The Hon. Chathura Galappaththi

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, thank you for the opportunity to speak on the expenditure Heads of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs. Hon. Mujibur Rahuman requested that if a wrong has persisted for 24 years, correct it now. We trust you will act swiftly.

¶ 02 On national security: many think only of public security, but national security is broader — including food, education, health, energy, environment, economy, and science and technology security. In 2022, when fuel, gas, and electricity were unavailable, the country collapsed and people took to the streets. This shows national security is interconnected.

¶ 03 This Government spoke much of digitalization; it is highly relevant to national security. However, in this Budget, I barely see allocations for cyber security and AI. These two will be central future challenges. AI has benefits and risks; national security becomes paramount.

¶ 04 Under the prior Government’s last Budget, Rs. 1.5 billion was allocated to establish a National AI Centre, and a committee was set up through the Presidential Secretariat to draft a National AI Strategy. Irrespective of whether those were completed, the current Government has not taken steps on these areas. Even the Digital Economy Ministry’s Head does not reflect cyber security or AI. This is a major shortcoming.

¶ 05 Consider the e-NIC project collecting biometric data. Where will the backend be hosted and secured? At the Digital Economy Ministry’s advisory council, even Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya acknowledged that sensitive data requires proper security controls. Data is a national asset; Government must pay serious attention.

¶ 06 Examples: During the fuel QR quotas, where was citizen data stored? During the COVID vaccination program, where is that data now? In the Education Ministry, a student data system tender ended up without proper process being given to an insurance company — handing enormous, sensitive data to a private insurer, reflecting lack of understanding.

¶ 07 Also, the NMRA data breach accessed the Lanka Government Cloud that holds sensitive national data — a prime security threat. Your Government must investigate.

¶ 08 A proposal: Sri Lanka needs data centres. We may not afford them alone, but we have wind power potential. When granting wind power projects to investors, include an obligation to establish a data centre in Sri Lanka to securely host national data — leveraging power generation and protecting data simultaneously.

¶ 09 Thank you.