Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the leading broadband and digital services provider in Sri Lanka was proud to announce that it will be partnering the much awaited national ICT expo, INFOTEL 2019 which will be conducted at the BMICH from 1st to 3rd November 2019. Running for the 27th consecutive year, the theme of this year’s expo is “Towards a digital nation”.
INFOTEL provides the ideal platform where ICT knowledge and experience as well as futuristic ICT solutions can be shared with business leaders, professionals, students, educationalists and many others, creating an ideal environment for the generation of global business opportunities as well as opportunities for expediting the country’s economic development. Having conducted the first INFOTEL expo nearly three decades ago, today, its scope and reach has expanded greatly. This year’s INFOTEL expo will cover areas such as ICT education, training and career guidance, software solutions, hardware and digital devices as well as digital lifestyles and smart city concepts, mobile computing, systems integration, computer gaming, cloud computing and emerging technologies such as IoTs, robotics etc. SLT will be partnering with the INFOTEL 2019 as the Principal Sponsor
Read more: LK: SLT paves the way “Towards a digital nation” by partnering INFOTEL 2019
LIRNEasia is a pro-poor, pro-market think tank with researchers scattered across Asia in a virtual network with a prominent ground presence in Colombo. Its mission is catalysing policy change through research to improve people’s lives in the emerging Asia Pacific by facilitating their use of hard and soft infrastructures through the use of knowledge, information and technology.
Recently LIRNEasia has launched ‘After Access – ICT Access and use in Asia and the Global South’, a report based on nationally representative surveys of households and individuals in 23 countries in South America, Africa and Asia. The survey, conducted from April 2017 to January 2019, was based on 46,746 face-to-face interviews each lasting for about 90 minutes. It has covered a wide range of topics related to the use of mobile phones, Internet, social media and other platforms.
Read more: Seven new facts we learnt about mobile and internet use in Sri Lanka
Information and Communication Technologies remained a State monopoly for a long time since first telegraph and then telecommunication systems were introduced in late 19th century. The Department of Posts and Telecommunication was the sole authority that could provide phone connections. Radio Ceylon (commenced first as Colombo Radio in 1925) was the sole broadcaster for an equally long period.
The State was also the sole patron of data processing technology (The term ‘Information Technology’ was yet to be introduced) for several decades, starting from 1967, when the first mainframe computer was installed at State Engineering Corporation. If one were to travel back to ’70s one would find private players had very little to do with information and communication technologies.
Read more: LK: State as a catalyst and facilitator can play a decisive role in ICTs
It is customary to assess aspects of the performance of a country using composite indices such as the Ease of Doing Business Index or the Network Readiness Index. For government services, the indicator of choice is the e-Government Development Index (EGDI), published every two years by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Partly because of the complexity of the methodology, whereby the weights for different elements change with every iteration, and partly because some governments have begun to game the system, the rankings fluctuate significantly. Nepal, which ranked 150th in 2008, fell as far back as to the 165th spot by 2014. It came in at 117th in the most recent ranking of 2018. Bangladesh’s worst performance was in 2012 (150th). Its best performance was in the most recent ranking (115th).
Sri Lanka's state owned telecom authority, the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), on Tuesday said that plans were underway to transform the north central district of Polonnaruwa into the country's first "smart city" following several projects launched to upgrade education, health and transportation in the area.
SLT Chairman Kumarasinghe Sirisena told local media that the government was currently discussing the transformation of Polonnaruwa by launching the smart health, smart education, and smart transportation concept, which will accelerate economic development and social progress in the district.
Read more: Sri Lanka to launch smart city concept: telecom authority chairman