Millions wasted on multiple digital economy strategies
Questions are being raised about the money wasted on developing a major digital economy strategy six years ago.
In mid-December 2017 the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure, with the support of McKinsey & Company, embarked on the process of developing Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy strategy, an initiative to enable Sri Lanka to scientifically identify appropriate opportunities for promoting Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy and the key enablers to promote the Digital Economy and initiate three flagship programmes to promote Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy strategy.
By 2018, the project had been abandoned after paying millions of dollars to the foreign company. Head of government projects at the time at Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Kanchana Thudugala told The Sunday Times Business that this was managed by the Ministry of Technology and facilitated by ICTA. He added that the study, which recommended the government increase its revenue by Rs.1 trillion through agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism, was submitted to the cabinet, but was abandoned due to the lack of political will.
“There was a tug of war between two factions in the government at the time which didn’t see many implementations of similar strategies. The report done by McKinsey should be released to the public,” an industry analyst said.
The consultancy with McKinsey and Company was a short-term 11-week assignment in which work was to be done in three phases, such as diagnostics to develop an understanding. Half the country’s readiness to move into the digital economy, designing the three flagship programmes to kickstart the digital economy and 10 projects to establish key enablers to support the digital economy.
Last year, the National Digital Economy Strategy was prepared by the Ministry of Technology in consultation with the World Bank; departments in public, private, and professional institutions; and vocational board. This strategy was expected to facilitate a new economic model, focusing on digital transformation and strategic measures to facilitate navigating the current economic landscape but did not go forward.
A second analyst said that it is important for the new government to consider these reports and strategies by the previous regimes when implementing the new strategy as well. The NPP government has highlighted the critical importance of digitising Sri Lanka’s economy, including the implementation of a National Digital ID initiative, which would be completed within a focused period of one and a half years.
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