Sri Lanka Prime Minister launched the Lanka Government Network to connect 3500 state institutions as a first step to move towards a digital economy.
Premier Wickremesinghe said the digital technology will be used for the administration of the country from next year and it will be fully integrated to the system within next three years.
Speaking at the ceremony to launch the Lanka Government Network in Colombo yesterday, the Premier said the government’s policy is to make a Digital Sri Lanka.
The Lanka Government Network has been launched with the intention of facilitating the people to visit state establishments to obtain services.
The Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure as well as the Information and Communications Technology Agency, and Sri Lanka Telecom are contributing towards this program.
It is planned to network 860 state establishments under the first stage. Accordingly 331 Divisional Secretariat Divisions, 25 District Secretariats, 50 ministries, 87 Departments, 48 hospitals and 321 other state establishments will be networked.
The Prime Minister said that after the Grama Niladharis are provided with tablets, the networking will be completed. It is intended to link the administrative system with digital technology next year. There should be an opportunity to get the work done through the mobile phones from home. In parallel to this exercise, the Prime Minister said that tablets would be provided to Advance Level students next year.
Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando said that this network will be able to eliminate wastage. He referred to plans to provide video conferencing to every state establishment. This he said is the Digital revolution.