Amidst Sri Lanka’s pursuit of becoming an export oriented nation, Sri Lanka aims to be the economic and service hub in the South Asian region, said the President Ranil Wickramasinghe at his address to Parliament yesterday (6).

President Wickremesinghe said: “Our goal is to establish it (the country) as a regional economic and service hub, with plans to make the (Colombo) Port City an international financial hub.”

In achieving this goal, he added that he also looks forward to transforming the country into a green and digital economy. 

“However, this can only be achieved if we continue to execute our plan diligently,” President Wickremasinghe said further. 

Meanwhile, President Wickremesinghe noted that in the journey of transforming its economy to green and digital, each school that teaches information technology now has established smart classrooms. 

Moreover, 100,000 school children have received scholarships through the President's Fund with regard to information and technology education and the funds that have been allocated in this regard from the President's Fund have been doubled.

The Cabinet of Ministers recently gave the nod to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the school curriculum with the aim of empowering Sri Lanka’s students with the skills that are essential for the country's  digital transformation. 

The Daily Morning Business also reported recently that the State Ministry of Technology has proposed Rs. 8 billion allocation to develop a national AI research policy for Sri Lanka while another 500 million rupees is to be allocated to modernise the state universities for the AI, commencing from the University of Peradeniya (UoP).