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By Dilrukshi Fernando
Sri Lanka has already finalised the draft copy of ‘DIGIECON Sri Lanka 2030’, a new national initiative for digital economy acceleration to grow the country’s digital space and economy, and the program can be launched in the upcoming month, State Minister for Technology Kanka Herath said.
Herath made these comments during a panel discussion at the Daraz South Asia E-Commerce Summit 2023, Technology and Innovation Forum, held recently in Colombo.
“The main objective of the DIGIECON Sri Lanka 2030 is to acquire a digital economic framework for Sri Lanka, a digital economy, a masterplan, and a policy,” Minister Herath elaborated.
DIGIECON Sri Lanka 2030, initiated by the President of Sri Lanka, as the Cabinet Minister of Technology, aims to accelerate the digital economy of Sri Lanka from 2023 to 2030, by leveraging advanced technology-based solutions. According to Minister Herath, this initiative is supported by the World Bank, which is working closely with the Ministry of Technology in Sri Lanka to finalise the draft framework for DIGIECON Sri Lanka 2030.
“The kind of vision that we are trying to create, a new model for the Sri Lankan economy, which will, among other things, rely heavily on a digital economy. We are very proud to be part of that process, of thinking about what that vision would be, working with many of the stakeholders,” said World Bank Senior Digital Development Specialist Siddartha Raja, who was also a fellow panellist at the Daraz Technology and Innovation Forum. “We are very grateful to have the opportunity and the privilege to work closely with the Government of Sri Lanka in that journey,” he further added.
The Ministry of Technology in collaboration with the industry has organised a series of events for DIGIECON 2023, including exhibitions, symposiums, conferences, and award ceremonies. Other objectives of the initiative include a single window approach for startups and ICT-BPM (Information Technology and Business Process Management).
“We are also working on an agriculture modernisation program, including a strategic policy document, also introducing an agriculture dashboard for the Ministry of Agriculture,” said Minister Herath, adding, “We have received an Agriculture Tech Fund from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for about 0.5 million dollars.”
Minister Herath shared details of several other plans progressing under the DIGIECON Sri Lanka 2023: “We are trying to introduce a Nomad visa to Sri Lanka for the first time in Sri Lanka. E-commerce is important in this aspect. We are trying to implement online payments for all the government services, which will be a good opportunity for e-commerce expansion in Sri Lanka,” the Minister said, explaining that pilot projects have commenced at local government authorities and Government institutions.
Sri Lanka has shown momentous growth in e-commerce adoption, specifically in the last three years (2020 to 2022), according to Mastercard Country Manager Sri Lanka and the Maldives Sandun Hapugoda. “E-commerce transactions have contributed to about 40%-43% of Sri Lanka’s overall digital transactions, which is a significant number of what we were in 2019, which was around 19%, in terms of contribution to the overall digital economy.
Hapugoda highlighted the potential in Sri Lanka for growth in the digital economy. “Today, in a country with 165% mobile penetration, and for a population of 21 million, we have 19 million debit cards. So, there is a significant digital infrastructure already available, to be leveraged to uplift the digital economy, and e-commerce as a subset,” he said. However, Hapugoda said that compared to the personal consumption expenditure, e-commerce amounts to about 5% in Sri Lanka, presently, which will hopefully develop, to convert the exceptional growth observed in the last 18 months.
Pix by Ruwan Walpola
