While Sri Lanka scored in the "middle" in the latest World Bank report on ICT, out of a possible high of 10; the country will raise this score to a 7 in the next two years, even higher than that of more developed countries, according to the Director General of the country's Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC), Priyantha Kariyapperuma.
The latest report gave each South Asian country, including Sri Lanka, a score between 3 and 4 for overall ICT performance.
This emerged during the recent launch of the World Bank's "Information and Communications for Development 2009: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact (IC4D)" publication occurring on the sidelines of the e-Asia ICT conference held in Colombo.
Further, again according to Mr. Kariyapperuma, there are currently 120,000 local ADSL subscribers, a number expected to rise to 200,000 by the end of the first quarter 2010. In addition, there are 100,000 broadband customers so far, equivalent to a broadband penetration of 20%.
Interestingly, according to the World Bank report, for "every 10 percent increase in high speed Internet connections", there was 1.3 percent economic growth. Also, "Internet users in developing countries increased tenfold from 2000 to 2007" and; "Less than 15 percent of the potential global market for IT services industries is being exploited. In 2007, this market represented nearly US$500 billion". |
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