Ministry launches website

The Minister of the newly set-up Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry Ranjith Siyambalapitiya launched the website of the Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry yesterday.

A special feature of the newly launched website www.ictmin.gov.lk launched in the premises of the Information and Communication Technology of Sri Lanka (ICTA) is the opportunity it provides for participatory communication.

This is accentuated under the two sub-heads Tell your Minister and Voice of Citizens. Anyone is able by email to put forward to the Minister any ideas, views, thoughts, proposals, concerns, requests, suggestions with regard to the telecommunications and information technology field by using this website.

There is provision for this under the section Tell the Minister. Any citizen can use the facility under Voice of Citizens to come out with any idea that he or she wishes to share with others or thoughts not directly addressed to the Minister but intended to be disseminated in general and aimed at promoting improvement in telecommunications and information technology.

Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said that the goal placed before the nation by the President, namely reaching 75 percent ICT literacy in 2016 was a big challenge but attainable due to the guidance of the President who had proven that he was a leader far outstanding, a leader the country had been fortunate to have in centuries.

The Minister said that the proof of this was not only in the better known victory of the ethnic war but also in the lesser known victories such as in the sphere of the economic war. Going on to mention a brief example in his tight schedule of the day including a committee stage budget debate including expenditures of the subject heads of Telecommunications and IT, the Minister said it was indeed a wonder already that under the President's guidance the land phone to mobile phone ratio in this country which was 12:5 in 2003 was 17:85 today.