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| Wednesday, 11 August 2004 |
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Dividends to grassroots level: PM pledges to build ICT super highway by Sudarshana Perera Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse pledged to build an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) super highway throughout the country that would lead to co-habitation among different ethnic and religious groups. Addressing the e-Society Conference 2004 yesterday at the BMICH the Premier said that the government would abide by the consistent ICT policy to empower the entire nation with ICT while bringing the administrative structure on-line. "We have ventured to make some of the administrative processes paperless and the government would give proper leadership to take the dividends of ICT to grassroots level. We would donate computers to 1,000 schools by the end of this year and General ICT has already been included in the O/L curriculum", he said. He said that the relevant institutions should bring the entire country under one ICT mantle since ICT has not penetrated much into rural areas. "Though our country is far behind in ICT literacy compared to other countries, we are not too late and we should get together to face the challenge of empowering rural people with ICT", he said. MP Milinda Moragoda called upon the ICT community to better utilise the e-Society concept to bring about more co-habitation among ethnic and religious groups. "Let us make the e-society to build a new society in Sri Lanka", Moragoda said. The Secretary to Prime Minister Lalith Weeratunga said that the government would through ICT provide e-leadership to the entire nation in making critical decisions. MD/CEO of ICTA Manju Hathotuwa and Head e-Society 2004, ICT Consultant Ministry of Education Dilanthe Withanage also spoke. The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) are organising the "e-Society 2004" Exhibition which will be held from August 13 to 15, at the Exhibition Centre, BMICH. The "e-Society 2004" Conference and Exhibition will be a miniature version of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) and ICT4D Platform held in Geneva in December 2003. This event will promote the preparation of Sri Lanka for the second phase of WSIS to be held in Tunis in November 2005. The Daily News is a media sponsor for the event. |
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