Advancement of technology:

Country has potential to derive benefits

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

Sri Lanka has the capability of adapting to technology fast and this is an advantage to introduce latest facilities for the benefit of the country.

“The country has a huge potential to derive benefits from the advancement of technology. We work towards building a vision not only related to growth, but also to include transformation of businesses,” Cisco Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd, India - East and SAARC Vice President Amit Malik told Daily News Business.

Video will be the next voice and it will be the frequently used medium to exchange data and information. The tele presence in video conferencing will help real time data exchange. Not only communication but collaboration is also important to move forward, he said.

“We are in the process of customizing technology and there are core issues that could be addressed using technology.

One area is education and the other is the healthcare sector. We could provide connected education to facilitate the growing need for knowledge. This will lead to change the way we live, play and enjoy,” he said.

“Technology could be the starting point to address the dearth of teachers. We try to popularize the idea of providing virtual classrooms in Sri Lanka. Today’s younger generation is well versed in technology compared to the previous generation and this could be used to derive maximum benefits from the latest available technology,” he said.

It is important to link all Provinces in a network for utility, internet and multiple application usage.

Technology could be made use of in the healthcare sector to solve the problem of the lack of doctors in the rural areas.

However, to achieve this, there should be proper connectivity, accessibility and vital parameters. This could promote virtual hospital concept.

The Government could consider these possibilities to improve the service quality with the use of multiple solutions. This could be a tool to transform leveraging technology and the country will be able to add to its growth momentum, Malik said.

“We are working towards introducing next generation networks. This could help the general commercial businesses to record faster growth. The small and medium businesses (SMBs) are coming up frequently and they could also be benefited as US $ 3 billion has been spent on research and development to create SMB class products,” he said.