The Sri Lankan government officially launched three new key digital initiatives including the ‘GovPay’ platform to digitise all government payments, which are significant steps aimed at transforming the country into a digital society.

The initiatives include the launch of the ‘GovPay’ platform for the digitalisation of all government payments, expanding the services of the President’s Fund from the main office in Colombo to the Divisional Secretariat level, and the introduction of the Electronic Birth, Marriage, and Death Certificates (EBMD) facility, allowing Sri Lankans abroad to obtain certified copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates through electronic means at Sri Lankan diplomatic missions.

Accordingly, these services were made available on Friday (7).

These new digital approaches have been introduced as part of the government’s efforts to realize the vision of transitioning the country towards a digital society.

Earlier, the government mentioned that cash-based payment fraud and corruption have led to increased inefficiencies in transaction processes and that in order to address these challenges, the government was taking steps to digitise all government payments, promoting digital payments and providing the public with more convenient and trustworthy services.

The detailed information regarding the state institutions offering the GovPay service are available on the ‘www.govpay.lk’.

The President’s Fund, which started in 1978, has previously accepted applications only at the main office in Colombo. However, now the services are available at 341 regional secretariat offices across the country.

Under the supervision of the Divisional Secretaries, a trained staff will carry out these registrations using new technology.