National Digital Roadmap launched in Colombo

Advancement in new digital technology has forced many businesses to re-think their business modules in order to survive as Sri Lanka strives to become a digital hub in South Asia, said Priyantha Fernandez the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Technology Officer of Sri Lanka Telecom.

Speaking at the launch of the National Digital Roadmap organised by the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) at the Nelum Pokuna, Colombo and attended by President Maithripala Sirisena this week, he said the Digital Roadmap is an Information and Communications Technology map that provides solutions to the IT sector in the country. SLT with its 162 years of existence has been in the forefront of the technological revolution and transformation of the ICT industry in the country.

Minister of Telecommunication, Foreign Employment and Sports, Harin Fernando was present on the occasion. Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa Prof. K.K.Y.W. Perera, Governor of the Central Bank, Indrajit Coomaraswamy and others were awarded with medals by President Sirisena for their contribution to the nation.

SLT Chairman Kumarasinghe Sirisena said the event was organized to align with the 21.4 million population and with 11.5 million customers and a work force numbering over 10,500 served by SLT. He said the Government Digital Transformation Initiative 2020 or the Smart Sri Lanka initiative aims at transforming the country towards creating a knowledge based society by digitally empowering its citizens for the growth of the digital hub in the region. ”This means globally connecting the entire population to the vast knowledge base of advanced technology offering new opportunities to keep pace with the ever changing technology.”

As Sri Lanka’s leading telecommunication provider, the SLT has laid more than 45,000 km of fibre optics and hundreds of thousand kilometers of copper network covering the entire island providing 4 GLTE Broadband connectivity.