Innovations improve quality of life:

Peace spurs development

Speech delivered by Secretary to the President and UNESCAP ICT Committee Chairman Lalith Weeratunga at the ‘FutureGOV Forum - Sri Lanka’ on October 28, 2010 in Colombo

“It is indeed a great pleasure to address you on a topic that is of great value to the current development impetus Sri Lanka is enjoying. I thank the organizers of this timely event FutureGOV Forum for selecting Sri Lanka. This ratifies in more ways than one the global reputation Sri Lanka is enjoying as a fast developing nation.

“Just about two years back, not many in the international arena would have given Sri Lanka the slightest chance of defeating the most ruthless terrorist outfit and becoming the best and destination for people to travel to and enjoy a vacation of their lifetime. President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave a firm and stable, yet unprecedented leadership, to a well co-ordinated process to do the unbelievable. That is why Sri Lanka once again after 25 long years has been able to showcase some of its strengths and innate treasures in the form of serenity and unmatched tranquillity.

ICT for development

“The serenity and peace that has dawned in our Motherland has enabled us to think of innovations that would improve the quality of life of those living in rural areas, hitherto not much noticed by the policymaker, disadvantaged groups, students, senior citizens, the entrepreneur and all other segments of the society. This Forum that comprises many who are envisioning dimensions of future Governments across the globe would share with us today and tomorrow what they have been doing in their countries to improve the quality of life of their people. I am sure we too could share all or some of our successes in ICT for development.

“My task this morning as agreed with the organizers would be to briefly say what “eSri Lanka is and then to showcase how we hope to build Sri Lanka’s economy utilizing ICT. I would like to add some thoughts on a few salient areas including governance, leadership and ICT for development. I will not dwell at length on eGov as many technical aspects of eGovernment will be discussed by many distinguished presenters from both overseas and Sri Lankan organizations.

Infrastructure development

“Infrastructure development and knowledge-based economic development are priorities of Sri Lanka’s development agenda in which ICT would be used to spur growth and propel socio-economic development of the country. In that context, I must touch upon four key areas:

*Citizens as partners of gover nance through ICT.

*Commitment of the top-level political leadership for enhancing national competitiveness.

*Increased use of ICT to bridge rural-urban divide for improved quality of life.

*Making Government robust and efficient through Re-engineering Government.

“Of these, the most critical area to me is how much we could make Government robust and efficient for that is one area that can make economic growth impact. Before, I venture to elaborate my thoughts on these, I would like to briefly talk about the eSri Lanka program. The most interesting aspect of eSri Lanka program is that it is all encompassing, it is not just improving the way Government works, or eGovernment. It’s about improving people’s lives all round.

Its cornerstones, peace, equity, and growth remain valid even today, much long after it was conceptualized.

*Peace was a main demand of all the citizens of Sri Lanka, irrespective of ethnic differences. President Rajapaksa had as his top priority, sustainable peace that accommodates interests of all communities. As he has enunciated, “there is no development without peace and no peace without development.” That is why he spearheaded the campaign to eradicate terrorism and simultaneously initiated overall development throughout the country. There are no precedents in the world on this score. The mutual dependency of peace and development has been well understood.

*Equity was the second pillar on which eSri Lanka was built. Undoubtedly, equitable access for opportunities creates more and more entrepreneurs. The access to State-owned resources, financial facilities, education and skills development, is imperative to empower citizens to reach the benefits of development. ICT has been a great enabler in ensuring this.

*Economic development or growth is the third factor. The Government’s plan is to treat ICT both as an enabler of the development of many other sectors and the economic growth by development of ICT itself. There are many examples that will be showcased during these two days to prove my assertion.

National security

“Let me now present to you the four factors I talked about earlier. First of those is, Citizens as partners of governance. Majority of the citizens wish that there is the least control by Government. However, it is inevitable that Governments have to control, particularly, in areas of national security etc. Recently Governments had to step in when irresponsible financial institutions ruined some of the major economies in the world creating havoc in the lives of ordinary citizens.

“I see the Government as a key player or the decision maker on behalf of a country. It includes both political governance and administration. The combination of these two factors in different proportions provides a range of outcomes. Basically, the ‘political’ Government represents people’s power through democratic means and the administration or the bureaucracy acts as the delivery arm of public services based on the policies of the Government in power.

Stakeholders of governance

“Government is the custodian of the common or public property and it is expected to deliver public goods, which no other entity can deliver effectively.

It has to use many ‘tools’ in the process of governance to fulfil these objectives. It may be laws or regulations, it may be public infrastructure people utilize for their daily needs and finally people pay for them directly or indirectly.

In developed systems of governance, checks and balances are well in place to maintain the cohabitation and partnership between people and Government as stakeholders of governance.

“Empowering citizens to engage in the process of governance is a key concern and the Government of Sri Lanka has realized the huge potential of ICT in this regard. The Government of Sri Lanka planned the eSri Lanka initiative with World Bank assistance towards developing a digitally empowered citizenry.

“In an era that is ‘hungry’ for information, the role of ICT surpasses all other electronic technologies in the past few decades. For example, have we adequately explored the use of radio/broadcasting technology for governance? How about the television, which is a sophisticated audio-visual home appliance? I remember the days when the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation or the Radio Ceylon news broadcast was the sole source of updated information but only a one-way dialogue was possible from the Government to the citizens. ICT however brought new dimensions as it helped citizens to access news on demand from numerous sources sans possible Government censorship and also provide their feedback. That’s probably why we are talking about eGovernance and other modes of ICT-enabled citizen services in many of the interactive platforms such as ‘futureGov’.

Political leadership

“The second factor that I wish to present to you is the Commitment of the top level political leadership for enhancing national competitiveness. “Why is leadership imperative to introduce and sustain ICT tools in development and governance? We have a classic case in point with Sri Lanka’s political leadership, that of President Rajapaksa. Bill Gates in a video address to him said, (I quote) Sri Lanka has an advantage though, with a Government that’s committed to investing further in IT, as outlined in President Rajapaksa’s vision statement. Like President Rajapaksa, I am optimistic that the country is poised for greater economic growth and development, and much of that will be fuelled by the use of software and the power of IT. Sri Lanka’s high literacy rate, at over 90 percent, and its high standards of education and healthcare give it a strong economic foundation. The country’s IT literacy rate is nearing 20 percent, which represents a significant jump from eight percent only a few years ago. English language speaking skills are also a crucial part of the foundation for future growth. I am pleased to see that the Government has identified the importance of English language skills by declaring 2009 the Year of English and IT Services.

“So, let me take this opportunity to congratulate President Rajapaksa for his leadership in declaring 2009 the Year of English and IT Services in Sri Lanka, and to wish those involved in the implementation of this very important initiative every success moving forward.

“The President has been the pillar of strength in our ICT success. He established a Presidential Task Force for English and IT with a mandate to increase ICT literacy of our people, which now stands at around 30 percent. Six years ago, it stood below five percent. His vision has enabled rural folk to access ICT learning opportunities and use Internet through the Nenasala, the award winning rural telecentre network. There are many more ICT success stories where President Rajapaksa has been conceptualizer and the driving force. In fact, Nenasala was born out of his thinking. As Bill Gates said having established the Presidential Task Force for English and IT, he declared the year 2009 as the Year of English and IT, which made a great impact on the ICT sector.

“The ICT Agency and its eSri Lanka program operates under the purview of His Excellency the President because real change can only be achieved in areas such as ICT development, only if the Head of State gives the whole process, leadership. It has to be driven from the top because change otherwise could be resisted particularly by the bureaucracy.

Positive attitude

“At another level of leadership, Sri Lanka has innovated to create e-champions. We may build structures and assign ‘qualified’ teams to these structures, but that itself is the challenge for the leadership. Knowledge and skills of various subject areas, including technology, would not be enough. One also has to possess a positive attitude towards bringing about change and readiness to work as a team. That is why we started ‘breeding’ a new set of leaders who would act as change agents. They are our brand of CIOs, not the commonly known Chief Information Officers but ‘Chief Innovative Officers’. We have created a network of CIOs under the eSri Lanka program. Right now there is a training program being conducted at one of the prestigious management schools in Sri Lanka.

Skills development

These officers are at the second level of command and facilitate the re-engineering activities with the blessing of their superiors, to make their organizations more citizen-centric and cost effective. Though their information management skills are important, the Government has realized that it is their ‘innovativeness’ and team effort that really matters in transforming traditional service delivery systems and to cater to the ever changing demands of citizens. To be continued