The Digital Economy Ministry has outlined a comprehensive strategy to expand Sri Lanka’s digital landscape, aiming to grow the Nation's digital economy to US $ 30 billion by the year 2030.
Speaking to the media yesterday (25), Deputy Digital Economy Minister, engineer Eranga Weeraratne stated the Ministry expects to elevate the digital economy to constitute between 12 per cent and 14% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
"We hope to seize this opportunity to achieve this goal under this digitalisation programme by implementing five main tasks," he said. According to him, Governmental digitalisation is the primary task. The second objective focuses on developing the country's digital economy. "We are planning to grow the current digital economy, which stands at $ 1.6 billion, to $ 5 billion by executing these measures," he added.
The third area of focus will be digital transactions. He emphasised the need to fully transition transactions to digital mediums by gradually reducing the use of physical currency. "People will be able to conduct a transaction or a payment from anywhere in the country very easily thereafter," he said. The fourth task involves building a labour force equipped with digital knowledge. He elaborated on the measures that the Ministry will take to empower State officers with knowledge by providing education in these areas and by reshaping the existing engineering workforce to suit the modern world. Finally, he stated that the Government expects to increase the efficiency of other sectors, improve the quality of production, and reduce production costs through the use of digitalisation.
He further added that several key organisations will be involved in executing this programme, including the Information and Communication Technology Agency (which will be replaced by GovTech in the future), the Computer Emergency Readiness Team, Telecom, Mobitel, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, the Data Protection Authority, the Department for the Registration of Persons, and the Colombo Lotus Tower Management Company.
The Ministry was formed officially in November 2024, following a Government gazette and it is under the President’s purview. Growth of the digital economy is one of the major components of the five-year plan declared by the current Government. The digital economy is experiencing a rapid growth, with its value estimated at approximately Rs. 1.34 trillion which is around 4.5% of the GDP as of late last year (2025), driven by surging electronic-commerce, digital payments and information technology services.