The National Council sub-committee on economic stabilization has observed that Sri Lanka is lagging behind other countries in the world to the lack of a national digital policy.

This was mentioned when the sub-committee, chaired by MP Patali Champika Ranawaka, met at the parliament complex recently.

Private and public sector experts in the field of Information Technology, heads of government institutions and heads of private IT companies had been invited to this meeting to discuss the issues pertaining to the IT sector and proposals to resolve these issues.

The failure to prepare a network that connects all government institutions, under the concept of ‘e-governance’ was also taken up for discussion at this meeting. The focus of sub-committee members fell on preparing related policies without delay and reducing distance between the state, the citizen and the businessmen.

IT professionals, who attended the meeting, speaking on the problems faced by them, stated that the main problem is the labour of professionals with years-long experience is flowing out of the country at present.

There has not been enough involvement of IT experts despite IT being introduced to the school syllabus, the sub-committee members observed.

It was also suggested that the subject of ICT should be made compulsory in the new education reforms.

Further, the sub-committee members and experts were of the opinion that the shortage of lecturers to teach IT at state universities needs to be addressed.

The experts, pointing out that the quality of labour in Sri Lanka’s IT sector is high emphasized that the amount of foreign currency coming into the country will grow by directing workers to work in institutions in countries such as the US and the UK, without leaving the island.

Apart from that, the attention was drawn to the grave concerns of small-scale IT companies that are facing severe difficulties due to the power cuts and current electricity crisis and the increase in energy costs of large-scale businesses.

It was also discussed in the committee that Sri Lanka’s ‘digital economy’ with a value of approximately USD 3.47 million is about 4.37% of the total economy, while considering other countries in the world, it is at a level of about 15%. The experts also pointed out the need for the Export Development Board (EDB) to prepare a program to reduce export transportation costs such as shipping charges, postage, and courier charges for small-scale sellers.