The Hon. Eranga Weeraratne - Deputy Minister of Digital Economy

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson, thank you. In replying on the Votes of the Ministry of Digital Economy (Heads 186 and 227), I will first address Opposition criticisms and proposals.

¶ 02 On the Digital ID: some say it is essential to correctly identify citizens and curb fraud and corruption. Others claim it will violate rights, enable data theft or sale, or send data to India—baseless allegations made in this House. The cause, I believe, is a lack of technical understanding. Digital ID is a technical subject: how it works, how it is implemented, and what safeguards apply. No critic has come before our Ministry’s advisory council to discuss it. We even held a workshop yesterday; a few Opposition MPs attended and shared useful suggestions. But many who speak here, without technical grounding, are misleading the public for narrow political aims.

¶ 03 Some say they tried to implement it when they were in government but were blocked by agencies pulling in different directions. They now ask us to implement it properly. They also admit only an NPP Government can actually get this done because we work with unity and leadership.

¶ 04 On biometrics: claims were made that biometric data can be misused, accessed by India, or weaponized by government. Technically, when a fingerprint is captured, what is stored is a hashed template, not the raw fingerprint image. It is a one-way transformation. You cannot reverse a hash template to recreate a fingerprint, faceprint, or iris image. Even if there were a data leak, the stored template cannot be reversed into a personal biometric image. We, together with Sri Lanka CERT, will implement maximum security to prevent any breach. CERT can now advise other government entities but cannot enforce. We will bring the Cyber Security Bill to ensure mandatory security standards across agencies.

¶ 05 Regarding “Madras Security Printers”: a past government sought to award them a project. That was a Sri Lankan government procurement decision, not linked to India’s Aadhaar system. Allegations of Indian control are false.

¶ 06 On policy: someone said our policies are good but not implemented. We have a five-year policy with phased implementation. Digital infrastructure is central, and Digital ID is a priority. We will not allow false campaigns to derail this project; we will take every step to educate the public.

¶ 07 On ministry structure: some argue that digitalization should be driven above all ministries because earlier efforts were undermined by inter-agency turf wars. They forget the President himself is the Minister in charge of the Digital Economy. This is the NPP Government—neither SJB, UNP, nor SLPP. We act as one national team, with other ministries carrying out their digitalization under our leadership, without turf barriers.

¶ 08 On card material: why polycarbonate rather than PVC? PVC cards last about two years and degrade. Issuing PVC would force card replacement every two years. We will transition to polycarbonate for durability. Our objective, however, is to move toward a fully digital ID. Existing physical NICs can be used as long as holders wish, while their digital ID is issued electronically. New applicants will receive the digital ID and, during a transition, a physical card where needed, until systems accept and authenticate digital IDs end-to-end. Ultimately, we will dispense with plastic. IDs will be accessible via a DigiLocker mobile app.

¶ 09 On allegations regarding Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya and CDs: the claims are false. The relevant agencies, including the AG’s Department, were provided with the CDs as per legal requirements; there was only a delay years ago due to technical retrieval, not non-provision.

¶ 10 Our Government prioritizes digitalization to accelerate economic turnaround by enhancing public and private sector efficiency, capacity, quality, and reducing costs and waste; enabling data-driven decisions; reducing red tape and corruption. Even if nothing else were done, digitalization alone can expand the economy by 1–3%. Currently, people waste time in queues and across multiple offices. Digitalization will eliminate these inefficiencies. Hence, among the President’s top three priorities to develop the country is digitalization, for which we formed this Ministry.

¶ 11 We operationalize digitalization under five pillars:

¶ 12 1) Digital Government: transform administration and service delivery to be efficient, paperless, transparent, and equally accessible to all citizens, improving state–citizen interaction.

¶ 13 2) Digital Industry: drive information services, software development, digital marketing, and job creation. We currently earn about USD 1.2 billion; we plan to grow to USD 5 billion by fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, including a Rs. 500 million “fund of funds” with the private sector, World Bank, and IFC to scale product innovations and startups. We are also working to formalize and support digital freelancers so they can access banking and finance aligned with their income.

¶ 14 3) Digital Economy: expand digital payments, e-commerce, and fintech. We target growth from USD 3.45 billion to USD 15 billion, raising the digital economy’s share of GDP from ~5% to ~12%. We launched GovPay and will expand LANKAQR usage so even small roadside shops can accept digital payments. With about Rs. 1.5 trillion in cash circulating, even bringing a third into the financial system will boost investment. Currency printing and handling costs are around 1.25% of GDP; reducing cash saves the State money.

¶ 15 4) Strategic Sectors: apply digitalization to agriculture, tourism, fisheries, and manufacturing to raise productivity.

¶ 16 5) Digital Workforce: expand the digital workforce from ~85,000 to 200,000, partnering public and private educational institutions to produce 60,000 digital tech engineers for Sri Lanka and the world, upskill existing engineers, and elevate new entrants to high-value tech entrepreneurship.

¶ 17 Through this ambitious program, we will steer Sri Lanka’s future toward prosperity. Thank you.