“President caused best benefits of ICT reach all” – Secy. Weeratunga

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s practical and down-to-earth leadership made the best benefits of ICT reach all the people, President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga said. Weeratunga said so while participating as Chief Guest at the inauguration of the INET Colombo 2011 in Colombo last Monday (23). Several distinguished experts in ICT from abroad and Sri Lanka shared their knowledge and expertise at the two-day conference.

Themed ‘Internet for All,’ INET Colombo 2011 was organised by the ISOC Sri Lanka Chapter. During his address, Weeratunga pointed out that President Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to be the source of the great strides in ICT Sri Lanka has been making. From the historic direction in 2004 from taking the computer to the village to leading the country to become a regional knowledge hub, the President’s guidance has continued to be pivotal, the Presidential Secretary emphasised.

It was significant that the audience was also informed at the inauguration about yet another of the results of the success story of ICT in Sri Lanka. That was when Weeratunga announced during his address as Chief Guest at INET 2011: “The e-Sri Lanka programme is almost at its final destination. I am more than pleased to inform you that the World Bank has pledged funds for the second phase of the e-Sri Lanka programme, which the World Bank in its own terms hails as one of its flagship projects.”

ICTA Chairman Prof. P.W. Epasinghe, ISOC South Asia and South East Asia Regional Bureau Manager Rajnesh Singh, ICTA Chief Executive Officer Reshan Dewapura, TRCSL Director General Anusha Palpita, ISOC Sri Lanka Chapter President Harsha Wijewardena and INET Colombo Chairman Prof. Gihan Dias also participated in INET Colombo 2011.

Following is the full text of Weeratunga’s address:

Let me begin by saying how happy I am to be here this morning with you. I would like to express some of my thoughts before you, as a user of the internet. I am not a ‘techie’; I am not an IT professional but someone who wants to promote IT in Sri Lanka and I feel the theme that you have selected for this morning’s conference, ‘Internet for All,’ is extremely appropriate.

Internet, an expanding system

Internet is a limitless and ever expanding system. As estimated by surveys in mid 2010, more than 29% of the total global population has access to the internet. During the past decade, the expansion has been 445%; that is a huge increase in the use.

The majority of users are undoubtedly from highly-populated Asia; they say it is about 42%. That is where most of you and I live, but with relatively low internet penetration rate (22%) compared with the global average. Sri Lanka has recorded 8.3% internet usage in 2010 and it is a significant improvement from 5.5% in 2009. At the beginning of this decade, that is in 2000, this figure was just 0.5%.

Well, some of these things that I am going to say must be already known to you, but let me, however, for the benefit of those who don’t know, share them with you.

Sri Lanka stands tall globally in ICT

Sri Lanka has been placed at the 66th out of 138 countries in the 2010/11 in the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) and was identified as among the top 10 most improved countries. In the two previous rankings, that is 2009/10 and 2008/09, Sri Lanka was stagnant at this 72nd place. It could secure only the 86th position in the 2006/7 ranking. So you see how much we have done together with the private sector, the Government – all stakeholders – to bring Sri Lanka to fairly a significant position in the world.

Well, the Networked Readiness Index ranking is also more aligned with Sri Lanka’s position of 62nd in the Global Competitiveness Index of 2010/11, also put out by the World Economic Forum. That means we have 61 countries ahead of us in the global competition for development! And that is where I think the ICT sector, the private sector and the Government, together with other stakeholders, work together in harmony towards the coordinated strategy.

Internet – A public good

It is so interesting that there is no single owner for the internet and each of us has even a very small share of it when we get connected with the so-called ‘global village’. As such it is a public good in economic terms. The Government has, therefore, a role to play when public goods – such as road safety, law and order – are concerned. Internet is one such public good.

The Government has to ensure that all ICT tools are put to use for the good of mankind, only for the good of mankind and for bringing people together. I have seen how ICT was used to propagate terrorism. We are at a very interesting point of time after 30 years of a long-drawn battle with the terrorists; Sri Lanka has now come to be a country with sustainable and permanent peace. Therefore we look toward ICT tools to make it sustainable and permanent.

ICT has a great role to play. We, in Sri Lanka, must ensure that none of the ICT tools, once again the internet, would be used ever to divide the Sri Lankan people; that we will not allow. For this and other reasons during the past few years the Government has tried its best to narrow the so-called digital divide.

e-Sri Lanka Development Programme

The e-Sri Lanka programme is almost at its final destination. I am more than pleased to inform you that the World Bank has pledged funds for the second phase of the e-Sri Lanka programme, which the World Bank in its own terms hails as one of its flagship projects. Many school and community level projects with the assistance of the Government have reached higher levels of success.

I can list a number of them, including the ‘Nenasala’ (the regional telecentre programme and the network) and the school ICT lab network. Those of you who are responsible for this should take credit for its success. The rural community could get internet facility at very low cost through the ‘Nenasala’ network, which we now plan, with the blessings of the ICTA and the stewardship of the Chairman, to elevate as e-Life centres.

This is also mentioned in His Excellency’s election manifesto of 2010, the ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Looking Towards the Future’. However, please note that the prime objective of ‘Nenasalas’ is not only providing villages with internet facilities but also serving as a centre of changing citizens’ lifestyles with knowledge sharing mechanisms.

Landmark change in ICT policy

Let me also take you back to 2004 when Sri Lanka had a landmark change in the ICT policy. We have 77% of our population in the rural areas. So naturally that was a very wise decision. It was the current President who articulated the fundamentals of the ‘Nenasala’ programme. Today it has penetrated the rural domain in no uncertain terms. Our aim is to have 1,000 such centres in the whole country. Right now we have something like 600.

In the first term of his presidency, once again it was the President who declared 2009 as the ‘Year of English and IT’. This drew great applause from Bill Gates in a video address spanning about four minutes. We needed such a high level of intervention to make both these subjects closer to the rural community and as expected, many stakeholders, a lot in the private sector, rallied round the theme for various activities.

President’s role in country’s great ICT strides

Although we have a separate Ministry now for Telecommunication and IT, the His Excellency’s leadership for the whole ICT sector remains. That I think is a crucial factor in Sri Lanka making great headway in the ICT sector.

We have Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, a young Minister, who is in charge of giving effect to the Government policy in IT. Undoubtedly the President has realised the great potential of this technology in changing lives of rural citizens and therefore keeps a close tab on the progress. I am glad to note that the Ministry has recently introduced a five-year ICT action plan for the country to help address the emerging needs.

Kids’ ICT competency

Today technology changes so fast. Some months back, I was delighted to buy an iPad and now I feel this is outdated because iPad2 has come. If technology keeps on changing this fast, we have to do something to keep pace with it. Today interestingly even small kids are competent in using sophisticated digital devices and are advisers to their parents on how to troubleshoot. I see young children becoming great fans of IT and that is a very good sign.

Power of internet

The expansion of mobile phones and telecom networks enabled people to access the internet without much difficulty. It is very encouraging to see more and more people using telephones, both fixed and mobile, to transact business and to improve the quality of their lives.

For the last three-and-a-half to four years, not because I am Secretary to the President, but as a normal citizen, I haven’t had to go to any service provider to pay my bills. I have done that from home. That’s the power of the internet. In Sri Lanka, of the 20 million people, you would be glad to hear that 18 million people own some kind of telephone, which is a great thing that I see as a progress in development.

Extensive use of telephones has encouraged telcos to innovate and offer many applications, such as m-learning. Many of these, the ICT Agency plans to follow up and promote, as appropriate, in the next few months. Many platforms and applications are being designed by developers to put on the mobile phones.

Internet, a multi-faceted tool

With the explosion in the development of ICTs, there is no doubt that the internet has become a multifaceted tool. Apart from mere communication and entertainment, we can see many opportunities of this wonderful tool – tele-medicine, citizens’ services, help during disaster management, etc. You name it and the internet can enter the scene by facilitating all areas in this long list. However, content must be acceptable and accessible to the user.

The mode of illustration, the language and style of writing are more important than high tech inputs. Different people will see internet in many different ways: positively, negatively or with a balanced and open-minded attitude – differs from person to person.

Vistas of knowledge

Well, technologies also emerge fast as I have been telling you and have been in use for some time depending on the users’ choice. Internet’s advantage is that it creates choices for visitors and no one can practically dominate the world-wide web. Many of us have learned the intricate nature of the internet by hours and hours of browsing.

Every time we browsed, it brought us new vistas of knowledge and gave us unforgettable experiences and memories. However, I think that a clear guidance of do’s and don’ts would be useful to prevent a person losing his way in the vast cyberspace, particularly children.

Preservation of cultural values

His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa in his characteristic style of being practical and down-to-earth has cautioned the authorities in Sri Lanka to make this vast cyberspace safe for our national asset, the children. None of us as parents or right thinking citizens, I am sure all of you are included, want our innocent children fall prey to the predators stealthily moving in the cyberspace in search of innocent victims.

This is the need of the hour, particularly for Asians who view children differently. They are our best assets and we need to protect them from all evils. Children for us are not just five-year-old or six-year-old kids but we see children even when they are 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; they are still children where we are concerned. So we need to protect all these people.

Internet and print media

Of course, having said all this, let me also tell you that internet is not ‘everything’. To me still, books and other print media have their eternal value and one cannot fathom how much of knowledge newspapers can bring into our lives.

Although we should be cautious of internet’s use as a learning tool, Sri Lanka should not lose the global competition for managing knowledge for the advancement of the country and that has to be done in different ways.

Sri Lanka, regional knowledge hub

The ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Vision for the Future,’ that is the policy document of the Government, outlines the President’s vision to make Sri Lanka a regional knowledge hub by recognising both ancient and modern knowledge systems. The Steering Committee that I chair is now engaged in a process to review how best we should use ICT to disseminate and access vast vistas of knowledge.

We have to learn as well as unlearn many lessons if we are to dominate the region in this area. Other envisaged four hubs – energy, commercial, naval/maritime and aviation hubs – too have to depend heavily on ICT and internet. The programmers and content developers are invited, therefore, to work on these areas, as by the time the physical infrastructure is ready, soft factors such as ICT systems and manpower too should be well in place, ready for use.

Internet’s contribution to green environment

Let me also take a look at another facet of this whole developmental process. An environmentalist will see internet as a positive contributor for a sustainable environment. Of course it saves people’s movement to various locations due to advanced communication systems such as live video conferencing across continents, thus reducing fuel consumption and carbon emission. Internet and many other ICT solutions save tonnes of paper.

However, the rate of electronic waste growing in Sri Lanka and throughout the world is alarming to say the least. As a member of the ever-growing internet users’ family, it is your duty to make sure that you are not wasting or misusing server spaces and network bandwidth. Like spectrum we use for radio, TV and telecom signals, these are invisible resources that can be used for the advancement of mankind and not destruction.

Self-discipline rather than control

Interestingly, some countries have started strict measures on both hosting websites and accessing the internet. However, as a public servant of a democratic country, a democratic Government, I always advocate self-discipline rather than controlling. If we control, we also control creativity and innovation which is a must for the advancement of a nation.

Form of village ‘well clubs’

Another interesting aspect of the internet is that a sociologist will see internet from different angles. We have now passed the era of ‘pen-friends’. I am sure some of us would have had pen-friends. I had four or five, waiting eagerly to see an airmail letter.

Today we have come to an era of cyber-friends through social networking backed by new technologies. Internet’s role as a medium for social networking is now, in my understanding, a debated topic. There are many complaints about ‘Fakebooks’ among genuine ‘Facebooks’. My opinion is that all social networking tools are an advanced model of village ladies’ clubs. This is quite relevant in this part of the world – near the common well, that is built by the Government at times, where all sort of gossip is exchanged. It is the ‘trust’ factor that makes someone’s contribution acceptable or not.

Cyber crimes

Cyber crimes and other malpractices are also mushrooming at an alarming speed. Sri Lanka has introduced legislation to combat such criminals. I thank professionals in the field, legal, technical, managerial, all who are interested in a safe society who are now actively working on public complaints about breaching privacy and other unlawful or unethical activities using the internet. The Minister of Telecom and IT Ranjith Siyambalapitiya is keen on this area of his responsibility. Though he is not here, I must thank him for that.

Value of bandwidth

Sri Lanka is connected with the global internet by a very thin fibre-optic cable of SEA-ME-WE network, which helps us to download and upload data of various forms. The volume of content generated locally is also on the increase. Every time I see someone approaching the Sri Lankan Government to develop IT cities, IT parks, etc., the question that they ask me is ‘how is the bandwidth?’

Here we have, well, although I am the Chairman I have the CEO of the Telecom Regulatory Commission who is doing his best to improve this area without which we will not be able to go far. This is important because we need to get the maximum benefit out of this reservoir of knowledge and other benefits without spending much time.

We already have established a National Broadband Consultative Committee (NBCC) which is co-chaired by me and the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, to develop a national broadband policy for Sri Lanka and to make sure the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) give access and at an affordable rate and cover even marginalised communities. This is extremely important in the context of taking ICT to villages and in the context of internet for all.

Technology and culture

Now, the region’s best telecom and internet technologies enter our country, thanks to the heroic persons who have ensured that we no longer suffer the scourge of terrorism. We observe that the competition among ISPs has given only a few benefits to the users – I am sorry to say this – but we expect these providers to be more generous.

Or else, regulatory measures, which I hate to take, will have to be taken based on the figures of the broadband monitoring system of the TRCSL. Therefore, I invite ISPs to make internet more accessible and affordable to all communities throughout the country. I also invite ISOC’s Sri Lanka Chapter to help the NBCC’s consultative process, through meaningful inputs, for a final win-win strategy.

I expect that internet societies will emerge at all levels and on all regions of the country to guide its members to harness the best out of the internet and associated resources as well as to develop a disciplined internet community in keeping with our value systems. We will not compromise our values, nor our culture, even to have the best technologies in this country that is sacred and sacrosanct. That is probably the theme of the Government’s development strategy.

Regional and global sharing of expertise

Let me also invite ISOC to hold hands firmly with Sri Lanka for mutual advancement. We are ready to share our experiences as we have done so far. The Government of India wanted to learn the way we operate the Government Information Centre, the GIC, popularly known as 1919, also the Citizen’s Helpdesk to obtain information on public services, which also, incidentally has won a large number of global awards.

Recently, the Government of Pakistan requested us to give our expert knowledge on the rural telecentre network, the ‘Nenasalas’. Of course Sri Lanka is the main technology partner for the telecentre.org – the forum for the global telecentre family.

I am aware of the role played by ICTA, together with TRCSL – the Telecom Regulatory Commission – and the LK Domain Registry (LKNIC), in the creation of the ISOC (Sri Lanka Chapter). I must thank them for their contribution to make this a success.

In conclusion and finally, I wish to thank the organisers for inviting me here today and also for organising this two-day event with many interesting themes to explore. I wish the conference activities all the very best! And I hope all those who are visiting Sri Lanka will have a very memorable stay here, although it would be very short.