ICTA & LankaPay to onboard SL Police to GovPay

The Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and LankaPay are in the process of automating the Sri Lanka Police Department, high-ranking officials said.

“We are in the process of onboarding the Police Department to the GovPay platform for paying traffic fines," Harsha Purasinghe, Director ICTA speaking as a panel member at ‘Unleashing the New Digital Payments and Technology Platforms organised by the Shippers Academy of Sri Lanka’, said on Monday. “The government’s digitisation programme is executed under five key pillars - namely digital industry, digital government, digital revenue economy, capacity building, and digital for strategic industries," he added.

Explaining the wider scope of the government’s digitalisation programme, Mr. Purasinghe said that an individual would have a digital ID, and digital locker accessible via a government SuperApp going forward. “All the government institutions will be onboarded to the GovPay platform eventually. We are also building capacity for the digital industry, the government as well as the citizens. We are also focusing on capacity building for women and the differently-abled community," he explained.

He added that there are plans to set up a new institutional framework with the Digital Economy Authority (DEA) and under that Gov Tech, which is the government's technology organisation.

He also said that it is important for the Sri Lankan economy to go for demonetisation as India has done at a certain juncture.

Rohan Masakorala, CEO of the Shippers Academy Colombo and CIMC events, emphasised that digital transformation and utilisation will help the companies and citizens to financially benefit and the economy at large to grow faster which is also an important transformation to get Sri Lanka to be more export competitive through reduce transaction cost and better data and information management to support fiscal discipline. Mr. Masakorala said that the digital economy will help GDP growth, which is a critical factor in moving away from the current financial crisis.

“Educating the public is critical at all levels to successfully implement the existing digital platforms and to penetrate the rural markets with new technologies to develop an inclusive society .”