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| Wednesday, 10 November 2004 |
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The World Bank (WB) yesterday approved US$ 53 million credit for its first integrated e-development project, the E-Sri Lanka project - a comprehensive program of leveraging information communication technologies (ICT) to improve public service delivery, increase private sector competitiveness, promote new sources of growth, accelerate social development, bridge the digital divide, and support peace, a WB spokesman told Lankapuvath. "It supports the three key aims of Sri Lankan strategy: IT underpins peace by connecting the North and the South; It enhances the prospects for growth, not only in the IT sector itself, but also by raising productivity growth in other sectors; and it advances the cause of equity, by improving the access of the poor to a range of public services," he said. The E-Sri Lanka development project adopts a comprehensive approach that aims to bridge the digital divide, bringing the benefits of the global knowledge economy to both the urban centers and rural poor of Sri Lanka. ICT diffusion across the country will be the enabler for development throughout the key sectors of the economy. Economy growth has been identified in the World Bank's Sri Lanka Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) as "the main instrument for achieving prosperity and creating more resources for distribution." E-Sri Lanka, by laying the ground for a sustainable e-development process, will help further the CAS objective of poverty reduction by supporting peace, growth and equity. The agency will facilitate the implementation of the project engaging Sri Lankan leadership, the public, the private sector, and the international community through six component programs - the e-policy, leadership, and institutional development program; the ICT education and industry promotion program; regional telecommunication network development program; telecenter development program; the re-engineering government program and the e-society program. Lankapuvath |
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