Sri Lanka has carried a promising prospect of going digital to cater easily accessible, sophisticated yet simple, robust, and reliable services to the general public to foster convenience. The 21st century has given enough evidence towards digitalization being the key in developing nations to press on the pedal of progress even faster – Sri Lanka is simply attempting to do this.
Today, several countries in the South Asian region have opted for digital means in delivering services such as digital identification cards, online payment options, and even opting for virtual conferencing approaches to run businesses and organizations.
At a time when “going digital” is more than just a far-away thought, but a reality that many have begun to implement in light of the global viral pandemic demanding for such, Sri Lanka has stepped up in their game towards digital automation.
Sri Lanka’s journey towards digital integration and adaptation began years back, however, most of the initiatives were shelved owing to the then government falling short in establishing necessary laws to implement such a movement.
But the situation has reversed with the incumbent government strongly pushing polished policies of digital reformation and reinvigoration. The country is trekking towards providing all of its citizens with their unique digital wallets, while all the necessary or basic services that the citizens require will be directly linked to these wallets.
Sri Lankan government’s digital roadmap is comprehensive, smart, yet doable, and even achievable. The first step under this grand scale initiative includes an E-Court solution for a total of 100 courthouses in the country, for which the government has already completed necessary procurement.
According to reports, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Science, Technology and Research plans to implement the project sometime during June 2022 while the final details for the plan are currently being worked upon.
Furthermore, the ministry will be establishing 100 video conferencing installations for the courthouses and even the country’s prison establishments as well.
Sri Lanka’s digital roadmap is one that is inclusive since the next step is setting up the Digital Health Blueprint, which is carried out in collaboration and cooperation with the Ministry of Health. Under the roadmap efforts, a Hospital Health Information Management System (HHIMS) for OPD and clinics will be established in at least 50 of the government hospitals and 30 new hospital institutions, which according to the state, expects a successful roll-out sometime within the next six to nine months.
Digital integration into the education sector is not a completely new headline, however, innovative digital integration of the education sector will always be newsworthy. The #DigitalSriLanka initiative has placed a keen interest on the country’s education sector as well, with plans to launch 8 digital libraries with prospective plans of opening 18 more digital libraries following this.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has successfully implemented the Electric Registration of Companies (e-EOC) that allows for easier, paperless, and time-relative registration of companies without time consumption as well as lodging issues at the Registrar of Companies in a more direct (and digital) approach.
The government is also planning to roll out its new e-Revenue License Solution which will attempt to resolve issues faced due to increased vehicle revenue license issuances, while the ETF department will be predominantly digitalized sometime within 2022.
Government sector employees will be connected through email by the end of 2022 while a video conferencing solution will be implemented in 100 government institutions, which is expected to be rolled out sometime in the second quarter.
In addition to this, Sri Lanka’s digitalization efforts become all the more evident with their SLUID Digital Identity Card project, while the RFP formulation process for the project has already been initiated.
Other major digitalization moves by the country’s government include the Key Citizen Enablement Project under which the pay.gov.lk will be introduced which is a Government Online Pay Platform allowing for all public sector organizations to accept online payments through a uniform system. The Citizen Super App, which is mobile-based will be launched to unify the government services including Covid-19 vaccination passes as well as other future services.
The government will also launch gig. lk, which is a government information portal overhauled with state-of-the-art CRM for “efficient citizen request handling of relevant government agencies.” Meanwhile, forms.gov.lk, a project funded by the World Bank will see the automation of citizen requests through a centralized workflow.
Another major digital infrastructure development project includes the migration of the Lanka Government Cloud to a state-of-the-art tier 3 data center.
All of these initiatives by the Sri Lankan government point towards its thrive and thirst for realizing a digitalized future where the citizens will find the ease of access and convenience in acquiring government and other services. The idea of digitalization is unifying the people under one ecosystem where transactions can be easily placed, tracked, recorded, and even monitored.
The comprehensive roadmap of Sri Lanka is a testament to just how much the country has amped up its game of improving its digital infrastructure. Perhaps it is time that other neighboring countries take a few lessons from Sri Lanka, and implement their own versions of digital transformation as well.
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