A few days ago, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Italy, launched an outreach programme to support the Sri Lankan community living in many districts away from Rome. There had been numerous complaints that the Embassy did not provide information to the expatriate community on their applications made to the Consular Service. Sometimes, people received short and harsh replies when inquiries were made about the position of their applications.

Taking this into consideration, as well as the motto and guideline followed by Ambassador Hemantha Warnakulasuriya to treat all expatriates in Italy equally and be a father figure to them, the Ambassador launched an elevated scheme not even found in countries with advanced technology and endowed with sufficient money to help the community they serve.

The Embassy, through its website, www.slembassyrome.org, has opened a new window called ‘Online Services’. All applications submitted to the Embassy are immediately computerised and available on the website for applicants to ascertain the status of their applications. For example, when one clicks on the ‘Online Service’, one would find two different categories, one for passports and the other for driving licenses. Once the passport number is inserted, all information is provided to the passport holder on whether the renewal has been carried out, or whether approval for license had been granted from Colombo.

One problem with the expatriate community in Italy was, that most of them did not have access to computers. In order to help them, the Embassy has started establishing a number of Sri Lankan organisations and Honourary Consulates in important cities, so that anyone can go to the office, log in to the Database of the Embassy and find out the state of their application.

Ambassador Warnakulasuriya said that it is important to think ahead of the times and use technology available to help people and be innovative in the methodology employed to help Sri Lankans abroad. E-governance is aimed to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make new opportunities available to the people and to encourage the development of technology. All Departments in the Embassy are now interlinked, so that the Ambassador can personally log in to the website and find out as to why a passport application had not been processed.

Even during a call for information, the staff can log in to the computer, insert the passport number and obtain information within seconds.