The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka which functions
under the office of the prime minister is to announce the
operation of two ‘Vishva Gnana Kendras’ (VGK) located in Jaffna
and Hatton. The VGK’s are operated by Spectrum Training Private
Ltd. and Sewalanka Foundation respectively and are the last two
of six pilot VGK’s initiated by the Agency.
VGK meaning global knowledge centres, are
multi-service community information centres, providing internet
access, telephone and other key services to the community. The
six pilot VGK’s will be closely followed by comprehensive VGK
programmes to establish 100 VGKs in rural communities in the
north east and south of the country. Lessons learned from the
pilot phase will be fed into the planning for the main programme.
The overall objective of the VGK programme is the delivery of
positive economic, social and peace building impacts on a long
term and sustainable basis"
The VGK programme is one of the primary
components of the ‘e-Sri Lanka’ Initiative, the vision of Sri
Lanka’ is to take the dividends of ICT to every village, to
every citizen, to every business and to transform the way
government thinks and work’. This will be achieved by running
multiple and diverse programmes, cutting across all sectors,
which will both harness and use technology to promote economic
growth, reduce poverty and contribute to peace building. The ICT
Agency is the implementing institution for ‘e-Sri Lanka’.
