Information and communication technology is one of the main instruments used by the Government of Sri Lanka to promote social equity and, in particular, to ensure access to opportunity for the vast mass of people living in the rural areas of Sri Lanka, Professor G. L. Peiris, Minister of Export Development and International Trade said in Geneva last week.

He was addressing the Inter-Parliamentary Conference of the World Trade Organization.

Intervening in the session on ‘Trade in the Era of Digital Revolution’, Prof. Peiris briefed the Conference of a series of initiatives taken in Sri Lanka to provide computers and internet facilities to all villages and to make public communication facilities available to all villages.

He also dealt with the far-reaching legislative innovations in Sri Lanka in this field.

Minister Peiris, referring to Sri Lanka’s Electronic Transactions Act, said that this legislation had been used extensively by commercial courts in Sri Lanka. In a landmark case, the Commercial High Court of Sri Lanka had interpreted this Act to allow SMS messages as evidence in a money recovery case.