Lanka’s quest to become Wonder of Asia :

http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/04/27/fea01.asp

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