Sri Lanka Telecom successfully presentedone of the globally emerging topics of the Digital Economy, through a knowledge sharing programme themed, “TelcoNext - Empowering the Digital Economy, Together”. The programmewas held at the Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo recently with the participation of a large number of tech savvy professionals in the corporate, IT, BPO, BPM, public sectorsas well as academics in Sri Lanka. 

The programme addressed areas pertaining to the much talked of ‘Digital Economy’ supported withglobal trends, Digital Sri Lanka initiatives, IoT implementation, hyper connectivity, digital services, competitor behaviour, softwarization and virtualization of the operators to face future demands. By modernizing the ICT infrastructure, which is the backbone of the digital economy, both Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel presented the promising capabilities to create greater agility to accelerate e-commerce market development in Sri Lanka. 

During the forum, the keynote speakerEng. Anuradha Udunuwaraaddressing the gathering said, “The success of startups today is mainly because of the readiness of the modern ICT infrastructure and platforms already built by operators in the country, which is the backbone of the digital economy. On the other hand operators should not look at startups as threats to their traditional businesses, and operators should make collaborations in their long term business strategiesinstead of competing.”Eng. Anuradha Udunuwara is avisiting Industrial Fellow of the University of Hertfordshire UK, Faculty of Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization UK, a guest lecturer at the University of Peradeniya and also a senior telecommunications expert. The panellist wasEng. Rasantha Hettithanthrige, Senior General Manager, Engineering & Operations at Mobite land the moderator was Dr. Shamil Appathurai, who serves as an advisor and lecturer at the Sri Lanka Technology Campus (SLTC) and is also the Head of Network Strategy & Transformation at Mobitel.

As the national ICT solutions provider, SLT will continue to bring new topics through the ‘TelcoNext’ sessions, as a series of knowledge sharing programmes to create greater agility to accelerate the e-commerce market development in Sri Lanka. Access to ICT/digital infrastructure is critical to the development of all aspects of a nation’s economy. The year 2018 will continue to see the growth of the digital economy and the better integration of Internet of Things and digital services. Sri Lanka’s global connectivity via undersea cables and rollout of 4.5G, and fibre optic broadband services will strengthen the emerging ICT sector. The highly competitive environment will result in wide coverage, fast speeds, and low retail tariffs which will benefit customers and usher the country towards digital economic growth.

Digital transformation is a key driver of sweeping change in the modern world. The digital market is developing into a global digital economy. Digitalisation has the potential to improve the quality of life and move towards greater societal good. The telecommunication industry is at the heart of global digitalisation as a key enabler by providing the essential connectivity infrastructure for functioning in the digital economy.