SL takes lead in ‘Multi-lingual Internet Initiatives’

Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador RavinathaAryasinha said Sri Lanka had taken a lead in multi-lingual Internet initiatives by putting in place technical conditions to facilitate the presence of its local languages on the Internet and encouraging the development of relevant Sinhala and Tamil content, thus ensured cultural and linguistic diversity and identity.

The Ambassador made t hese comments addressing the High Level segment of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+10) Forum 2015 on May 26 in Geneva.

Ambassador Aryasinha said the recently released Global Information Technology Report (GITR 2015) of the World Economic Forum placed Sri Lanka in the 65th position of the Networked Readiness Index among 143 economies, which is a noteworthy jump of 11 places.

Sri Lanka continues to retain in its position as the foremost among South Asian nations, he said.

He said the internationally acclaimed “e-Sri Lanka Development initiative” supported by the World Bank had enabled deployment of Information & Communications Technologies (ICTs) for technological and institutional transformation of key sectors of the Sri Lankan economy. Ambassador Aryasinha noted that Sri Lanka is presently directing its efforts at leveraging ICTs to help women entrepreneurs and up-skill women employed abroad. He stated that in the Post 2015 era, the country would further progress on the gains it has already made by improving citizen access to Government through the Programme ‘Connected Citizen 2018’ making it possible for citizens to engage with the Government through electronic means.