtain simple services. This is now a thing of the past.

Recognizing the growing demand for employment in rural areas, the Government of Sri Lanka first started enforcing a policy framework for locating certain industries in rural areas, making them readily accessible to rural communities. Consequently, many new industries were located in rural communities away from the cities. Simultaneously, heavy investments on ICT infrastructure were readily encouraged from around 2000. Sri Lanka started a rapid ICT drive encompassing the whole country with a special emphasis on rural communities. The benefits of this policy have been widespread.

In addition to the location of industries, it is hoped that increasing ICT literacy in Sri Lanka (this increased from 5 percent in 2004 to more than 30 percent in 2012) will attract a significant portion of rural youth to ICT-based green jobs. The demand for new jobs could be substantially met through this process.  The government plans to increase ICT literacy to 75 percent by 2016.

The rural telecenter network was a special innovation, in which a collaborative partnership was promoted among government, corporate and individual entrepreneurs and civil society organizations. Civil society organizations were critical to this initiative.  Rural places of worship were the backbone of the telecenter network as most rural folk tended to congregate at places of worship. The subliminal association with belief was also exploited in this process.

The telecenters operated by civil society organizations have also taken into consideration the growing demands of the youth, women and elderly.  Special ICT awareness courses tailor-made for the elderly, especially those who are struggling to keep pace with the digital revolution, are conducted regularly. Such inclusive approaches to accommodate all societal groups are vital to delivering the benefits of ICT in an equitable manner.

Sri Lanka is also collaborating successfully with the global telecenter movement telecenter.org . Sri Lanka created several technological applications for this movement to advance its global engagement.    The Nanasala Telecenters have developed the Sri Lanka Telecenter Sustainability Development Framework.  A series of programs have also been developed to deliver ICT to regions that suffered during the internal conflict.

Sri Lanka's current e-government policy and associated projects have ignited a rapid e-services drive, benefitting a significant portion of the country’s population. Accordingly, more and more information on public services has become available for citizens electronically (via the internet and through the official government call center services). There is, nevertheless, further room for development.

Bypassing the landline era, Sri Lanka’s cell phone penetration is more than 110 percent. The national broadband policy of Sri Lanka too is helping to narrow the digital divide. The planned island-wide national backbone network also supports this policy. The service is open to the private sector, which competes fiercely to provide services, making Sri Lanka a leader in this area. This is also an area that attracts significant amounts of foreign direct investment. The first-ever commercial 4G mobile service in South Asia is now in operation in Sri Lanka. Of course, business is a clear beneficiary from all this.

Sri Lanka’s fifth largest component of the GDP is the ICT-based business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which is now set to surpass other established industries and services.  This target set by the private sector along with the government-sponsored rural ICT infrastructure will help job-seeking rural youth to engage in ICT/internet based income generating activities, thus discouraging the traditional inclination to migrate to cities looking for decent jobs. Sri Lanka is fortunate in that it has successfully prevented massive migrations to cities by creating rural employment opportunities, thus avoiding the many social issues confronting other developing countries.

It is also noteworthy that Sri Lanka’s first BPO owned by women was started on last year’s International Women’s Day in Jaffna. This city suffered much during the 30-year internal conflict. Many such cities and rural settlements are the focus of the e-Society Programme of the government, which provides workshops and exhibitions.  It also provides computer labs for schools and youth centers.

The same result can be expected if we can improve distance education facilities significantly. There are many innovative partnerships in this area and resources in ICT-based media that would help the spread of quality education.  Global business entities are working closely with the Government of Sri Lanka on creative education content development. However, substituting teachers standing in front of classrooms with such new technologies poses a perceptional challenge. This trend could also pose difficulties in developing educational material in local languages. Providing a solid base for education will help improve social development indicators of developing countries sustainably.

Today’s challenge is to manage time and space for the ever increasing demands in cities and villages in the face of many resource constraints. In this context, ICT helps managing urbanization sustainably using modern means. Improved digital communication facilities, population databases, online payment systems, security systems and supply chain management systems can be mentioned as the ICT tools of sustainable management.

Developing new townships with ICT infrastructure, which are flexible to adopt the rapidly advancing new technologies are absolutely necessary to mitigate the many negative results of urbanization. To improve sustainability, energy-efficient ICT and supportive systems should be developed and implemented.

Author: Ambassador H.E. Dr. Palitha T.B. Kohona is the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations

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