Yet, the Internet penetration in Sri Lanka is extremely poor when considered with other Asian countries. Many reasons are attributed for this gap and in Dr. Wijayasuriya's words "it can be mainly attributed to consumers who do not perceive any marginal value that can be extracted from the Internet'.
But look at the figures of India in diagram 1. In a bid to bridge the digital divide, India embarked on an ambitious project called 'e-Bharat to connect 600,000 villages.
This mass IT empowerment project will cost the government almost US$ 1.3 billion and is being undertaken by National e-Governance Action Plan of the Union Ministry of Information Technology.
This is aimed at providing last mile, direct technology and Internet access to village entrepreneurs through over 100,000 multipurpose kiosks by December 2007. The kiosks, being designed by a specially assembled team picked from various technology companies, will enable services like e-Learning, e-Training, e- Teaching, e-Health, telemedicine, e- Farming, e-Tourism, e-Entertainment and e-Commerce.
Let me give you two more examples. A programme named 'K-AgriNet' has been initiated in Philippines by their agricultural department for the maintenance and updating of databases and knowledge networks.
It connects all Farmers Information and Technology Service (FITS) centres nationwide. The managers of the FITS recently received desktop publishing equipment and computer accessories, digital cameras, and cellular telephones.
With these equipments and interconnectivity, the delivery and access of information and technologies would be faster, enhanced and modernised.
Example No. 2 - India has a Telemedicine Network - ISRO, which started in 2001 on an experimental basis aiming at linking remote/local district hospitals with super hospitals in major cities. Today it has matured into an operational system and now covers 165 hospitals - 132 rural hospitals connected to 33 specialty hospitals.
All these happenings elsewhere should make us question ourselves. Isn't it time that our Telecommunication authorities begin a process of developing an integrated policy for greater penetration of Internet services?
Given the "far from satisfactory" growth of Internet in the country, such a policy is essential to gain leadership in knowledge-based services.
Sri Lanka has an urgent need and the clear opportunity to improve governance and the welfare of its rural population through internet-enabled re-engineering of government processes and by engaging the private sector in provision of innovative information technologies.
As the first step, our Telecom experts should prepare a consultation paper on "Accelerating Growth of Internet and Broadband Penetration", aiming to solicit the views of stakeholders on the various policy initiatives, regulatory actions and steps required to accelerate the growth and penetration of these services.
The paper should review the current state of Internet in the country, and investigate what ingredients have to be tackled if we are to achieve a desirable growth and greater penetration.
In my opinion, three ingredients have to be tackled: quality infrastructure, affordable access devices and local content. The paper can draw upon examples of successes and studies of some other Asian countries and also include the various technical options available for providing the internet services. Based on these recommendations, policy measures could be taken by the Government.
If properly implemented, the use of Internet will reap many benefits.
- Reduction in cost and increase in access to public services by citizens and businesses across the country;
- Re-orientation of government service from a traditional "command and control" focus on inputs to output-based "meeting citizen needs" through business process re-engineering, freeing up public resources to overcome remaining market failures;
- Increase in efficiency, transparency and accountability of the revenue collection and public procurement functions;
- Improvement in the decision-making ability of farmers and rural suppliers through timely access to market prices; and
- Deployment of electronic networking infrastructure for technology-enabled economic growth and social equity, enabling better targeting of government programs to meet basic needs and empowering monitoring by citizens and advocacy groups.
To grow exponentially in Sri Lanka, Internet would need to break two major barriers. One is the 'real' barrier of solving technical issues related to speed and connectivity. This is the biggest reason for users not spending more time online.
The second is the 'perceptual' barrier of creating a more 'persuasive' relevance of Internet in people's overall lives rather than it being restricted to the work domain. This poses a challenge for marketers who need to convert net users into net consumers.
Internet usage in SAARC countries Population Internet Internet Penetration Growth (2007 est) Users 2000 Users latest % population 2000-07 India 1,129,667,528 5,000,000 40,000,000 3.5 % 700.0 % Maldives 303,732 6,000 19,000 6.3 % 216.7 % Pakistan 167,806,831 133,900 12,000,000 7.2 % 8,861.9 % Bangladesh 137,493,990 100,000 300,000 0.2 % 200.0 % Bhutan 812,184 500 25,000 3.1 % 4,900.0 % Sri Lanka 19,796,874 121,500 280,000 1.4 % 130.5 %
Autor(en)/Author(s): Lionel Wijesiri
Quelle/Source: Columbo Daily News, 06.03.2007
