SLT says Polonnaruwa earmarked to be Sri Lanka’s first smart city with launch of several pilot projects
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) Chairman Kumarasinghe Sirisena has reportedly stated that Polonnaruwa has been earmarked to become Sri Lanka’s first-ever ‘Smart City.’ Accordingly, the Government of Sri Lanka has planned to launch several pilot projects in the areas of education, health, and transportation, before expanding to Port City, Colombo.
“The Government is currently considering to transform Polonnaruwa as the country’s first-ever ‘Smart City’, enabled with smart health, smart education, and smart transportation, that will accelerate economic development and social progress in the city,” SLT Group Chairman Kumarasinghe Sirisena has told Sri Lanka’s daily English newspaper, Daily FT, on the sidelines of Huawei Lanka ICT and Carrier Congress 2019 in Colombo.
According to him, the Smart City concept could be implemented in various verticals, as SLT has now covered the entire country with ultra-fast fibre-optic connectivity, and in the initial stage they are considering to roll it out as pilot projects in the immediate services, including education, health, and transportation.
In addition, Sirisena has said that they have also signed an exclusive fibre connectivity project with Huawei for the Smart City in the Colombo Port City.
“We believe there is a lot of value that Huawei can bring to Sri Lanka in building more smart cities,” he has added.
The Chairman also pointed out that they hope to launch a range of digital transformative products within the next couple of months, under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, to fast-track Sri Lanka’s journey towards becoming a digital economy.
“We are going to connect 2,500 schools through wireless connection to enable smart education in Sri Lanka. The initial discussions have been completed, and we hope to connect these schools within this year,” Sirisena has further stated.
OSL take:
The statement by the SLT chairman on developing the first smart city in Sri Lanka portrays the opening up of many business/investment opportunities in the country’s ICT sector. Interested foreign companies could explore business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s ICT sector.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/27032019/Z_4 |