Work begins on Sri Lanka’s digital economy strategy with McKinsey input

Monday, 8 January 2018 00:56 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Work on the country’s digital economy strategy has begun with input from world-renowned consultancy firm McKinsey, the Prime Minister’s Policy Development Office said yesterday.

The inception report by McKinsey was presented at a meeting of the steering committee held on 4 January, and it was decided that the diagnostics phase of the assignment would commence by 15 January and last a period of two weeks.

This will be followed by a five-week design phase, during which the relevant programs and projects are expected to be identified and prepared for launch by early April 2018.

McKinsey & Company, while presenting their inception report, confirmed that the proposed Digital Economy for Sri Lanka could uplift the country’s GDP by 1%-3% in 2019.

The Policy Development Office said in mid-December 2017 the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure, with the support of McKinsey & Company, embarked on the process of developing Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy strategy. This initiative will enable Sri Lanka to scientifically identify appropriate opportunities for promoting Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy and the key enablers to promote the Digital Economy as well as initiate three flagship programs that will promote Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy strategy.

The current consultancy with McKinsey & Company is a short-term 11-week assignment which will be conducted in three phases. The first phase will focus on diagnostics to develop an understanding of Sri Lanka’s readiness to move into the Digital Economy. The second phase will concentrate on designing three flagship programs to kick-start the Digital Economy and 10 projects to establish key enablers to support the Digital Economy. The final phase will focus on launching the identified programs and projects.

This initiative will strategise the promotion of the Digital Economy through the lens of three economic development thrust sectors, namely the agriculture sector, tourism sector and the manufacturing sector. It is expected that each of the sectors identified above could develop at least one flagship program to support this initial stage of Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy strategy, the Policy Development Office added.