 Sri
Lanka’s representative Mr. Lalith Weeratunga,
Secretary to the President, was yesterday
(19) elected Chairman of the Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) Committee of
ESCAP – the Economic & Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific.
The unanimous election took place at the
ESCAP meeting in Bangkok which opened
Tuesday (18) bringing together ICT experts
and policy makers from governments, the
academia, UN and other international
agencies, and the private sector.
This election signals the view in ESCAP of
Sri Lanka’s considerable progress in ICT
development, where computer literacy has
increased from 5 per cent to nearly 25 per
cent in the past three years, with the
emphasis placed on ICT development by
President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The ICT Committee of ESCAP monitors the
progress made at the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) for Asia and the
Pacific.
The Bangkok meeting of the ICT Committee
of ESCAP is held in backdrop where despite
significant progress in Asia and the Pacific
in utilizing ICT, such as with the rapid
growth of mobile phone subscriptions, a
significant disparity still remains in
access to the Internet between high-income
and low-income countries.
How to overcome this “digital divide” is the
focus of the meeting. A study by ESCAP shows
that both phone and Internet use has
increased over the last five years in the
Asia-Pacific region since the World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS) was first
held in 2003. For example, the number of
mobile phone subscribers has increased by
nearly 70 times in South Asia between 2000
and 2007, and by over 40 times in Central
Asia. In Southeast Asia, which has a
relatively more developed market, the number
of subscribers still grew by about 10 times.
By contrast, the gap between rich and poor
nations in Internet access has widened over
the same period of time. At the top end, the
most connected five countries – New Zealand,
Japan, Republic of Korea, Singapore and
Malaysia – had between 55 per cent to 80 per
cent of their populations with access to the
Internet by 2007.
For the bottom five – Myanmar, Timor-Leste,
Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Cambodia – less
than one per cent of the population uses the
Internet. The average for the Asia-Pacific
region is 20 per cent.
The meeting in Bangkok noted with favour
the expansion of Computer Literacy to nearly
25 per cent in Sri Lanka, with particular
emphasis on taking IT to the rural sector.
This has seen the establishment of over 500
Nenasalas, to approach 1,000 very soon,
under the ICT expansion policy of President
Rajapaksa, and the new emphasis on IT and
English education in the country. The
Government has already declared 2009 as the
“Year of English & ICT” and has already
appointed a Presidential Task Force for the
promotion of English and ICT education,
chaired by the Minister of Enterprise
Development & Investment Promotion Dr.
Sarath Amunugama.
Among the participants at the meeting are
representatives from Sri Lanka, India, Laos,
Malaysia, Japan, Russia, Nepal, and the
Republic of Korea, as well as from ESCAP,
United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development, Food and Agriculture
Organization, International
Telecommunication Union, United Nations
Education, Science and Cultural
Organization, Asian Development Bank,
Pacific Island Forum Secretariat, and
Microsoft.
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