Lanka’s quest to become Wonder of Asia :
IT sector to play pivotal role in SL’s development - Minister
Siyambalapitiya
Information
Technology plays an important role in Sri Lanka’s quest to become the
Wonder of Asia by 2016. We plan to increase Information Technology
literacy by setting up computer labs at school level. The President has
allocated funds from the 2012 budget for this purpose. Computer labs
will be provided to schools through the Nenasala programme while the
entire country will get Internet facilities through the E-Sri Lanka
programme. This will help create more jobs in the IT sector, said SLFP
Deputy Secretary and Telecommunication and Information Technology
Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya on current issues and his engagement in
the Deyata Kirula exhibition.
Q: What are the plans of your
ministry in 2012 to push forward Mahinda Chinthanaya - Vision for the
Future?
A: Sri Lanka is going to
be the Wonder of Asia by 2016 and my ministry has taken the task of
increasing Information Technology literacy of Sri Lankans up to 75
percent. We expect to earn an income of two billion dollars and to
create 200,000 jobs in the IT sector. We have to teach IT to Sri Lankans
to achieve all these goals and the best place to do this is the school.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa allocated Rs.500 million from 2012 budget to
start a programme to provide 200 computer labs for rural schools.
Telecommunication and Information Technology
Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya |
In addition, the Telecommunication Regulation Commission will
construct computer labs in one selected school in every district of the
country. They commenced the programme from Jaffna and Badulla. We
provide computer labs for the schools located in districts where the
Deyata Kirula exhibition takes place. We are providing computer labs to
schools in Polonnaruwa, Ampara, Trincomalee and Batticaloa during this
year.
When we implement this strategy, all schools in the country will
receive a good computer lab in the next two years. We will cover the
entire country with Internet facilities through our E-Sri Lanka
programme supported by Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). The programme which
commenced from Jaffna district will be completed this year. The Nenasala
programme will continue as usual.
The main objective of this service (hot line) is giving people
information on public services. 1919 the Government Information Centre
is getting popular day-by-day and a large number of people use it daily.
We need the support of all to take this forward and to develop this
service further. We regularly update our information but some
institutions get late to update us with their latest changes such as the
change of their location (address) etc. This cause problems for us
because when we provide outdated information to the public we lose our
credibility. The staff of 1919 service should be aware of all the
information on all public services (departments and their procedures).
We will organize a special workshop for all heads of state
institutions next month to educate them on the importance of updating us
on their latest changes etc.
Q: What measures are you taking to
prevent cyber crimes in Sri Lanka and children’s access to pornography?
A: We are fully ready for
this task. We can help people in many ways. The Sri Lanka Computer
Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is the special institute which has been
set up for this task. It operates under the purview of Information and
Communication Technology Agency(ICTA). Even when the Police receive a
complaint, this institution assists them. It assists the courts during
the entire course of the proceedings. We have planned to expand its
operations under the new development strategies taking place in the IT
sector. We always use the school, the temple, the church, the Kovil and
the mosque to establish ‘Nenasala’ and ‘Computer Labs’. It helps us
prevent children from viewing pornography when computer and Internet
facilities are available in such institutes. These institutions assist
children to develop spiritually.
Then children will be weaned away from bad things which are available
on the Internet. The mentality of children will not incline towards evil
when facilities are available in places where their minds develop
spiritually.
Q: Signal towers of various mobile
phone service providers have mushroomed all over the country causing
damage to people’s properties and health. What measures that have been
taken to solve this problem?
A: There are some problems
and opinions but still such facts have not been properly proved through
in-depth scientific researches. But it is our responsibility to maintain
the required standards of these towers. It is up to the
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC).
We have come a long way in this field. Around 7.5 million Sri Lankans
use mobile phones at the moment. Earlier, our problem was how to reach
this level. But now we have to pay special attention towards maintaining
required standards and quality. We hope to build multi-task towers
similar to the Kokavil transmission tower in the future. Similar type of
towers can be used without constructing towers in every nook and corner.
We can then remove the existing towers which can cause a hindrance to
people’s lives. We will build such multi-task towers keeping to the
highest standards giving priority to the people’s safety. Our special
attention has been focused on this now.
Q: What can you do when it comes to
changing wrong attitudes towards providing access to Internet and
computers by school authorities and some heads of department and
institutions?
A: We have already
identified this problem and it is important to communicate the right
message to the public, especially to school, office and other relevant
authorities, in order to solve it. Still people strongly believe that
even though computers and the Internet facility is very valuable,
children should not be allowed to use these facilities. There is a wrong
notion among some administrators in offices and other institutions that
computers and Internet facilities are not meant for the use of ordinary
staff but only for heads of department/sections.
We identified this problem and are now conducting countrywide
seminars to educate the public on this wrong opinion and attitude. We
tell them that computers and Internet facilities are not gold and the
maximum use should be made out of them. We tell parents to allow
children to browse the Internet to acquire knowledge. We explained them
that depriving children from using computers and Internet facilities
make the value of such equipment and facilities worthless. We have also
emphasised that the office assistants should also have access to
computers and Internet facilities. During the seminars conducted, we
allocated a whole day to this specific subject and area. We also
highlighted the importance of building a very close relationship with
the public and communicating the right message to them.
Q: As the chief organizer of the
Deyata Kirula national exhibition, what do you have to say about various
allegations made by some political parties and politicians?
A: Opposing is very
natural and a usual practice in Sri Lanka. It is the long standing
tradition of our political parties. All Sri Lankan political parties in
the Opposition (including the SLFP and UPFA when they were in the
Opposition) did not point out or praise anything good. It is a common
feature of all Opposition political parties in Sri Lanka. The war has
ended and the entire country is enjoying the dividends of peace. People
no longer fear for their lives. The Opposition fails to admit this fact.
Therefore, there is no point of talking about the positive things that
the country is experiencing that the Opposition political parties cannot
see.
Deyata Kirula is a giant programme and roads worth Rs. 20 billion
were constructed in the Anuradhapura district.
The Opposition is too bankrupt to admit this fact. But, if a pot-hole
appears on one of these roads, Opposition political parties and media
are quick to point it out.
They thrive by only looking at the negative things. People only try
to point out what is wrong and that is human nature. So some sections of
the media sell all the ‘wrong’ and ‘disgusting’ things to people. One of
the basic objectives of an exhibition is displaying things.
Sometimes, we are compelled to remove parts of what we built because
such things cannot be used in the specific area. But we always try to
build permanent buildings, structures etc.
For example, we built an exhibition hall in order to use it as a
paddy storage centre in the future. It now functions as a paddy storage
centre. All buildings were constructed by state institutions and no
contracts were given to private contractors. We constructed the
buildings to be used for the exhibition and the required additions to
them were done later (just after the conclusion of the exhibition) to
change them into specific buildings, such as, paddy storage. But certain
sections of the media eagerly waited until certain parts of those
buildings were removed after the exhibition and tried to paint a
different picture to the public through deception.
We commenced the exhibition in 2007 when people were living in a very
insecure environment where bomb explosions were the order of the day.
Even 10 people were scared to gather around for something for fear of
getting caught to a bomb explosion.
Deyata Kirula gave hope for all of us and it proved that we can do
things without any fear. We held this exhibition twice in Colombo in the
middle of bomb explosions and later brought it to other parts of the
country.
Then we added development to this exhibition and always tried to hold
it at a minimal expenditure and environment damage.
We always used state institutions to carry out construction work and
used the labour of Civil Defence Force personnel. This exhibition
highlights the massive progress made by the country. The exhibition
brings development to that specific district.
We have decided to seek a debate in Parliament regarding this
subject. The debate is to be requested by us, the UPFA MPs. We would
have never asked for such a debate if we did anything wrong. During the
final speech of this debate I will answer all questions and explain
everything.
Q: What do you think about the past two years of the United
People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government?
A: The journey of the UPFA government during the past two
years has been a victorious one. When President Mahinda Rajapaksa took
over the country, the people handed over to him two challenges. The
first one was ending the war and creating permanent peace and the second
challenge was achieving development. He successfully completed the first
challenge and is now heading towards achieving the second goal.
According to a recently released Central Bank Report, Sri Lanka has
maintained an economic growth rate of over eight percent during the past
three years. In 2011, the rate was 8.3 percent and this was the highest
economic growth recorded by Sri Lanka since independence. The Central
Bank report is an independent document.
Q: In your opinion what can the Sri Lankan public and media do
in order to prevent any future foreign conspiracies?
A: Both the media and Opposition should accurately and clearly
identify national issues. They should not play with them. But they do
the very thing. That is the main problem that exists. The Opposition is
trying to use such issues to grab power. Some sections of the media seek
the possibility of selling such issues to the public to earn money.
Because of these things, the public, sometimes tend to take national
issues lightly.
We all have to identify our goals and clearly divide them into two
sections as the goals that can be played with and the national goals
(that cannot be played with). Nobody can argue with national goals. If
this happens we can develop the country and walk forward.
This happened during the humanitarian operation. During the
humanitarian operation, the media understood their responsibility and
acted accordingly, but the Opposition did not act in a responsible
manner at that time. |