Lanka, UNESCAP's ICT committee vice chair

Sri Lanka was selected as a vice chair of the UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) Information and Communication Technology Committee at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Bangkok recently.

The bearer of this honour for Sri Lanka is the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) CEO Reshan Dewapura. He was unanimously selected by ESCAP as one of the two vice chairs of the ICT Committee for the next two years.

The ICTA CEO said that being called to serve in the committee was not an honour bestowed him personally but on the country.

ICTA Chairman Prof. P. W. Epasinge said, "The UNESCAP ICT committee to which ICTA CEO has been elected Vice Chair is the same committee that was chaired two terms by President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga. The selection is a corroboration of the noteworthy strides Sri Lanka has made in ICT."

"It is a tribute to the country in terms of ICT development, among all member countries and observers such as the EU," he said. Dewapura was also appointed to chair the joint plenary session of the ESCAP ICT committee held with the ESCAP transport committee.

This joint session was the first such session at UNESCAP between two committees. An outcome of this joint session was the adoption of the resolution to use the Asian Transport Network (railway and highway) to implement the Asian Information Superhighway.

The ICTA CEO said, "The joint session was to highlight the synergies between the ICT and transport sectors. The sectors will develop a regional framework to address the digital divide, including the development of stronger internet infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region".