Official Government web portal launched

Wednesday, 26 June 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Rashika Fazali Moving the ICT sector to the next generation with the view of forming an e-Government platform for citizens with open data, Minister of Public Management Reforms Naveen Dissanayake launched the official Government web portal at the FutureGov SAARC Summit held at Cinnamon Grand yesterday. The purpose of launching this web portal via www.gov.lk is to enable citizens to engage with the Government on various matters such eHealth, eLaws, eParticipation, eServices and mServices just to name a few. This will further improve web and mobile usage in the country, in turn improving the ICT sector.

Dissanayake stated that the revenue generated from the IT sector from 2005 to 2012 had grown from US$ 82 million to US$ 436 million according to the reports from the Treasury, while there has been 22% growth in the industry, which employs nearly 60,000 personnel. He stated: “We realised the need for reform. I think that’s the most important aspect of this whole thinking process. We realised that the Government services and the Government must reflect on better performance and better delivery because Sri Lanka is a relatively a small country. We have a population of 20 million people – the size of Mumbai.” He also noted that Chief Information Officers (CIOs) play a pivotal role in Government institutions in bringing about e-initiatives to their respective institutions. At the same time there are issues rising in the country such as the huge number of workers employed in the public sector. “Certain people say that it’s too large to be maintained. You must reduce it. It must be accountable. Non-profit driven institutions must be closed down,” stated Dissanayake. He further stated that cutting down cost in order to have better processes is the kind of change not taking place in the country.

Initiatives such as e-Government and e-initiatives in fact have being encouraged because they bring up the performance of an institution, stated Dissanayake. Systems such as grievance handling mechanisms have been created to list people’s problems. He added: “We studied the grievance handling mechanism of 10 institutions and found out that the Water Board had the best mechanism.” What the Government hopes to do at this stage is improve the talent pool in the country by having well-trained divisional secretariats for e-Governance. Speaking on innovation, Dissanayake said: “When you say innovation, it’s really something that is associated with the private sector, but we want some kind of innovation happening in the Government sector also

because we can’t have static institutions. We must have flexible, fluid institutions and Government services should be about that. Now, if I remember, about 15 years ago Sri Lanka Telecom was a very large static, monolithic Government institution. But the Government at that time had the wisdom to privatise it, but let’s say ‘people-lise’ it.” Addressing the FutureGov SAARC Summit, Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) CEO Reshan Dewapura said: “ICT is the fastest growing sector in the world. It is truer in our region and more now.” He also noted that it has the potential to change and delivery to the public. Currently, 500 Government entities are connected while there are over 400 institutions which have we programs connecting with a citizen. There are also 105 eServices available to the public. Other initiatives such as mGovernment and open data are some of the future initiatives they look forward to establishing. – Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe