Sri Lanka re-elected to UNESCAP ICT Committee Chairmanship
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- Published on Friday, 07 September 2012 13:50
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President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga has been re-appointed as the Chairman of the UNESCAP ICT Committee.
This is the third re-election of Weeratunga for this prestigious post. He was re-elected for a second term in November 2010. The Chairmanship covers a two year period.
ICT industry has hailed the re-appointment of Weeratunge as a major boost for UNESCAP as well as for Sri Lanka which has been a model for rapid progress in the ICT sphere, a portfolio which current President Mahinda Rajapaksa championed when he was the Premier as well.
The Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) addresses the issues pertaining to integration of ICT-related issues in development policies, plans and programmes; transfer and application of ICT at the regional and sub-regional levels; development of human and institutional capacity in the use of ICT; and ICT applications for disaster risk reduction.
Sri Lanka was first elected to the chair of UNESCAP’s ICT Committee for the first time and that too unanimously in 2008.
The government under Mahinda Chintana and Mahinda Chinthana – Vision for the Future has made much emphasis on development of information technology in Sri Lanka. It is the objective of the government to develop the computer literacy in the country to 75% by 2015. For this purpose establishment of Nena Sala centres throughout the country and the Mahindodaya laboratories under the 1,000 secondary schools development programme provides enhanced facilities for the education of information technology. (niz)
