Govt. to build a new community of ‘eLeaders’ to spearhead Sri Lanka

By Cheranka Mendis

Sri Lanka is committed to build e-leaders in the country; a new breed that will take the lead in the future economic development of the country. Moving away from the conventional Chief Information Officer to embrace a new ‘Chief Innovation Officer’ in the future, Sri Lanka is now on the lookout for new and innovative personnel.

Speaking at the 13th Annual Regional Government Conference ‘FutureGov Forum Sri Lanka,’ a two day seminar which kicked off yesterday, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga stated that some 200 persons were being trained under the e-Sri Lanka programme at present to become the new breed of CIOs in the country.

Speaking on ICT and e-governance, Weeratunga asserted that there is not just one, but many signals indicating that Sri Lanka is moving towards an IT developed market. “The heads of companies and corporate are becoming IT savvy and using IT as a day to day exercise in the country. This shows that the country is steadily moving towards an IT developed world. Sri Lanka is ranked seventh among 50 best emerging global outsourcing countries. That itself shows that Sri Lanka is heading towards the right direction.” BPO has now gone to rural areas such as Mahavilachchiya, 140 kms away from Colombo where another 200 have become IT savvy.

He said, technology can also be used to bridge the gap that exists between the rural and urban markets as 77 per cent of Sri Lanka is rural in character.



ICT could be used to help them develop better and use efficient and cost effective methods to conduct their livelihood programmes such as agro and fishing. He stressed the target was to achieve 75 per cent ICT literacy by 2016.



Weeratunga stated that to spur economic growth through ICT under an infrastructure and knowledge based development, four key areas of governance must be taken into account. The areas which aim at encompassing all aspects of growth, pushing the economy to achieve national competitiveness, reducing poverty and improving the quality of life of all citizens in the country— all these look at achieving a sustainable growth pattern in the country.

“The Sri Lankan government has fully understood that peace and development go hand in hand. They have observed four key steps that use ICT for the country to move forward,” Weeratunga said. The steps include using citizens as partners of governance, commitment of top level leadership for enhancing competitiveness, increased use of ICT to bridge the urban rural divide and enhance their lifestyles, and reengineering the government drive to achieve a robust government.

 “The government has two key roles to play.  One is administration and the other is political power. As an administrator it is important to get the public involved. The question is have we used the mode of radio or television sufficiently for good governance?” he asked adding, “ICT in a sense has added a new dimension to communication. Now there is news on demand on numerous channels. Therefore it is important to understand that e-governance and other mandates of ICT are important for governance.

Sri Lanka which arguably has one of the most comprehensive e-government strategies in the South Asian region also has the political drive to support IT growth. Claiming that the best example for the second step — namely, commitment of top level leadership for enhancing competitiveness in Sri Lanka— he asserted that local government plays an important role in furthering IT and English education in Sri Lanka. He laid out the example of 2009 being proclaimed as the year of IT and English literacy.

Quoting from Bill Gates, who in a video call to the President is claimed to have said, “Sri Lanka has an advantage with government wanting to insist on IT education. The country is poised for economic growth and development and much of that would be software and ICT.” Weeratunga stated that with rural ICT programmes such as ‘Nenasala’ the government was on the right path.

He also expressed that Sri Lanka is committed to build e-leaders in the country, a new breed that will take the lead in the future. Sri Lanka is now moving away from the conventional Chief Information Officer system, to embrace a new ‘Chief Innovation Officer’ in the future. Some 200 persons are being trained under the e-Srilanka programme at present.  Further, with more heads of companies and corporate becoming IT savvy and using IT as a day to day exercise the country is steadily moving towards an IT developed world.

The chief guest at the event Minister of Technology and Research Tissa Vitharana stated that challenges such as limited English literacy and fraudulent use of ICT and internet can be and would be overcome within a short period of time.

 “Access to good English by all must be driven forward. It must begin with spoken English and must be taught in a friendly manner. The majority do not know English and this must be changed, and fast,” Vitharana said. On the fraudulent use of ICT and internet, the Minister said that steps should be taken to curb them with the use of proper legislation with proper directors and employees to conduct research and analysis, he said.

The Chairman of the Commission on information and communication technology in the Philippines  Atty. Ivan John Enrile Uy looks at ICT as a medium which claws out its benefits to many parties. “It is a model coordinating agency which assists other government agencies to do their job better and efficiently.

A series of steps must be taken to understand the challenges and barriers that slow the implementation of e-government initiatives. First you must understand the champions within the agency as well as champion leaders on top of e-governance. Standards must be maintained and people, most importantly government, must be made to understand that huge funding necessarily doesn’t mean success. More often the successful ones are the smaller funded companies — “quick wins, short budgets and a shorter time frame is what gets the programmes going.”

 “You must look at the dolphins and not the whales.” Funding must be looked at; implementation must be looked into in depth from pay rolls to negotiation of contracts and the challenge of sustainability. Scalability and leader’s passion also counts when it comes to overcoming challenges in e-government projects.