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Speech made by Finanace and Planning Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama at the 24th national Information Technology Conference held in colombo

It is a great honour for me to be here this morning to meet you and say a few words of encouragement regarding the future of Information Technology in Sri Lanka. At the same time, I want to assure you that this Government and particularly the Ministry of Finance has given top priority to this field.

I am also extremely happy to see a large number of young people at this meeting because I firmly believe that Information Technology is the wave of the future as far as our country is concerned. In my last Budget I tried to give many concessions to the IT field.

We must be happy that the results of such policy decisions can already be seen. In the forthcoming budget I would like to give you more assistance. We would very much welcome suggestions from your Association and other associations which are related to IT as to how we can collaborate in making this field one of the cutting edges of our economy.

I say this not because I am the Chief Guest at this meeting, but because I am convinced that the Sri Lankan economy must now get ready for the third revolution. You must not be alarmed when I refer to revolutions. The economic revolutions I am speaking about are much more potent than political revolutions.

First revolution

In Asia we have had three revolutions. The first revolution, which was a dominant characteristic of the 1960s, was the Agricultural Revolution. That is now called the Green Revolution. New technologies of agriculture, better and higher yielding seed material, use of new fertilizers and a whole package of new agricultural practices were introduced far and wide in Asia.

As a result of that, about a half a century later, Asia had become a net surplus producer of rice. Rice production has increased by leaps and bounds. According to the latest estimates, Sri Lanka is now in a position to feed all her people and in fact even export some rice.

So as far as the Green Revolution is concerned, which is the Agricultural Revolution, I think we have done well. I remember as a young Government Agent working in many of the outlying districts of this country, I myself participated in those pioneer efforts at transforming our agriculture. Looking back on our efforts to introduce a new package of practices in the rural sector we can justifiably be proud.

Second revolution

The second revolution is in Industry and Trade. Here in areas like garments and other exportable products with value addition, Asia has now entered global markets. Some Asian countries, particularly the South East Asian countries have become global leaders.

If you take Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and such countries we see that they have successfully completed this second revolution. They have become world leaders in this area and have been able to drive the world economy on the basis of their industry and trade.

The two latest additions to the second revolution are China and India. They have now come into the industries and trade revolution. This has revolutionized manufacture and trade in the world. If you look at the most recent issue of the "Economist" which is one of the most reliable publications regarding economies, its headline is that "China is driving the world economy".

Unfortunately we have not participated in this transformation to the extent that we would wish. Other countries have left us far behind. We have done fairly well but not as well as we should. This is largely because our regimes have no consensus on policy making. As a result economic decision makers are pressurized by radical ignoramuses who have no idea of modern economic processes.

Largely because they have no access to an international language and experience, they mouth slogans and platitudes which have been discarded by the rest of the world.

In this country, we have no consensus as to the role of industry and trade, the economic role of government and the role of the private sector. I think it is a duty of all of us to focus attention on this problem and create an awareness leading to a new package which will help us to fully enter the trade and industry revolution which has spread through Asia and has created a new East Asia.

While we did very well in the Green Revolution, I think we have got only fair or satisfactory marks when it comes to the industry and trade revolution. We have lots of thinking to be done in the area so that we can catch up with countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Korea. Nevertheless, we should make that effort.

Third revolution

The third revolution is what all of you are involved in. That is the Science and Technology Revolution. The world has entered the third phase after Agriculture, Industry and Trade. The new Revolution will be the IT Revolution and it will further transform the economies of our part of the world and indeed economies of the whole wide world.

If we do not plan for that, if we do not have a policy package for meeting that future, then it would be very difficult for us to position Sri Lanka as a developing and a prosperous nation. That is why I say that this meeting is not just another one of those meeting that I attend but a crucial meeting. I want to add my voice to this demand, I want to create a public opinion in this country that we must now get ready for the Science and Information Technology Revolution.

We have done fairly well in the other two revolutions, but this is the crucial one. Through it we can 'leap-frog' from a rather undeveloped economy, to a modern developed economy. We can leap over some of the stages that other countries had gone through with great difficulty.

We can enter into the future in a very successful way if we are serious about our IT and other policy packages that are necessary to benefit from the third revolution. We must join together in creating a public opinion that this country needs IT and its young people have the capacity to lead our region in the IT revolution.

If we don't do that, we would have done a great disservice to the future generations of this country. Therefore, I want to ask you to collaborate with us in creating a policy package which will lead us into the new millennium as a successful and developing country.

Education reforms

The education reforms that are now being proposed by the Government is an integral part of the strategy to take our country forward into the future. Unless we have a new curriculum, a more science oriented education, a more IT oriented education, we cannot benefit from our investments in education.

We must have a foreign language capacity in this country particularly in English language which has been a great heritage which we have inherited at no cost.

Unless we can bring that package together then we cannot lay the foundations of the third revolution. That is why though there is much ill informed criticism, demonstrations and shrill voices, the Government is committed to a revolution in our education process. That alone will secure a better future for our children.

Most exciting development

What was most disturbing is that the educated people in this country, the middle classes have not realized what the Government is trying to do in the field of education. It is only those who are against it, only those who don't want to give the poor a future, who are demonstrating and displaying posters.

They do not understand that we are proposing progressive measures. I ask you as responsible citizens of this country, as people who have already made a very good contribution to this society, to make your voice heard. You are the Prophets of the future, you are the young people who can take this country forward. You must make your views heard without fear.

You must investigate, you must analyze and come to your own conclusions. You must study our present education system and tell us how we can transform it so that the largest number of our people, particularly the poor people in the most distant areas, can come into this new IT based revolution.

They can be part of that revolution and thereby not only improve themselves but participate in what is going to be the most exciting development of the future. In that process our country also will be positioned as one of the fast developing countries in our region. This is crucial. If we don't get our voice heard, if we cannot have our views on the need to change the educational system listened to, this country will fail.

We must demand to bring more IT into this country, bring more international languages into this country, bring more mathematics and science into this country. Unless we do that, no other country is going to worry whether we are going to develop or not. Today India and China are giants in this field.

The very changes we are trying to introduce to Sri Lanka through the educational system were the basis of the phenomenal development in the economies of India and China. We have to think very seriously about this problem. As politicians it is high time that we spent more time on these fundamental problems.

I am happy to speak to you and get you thinking on these matters. You must put pressure on politicians to grow up and address the basic problems of the country. Computer Technology must be a focal point of Sri Lanka's development efforts.

You have done extremely well, you have done a great service to the people who are thinking about the future of this country and I want to assure you that the Ministry of Finance will do everything in its power to promote IT. We welcome your suggestions and I think, together we can change the economy of this country and thereby change this country into a forward looking developing country which has the potential to become a rich country in Asia.

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