SLT launches National Digital Roadmap | Sunday Observer

SLT launches National Digital Roadmap

16 June, 2019
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka was awarded the Presidential Award  for Digital Excellence at the launch of the National Digital Roadmap by  President Maithripala Sirisena. Governor, Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy  accepted the award on behalf of the Central Bank.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka was awarded the Presidential Award for Digital Excellence at the launch of the National Digital Roadmap by President Maithripala Sirisena. Governor, Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy accepted the award on behalf of the Central Bank.

The present level of digital connectivity is sufficient to enhance the quality of daily life to the next level, digital experts said.

The infrastructure facilities and the digital capabilities will take Sri Lanka to the next level of digital journey. With the integration of employees, customers and citizens, the digital journey towards Smart Sri Lanka will become a reality soon, Chief Operating Officer, SLT, Priyantha Fernandez said.

Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT) launched the National Digital Roadmap at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre last week.

The SLT National Digital Roadmap is a large scale ICT infrastructure development project which is planned to be implemented under the pillars of Smart Security, Smart Government, Smart Health, Smart Building, Smart Utilities, Smart Environment, Smart Transportation and Mobility, Smart Agriculture, Smart Money, Smart Education, Smart Workforce and Smart Infrastructure.

“Today every company, every school and every department is or should be gong digital. Coupled with Artificial Intelligence, it could enhance the quality o life of every citizen,” he said.

At present, the cameras are so sophisticated and they could be placed in scanners and points to detect even the body temperature of persons thus indication of their present health indicators. This gives the advantage of early detection of certain conditions and through the use of AI, healthcare institutions could be automatically notified.

Coupled with face detection technology, the patients identity could be verified and the receiving hospital could have the patient’s health record at hand once the patient arrives. Further in the case of an emergency, an ambulance could be summoned to the spot and it is also now possible to track the ambulance on its way to the hospital. The monitoring of the patient in the ambulance could be sent directly to the trauma team waiting to receive the patient, he said.

Quoting another example, he said, in the case of acquiring a passport now it is not necessary that an individual goes to the passport office. This could be done from home using the online portals.

This would save the person time and money otherwise spent on this process. The support of AI plays a significant part of this process. He said in the case of traffic offences, these systems detect the speed and automatically issue speeding tickets.

With the technology, the drivers who use cell phone while driving, which is an offence, can be detected.

Another important use of this level of technology could be used to track individuals once entering a country.

This will help enhance the security and safety of every person. As the GPS position could be found of any person at any time.

This will give additional protection, especially in the case of tourists who go on trekking and hiking which will also promote tourism, he said.

A large number of projects would be initiated under each sector with a wider focus on empowering not only the government’s Smart initiatives and the industry landscape, but also transforming the lives of the people by providing them with cutting-edge digital solutions.

The overall vision of the National Digital Roadmap has been established, based on the broad principle ‘Limitless You’. Many technological opportunities, including the access to the internet, mobile technologies and smart solutions remained largely unrelated to the daily lives of the people for years, but the SLT Group mitigated this ‘digital gap’ by expanding ICT solutions and infrastructure. 

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