‘Country now reaping e-Sri Lanka benefits’
Sri Lanka is now able to see, evaluate, appreciate and enjoy local
contributions to ICT, thanks to the leadership of the President, said
Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga.
Weeratunga said so while participating at the e-Swabhimani 2010 award
presentation for best e-content developers held at Cinnamon Grand
Colombo recently. The Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa was
the Chief Guest.
Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga delivering his
address as the Guest of Honour at e-Swabhimani |
Delivering his address as the guest of honour the Secretary to the
President said that if the President had not eradicated terrorism and
restored peace by his determination and wise guidance Sri Lankans would
not be having the opportunity to recognize local talents and appreciate
their contribution to ICT today even at an event like e-Swabhimani 2010.
Weeratunga said that e-Swabhimani 2010 was another instant where
ideas in the Mahinda Chintana Vision for the Future were put into
action. This was under the e-Sri Lanka initiative.
“The country is now reaping the benefits of the e-Sri Lanka
initiative put on track in 2004 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa then as
Prime Minister and revamped from 2005 as President”, the Secretary to
the President said.
Relating e-Swabhimani 2010 to the President’s foresight the Secretary
to the President said, “The development of talents in e-content through
e-Swabhimani 2010 testified to the value of the guidance given by the
President for leading the country to win the war of socio-economic
development”.
Paying a tribute to Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa,
who was the Chief Guest, Weeratunga said that the country was fortunate
that Minister Basil Rajapaksa was available to spearhead the support to
the President in reaching development benchmarked by a number of
achievements including 75 percent ICT literacy by 2016.
As compared with the first e-Swabhimani event last year organised by
the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, e-Swabhimani 2010 was a great improvement
both in number and quality of entries. As compared with the 130 entries
under eight categories at e-Swabhimani 2009 there were 163 entries
spread out under 11 categories this year.
While there were 18 award winners for the national best e-content in
2009 there were 26 winners this year. Among the projects which won
awards at e-Swabhimani 2010 ICTA too made its mark. While ICTA was the
winner of an award for its product, SL GovSMS Portal: “SMS to 1919”.
ICTA was the producer of another award-winning software, e-Revenue
Licence Project created in collaboration with the Provincial
Commissioner of Motor Traffic.
ICTA was also producer of yet another award-winning project, namely
the Birth, Marriage and Death Certificate Digitisation Project in which
ICTA collaborated with Theekshana and Sanje Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
ICTA Chief Executive Officer Reshan Dewapura said, “I think it is all
our fortune, that we have Minister Basil Rajapaksa, a Minister who is
giving leadership to the challenge of taking Sri Lanka to goals clearly
articulated in our Government’s policy statement Mahinda Chintana. It is
important to recognize and give prominence to local talent, local skills
and local innovations. e-Swhabimani is intended to do exactly that”.
ICTA Chairman Prof P W Epasinhge, World Bank Senior Economic
Specialist - Private and Financial Sector Development in South Asia -
Tatiana Nenova and World Bank Operations Officer Sandra Sargent were
also present. |