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The India-Sri Lanka Working Group on Information Technology will be set up to identity and facilitate programs under the MoU signed between India and Sri Lanka recently on bilateral co-operation in information technology. This MoU was signed recently in India by Minister of Economic Reforms ,Science and Technology Milinda Moragoda on behalf of Sri Lanka while Minister of Communications and Information Technology Aurn Shourie for Indian government.The MoU is to promote closer cooperation and the exchange of information pertaining to the ICT sector.

According to the ICT professionals, this new understanding with India will greatly facilitate the implementation of e-SriLanka initiative. The cooperation between two countries is expected to include areas such as IT software (telecom software),IT enabled services, E-Commerce and Information Security, Electronic governance,IT and Electronic Hardware,HRD for IT education and IT enabled education, Research and development, exploring third country markets and other areas as agreed upon the parties. The India-Sri Lanka Working group will be vested with the task of exploring and supporting research and implementation needs in the fields of innovation ,incubation, venture financing and infrastructure development for IT.

The MoU will also pave the way for the future development in the ICT education in Sri Lanka as it will enable to develop skills through exchange programs,joint sponsorship of conferences, training programs and seminars in the field of IT including IT management.

Since India is emerging as the central hub for ICT in the region, It will also have a healthy impact on the software industries in Sri Lanka as the agreement envisages measures for technology development, product, trade and market development in both countries.

According to the observation made by IT industrialists, Sri Lanka is to immensely benefit from this agreement.

The parities are also expected to encourage agreements for co-operation between the private sector IT companies and organisations on both sides such as Electronics and Software Export Promotion Council on the Indian side and the Sri Lanka IT promotion Agency on the Sri Lanka side.

The Working Group shall also be responsible for implementing the scope of co-operation while consulting to identity and define future activities and reviews activities. The MoU will remain for a period of five years and it can be extended as agreed by both parties.

The areas of co-operation would also include training, consultancy and R and D in ICT.

The capacity building of the public sector senior personnel in ICT managerial capacity(CIO's)development and technical capacity development to drive the implementation of e-government, training programs on IT management and project management for PS managerial grades, expansion of the training resources base in Sri Lanka to cater to a large number of employed personnel for the furtherance and update of their knowledge on internet based technologies through joint venture/partnership programs, consultancy services for the implementation and operation of a common platform to be deployed on the government intranet ,ICT for less privileged in Sri Lanka to become useful citizens and CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacture)partnership/collaboration for small industries are the areas of the co-operation.

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