President to launch Govt’s first ever online Information Centre

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa will launch the Government Information Centre (GIC) today.

The launch of this service is expected to herald a new culture in seeking and obtaining Government information in Sri Lanka.

Commenting on this initiative, Programme Director of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka, Wasantha Deshapriya said: “This would be the first ever government call centre which is dedicated to provide government-related information to the public in all three languages.”

He said the GIC is currently starting small.

“Phase 1 has the capacity to provide information on 20 key government departments, which currently provide 250 citizen services. As time goes by, more information and more services will be added. In the future callers will not only be able to obtain information, but for a nominal fee be even able to have required documents, etc faxed or mailed to them,” he said.

The creation of the GIC by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) in collaboration with the Presidential Secretariat was in response to the need to give the Government a more friendly and citizen-centric interface. With the launch of the GIC, the process of obtaining information regarding government services will now be easily accessible and hassle free.

The GIC will provide callers with information regarding day-to-day issues such as procedures of obtaining identity cards, driving licences, etc. If the information required is not available on the GIC database, an agent will make it available within 24 hours.

Dial 1919 from any phone, from anywhere in the country for a free, friendly, courteous and accurate service managed by a trained staff in Sinhala, Tamil or English.

“The GIC received an impressive feedback during its beta-testing period in April this year with 50,000 calls recorded during this period,” said Athula Pushpakumara, Project Manager, GIC & Head of Media and PR of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka.

Call analysis reports revealed that the highest number of queries were made for the Divisional Secretariat, Immigration & Emigration, Registration of Persons, Motor Traffic and Registrar General. ICTA envisages an addition of 35 more government departments coupled with 400 citizen services to GIC.