The Hon. Eranga Weerarathna - Deputy Minister of Digital Economy

¶ 01 Good morning, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

¶ 02 History tells us that from time to time, rulers unified the country after divisions and developed it. Today, again, the entire nation has united under the “Malima” Government — people from North, South, East, and West have chosen one government through universal franchise, hoping to reverse decline and achieve the development they expect. Therefore, this Government is not only for those who voted for us but for all Sri Lankans.

¶ 03 From “cut blue, cut green, cut red” — all have voted for Malima today. Our task is significant: from three MPs with 3% in 2020, we now have a two-thirds-capable administration including the President.

¶ 04 We aim to address three declines the people see: political, economic, and social. Politically, we have brought a good team to Parliament. Economically, we have a plan to make Sri Lanka prosperous. Socially, we must transform mindsets — starting from Parliament down to the grassroots — to reduce poverty, as poverty breeds malnutrition, broken education, child marriages, child labor, theft, alcohol and drug abuse, and other problems.

¶ 05 We have a “Clean Sri Lanka” program — not just cleaning physical waste but redirecting social mindsets towards discipline, mutual respect, and respect for the law. Parliament should set this example.

¶ 06 On digitalization: many countries have advanced; Sri Lanka once had momentum, but our programs have faltered. We will drive digitalization across four pillars, the first being digital government. Despite spending over LKR 20 billion over years to build about 120 IT systems, many are non-functional today. For instance, boosting tourism to 4 million arrivals requires efficient systems, yet the online visa was disrupted and outsourced to VFS, making even e-visas difficult and costly (USD 25 vs. USD 1 via Mobitel earlier). After we took office, we restored the SLT-Mobitel system in a day.

¶ 07 Similarly, the abrupt, unprepared switch from MRP to e-passport created a passport shortage. Tender issues aside, even a perfect implementation would have left us without passports for six months. We immediately ordered 7.5 million MRPs to relieve the crisis.

¶ 08 ICTA was to be shut down abruptly, despite having built around 73 systems for many institutions; with no transition plan, agencies were told to “manage their own systems”. Our Ministry of Digital Economy must now repair and modernize these systems and ensure uninterrupted services, with proper policy enforcement — because Sri Lanka has policies, but not enforcement. Multiple bodies worked in silos: the Ministry of Technology, ICTA, the AI task group — all without a unified national strategy. We will consolidate under one national strategy.

¶ 09 We will also increase the number of engineers from about 85,000 now to 200,000 by 2030, through coordinated public-private education pathways and proper oversight of private courses to ensure quality. About 30,000 unemployed graduates will be bridged into tech sector roles. Annual engineering output (~10,000) will be expanded to ~30,000.

¶ 10 On the digital industry, since 2016 governments talked of USD 5 billion in IT/BPM exports but never had a real plan; we remain around USD 1.2 billion. The Malima Government will implement a concrete plan, in partnership with the private sector and education, to reach USD 5 billion by 2030, and grow the broader digital economy from USD 3.45 billion to USD 15 billion by 2030. That requires policies and laws — including enabling QR payments and other fintech properly under strong leadership.

¶ 11 We have world-class Sri Lankans supporting us, such as Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, and many others locally and abroad, working without personal gain. Institutions like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, and ADB are engaging with us to support reforms. We will improve our Ease of Doing Business rank (now around 99) to attract FDI. A Digital ID is essential. We will retain Sri Lanka Telecom in State hands, turn it into a profitable entity, and align it with the digitalization drive.

¶ 12 We have a solid plan and a strong team. Through the Malima Government, we aim to deliver the prosperous future our people expect. Thank you.