SL should connect sectors, institutions for digital transformation
Sri Lanka needs to work hard on the interoperability and interconnections between various sectors and institutions in its forward march on digital economy, top officials said.
“That’s where Sri Lanka would focus on bringing together established strengths, bringing in horizontal infrastructures like Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) building on the strength of broadband and connectivity that infrastructure the country already has to ensure that there is an inclusive fabric of digital cum infrastructure coming together to further the economy along the digital dimension,” Dr. Hans Wijesuriya, Chief Adviser to the President on DigitalEconomy and Secretary to the Ministry of Digital Economy said.
He was addressing a panel at the Innovations Island Summit recently held in Colombo, noting that the deeper digital penetration goes into the broader economy, the higher the uplift you get on GDP growth. “A country which is growing at a business-as-usual rate of 4 per cent could aspire to anywhere between 5 and 6 per cent depending on the penetration of the digital economy. That’s where the government can invigorate the private sector, providing platforms, digital public infrastructure, an open interface and an open and enabling environment to enable the digital transformation of multiple industries. Also allowing the digital transformation of government services with a keen eye on inclusion to ensure that we don’t leave anyone behind, that we reach the existing divides and ensure that going forward, we carry the entire population along this journey.”
The new legislation such as the Private Personal Data Protection Act enables infrastructure and the national data exchange to facilitate the exchange of information between government institutions, citizens and government, and vice versa, he added noting that this brings in horizontal interoperability.
Discussing verifiable credentials, he said that a driving licence could be another digitally verifiable credential, exam certificate or any formal certificate which needs to be digitally signed, various forms of licences that businesses require could be digitally signed and incorporated in a wallet belonging to their businesses. “So, you can initiate a future where everyone can participate in a digital ecosystem where information is shared, the certificates are shared, your credentials are shared, and the digital identity enables you to work in cyberspace very seamlessly.”
Tech in isolation is not the problem as it is getting cheaper and cheaper, Dr. Wijayasuriya added noting that it’s getting more and more capable.
“But what are the surrounding infrastructures such as such as institutions that legislation, capacity building, inclusion principles, ethics, and governance and are very important to digital trust, we need to trust all these innovations and ways of doing things going forward is what we need to focus on.”
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