Parliamentarian Harsha de Silva has said that the biggest block in unlocking the Sri Lanka digital stack is “the government”.

He had tweeted this after addressing the Digital Public Infrastructure yesterday (March 26) in Colombo.

The conference was organised by the Indian High Commission in Colombo, in partnership with the Ministry of Technology in Sri Lanka.

“The biggest block in unlocking #SriLanka digital stack is the government. Talking about a #DigitalSriLanka is useless unless we get moving with the UniqueID and establishing 3 pillar Digital Public Infrastructure. Lot to learn from @pramodkvarma
 presentation+ on the Indian story,” he tweeted.

Addressing the DPI conference, MP de Silva also said, “We heard the President saying that we need to create a digital Sri Lanka.  Stop talking about 300 projects… focus on one project. Focus on getting the unique ID done. That is what is going to unlock the Digital Stack. Try to understand this. I’m embarrassed to sit here and listen to stuff that is being spoken about without speaking to the point. But now why is it stuck? Is it corruption, or is it somebody else who wants power? Why is it not moving? why?”

Noting that Sri Lanka is ’embarrassingly behind India’ and that Sri Lanka needs to ‘catch up’, the MP said, “here is a hand extended to us. Let us take it. Let us not wait one more day to do this.”

Meanwhile, making the keynote address at the DPI conference, President Ranil Wickremesinghe characterized Sri Lanka’s economy as a “patchwork economy,” describing it as a collection of disparate elements stitched together. He emphasized the need to transition towards a more cohesive digital economy.

The President also outlined plans to establish a Digital Transformation Agency & AI centre with a budget of LKR 1 billion & announced intentions to present legislation to Parliament by mid-year for these initiatives, prioritizing the transition towards digitalization.