The Hon. Eranga Weeraratne

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, with respect, the Hon. Member has misunderstood. There is no provision here that 51 per cent goes to an Indian company as a permanent ownership or control stake in an operating entity. What exists is that India is providing assistance to establish the digital ID system. Under that assistance, the initial system setup can be procured through Indian companies. That refers to bringing in and installing the base system. As I clearly stated earlier, that initial system has no digital IDs or biometric data populated. Thereafter, the Department for Registration of Persons and Sri Lankan experts will maintain and operate it. It will be fully run by the Government of Sri Lanka through our public officers. There is no separate company being created, with 51 per cent being given to India, or anything of that sort.

¶ 02 Please read our RFP document carefully. It plainly states this is about procuring and deploying a system in Sri Lanka. During deployment, our experts will verify security and architecture. The system remains within Sri Lanka; nothing goes outside. It is built on Sri Lankan datasets in the custody of the Department for Registration of Persons. Only its officers will have access. Therefore, data will not be sent out, nor will any foreign company or government use or manage it.