Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

5G technology to be introduced in Sri Lanka

- By Jayampathy Jayasinghe

Digital technology is transformi­ng the manufactur­ing hub, tourism sector and the agricultur­al industry and the entire Sri Lanka has been covered with undergroun­d fiber optic cable covering over 300 Government Agents’ offices to facilitate official and developmen­t work, according to Minister of Te l e c o m m u n i c at i o n , Foreign Employment and Sports, Harin Fernando.

Speaking at the Huawei Lanka ICT Congress 2019 held at the Shangri- La Hotel Colombo this week, he said that Huawei is being castigated by some nations in the world as they are worried about Huawei’s ability to penetrate their markets owing to their cost effectiven­ess. “Huawei has done tremendous service to Sri Lanka and the 5G technology on display caught my eye today. The fiber optic cable can be connected to corporate bodies, hotels, apartments and office complexes that can enjoy the facility.” He said Sri Lanka, infrastruc­ture is more aligned with Huawei and “we expect them to provide a good service as our trusted and guided partner here”, he said.

Sri Lanka’s telecommun­ication sector is moving with the projects undertaken by the government. “I cannot imagine how Sri Lanka will look like in another 10 years’ time with the Port City project and all the high rise buildings coming up.” Meanwhile the government’s national exports strategy is expected to grow by Rs. 5 billion from the IT sector while the Enterprise Sri Lanka programme provides loans for IT start-ups in the country.

CEO of Huawei Sri Lanka, Shunli Wang said that Huawei’s focus in Sri Lanka was regarding connectivi­ty and cloud computing engines that will allow transforma­tion of digitalisi­ng process. “In Sri Lanka we are focused on 5G technology, Internet of Things (IOT) and the cloud service. We will always bring better technology and service to achieve higher standards. ”

Meanwhile Huawei Mobile World Congress and Lanka ICT Congress 2019 was held for the second time in Sri Lanka. Huawei is a leading global provider of informatio­n and communicat­ion technology ( ICT) Infrastruc­ture and smart devices listed as number 72 in Fortune Global 500 with over US$ 108 billion in revenue in 2018. Huawei is present in more than 170 countries in the region, serving over one third of the world’ with integrated solutions across four key domains –telecom networks, IT smart devices, and cloud services.

Huawei expects to play a major role in developing Sri Lanka’s ICT eco system to further enhance the g rowth of Huawe i ’ s Enterprise Business segment and to support the country’s vision to become an ICT hub in the region. Sri Lanka has emerged as the first South Asian nation to successful­ly demonstrat­e a 5th generation mobile telephony in 2018. Huawei launched Cloud Services in Sri Lanka on Monday.

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