newSRILANKA Team External Links 15 July 2009 225 views One Comment  Print This Post  Email This Post

Sri Lanka is poised for greater economic growth and development, said world’s richest entrepreneurs, Bill Gates to President Mahinda Rajapakse via a special audio visual message at a ceremony to handover a plaque incorporating the first copy of the Sinhala Language Interface Pack (LIP), from Microsoft and ICTA.

He also emphasized that on its part, Microsoft stands ready to fully support the initiative and Sri Lanka’s broader IT-objectives over the long term.

The presentation was part of Microsoft and ICTA efforts to mark the “Year of English and IT Services” this year.

He said he was “very excited to learn about plans for the year which have a clear focus on IT, because this initiative demonstrates” that President Rajapaksa, and his government r at ecognize the extraordinary potential that information technology has to dramatically improve people’s lives in the country.

“Sri Lanka has an advantage though, with a government that’s committed to investing further in IT, as outlined in President Rajapaksa’s vision statement. Like President, I am optimistic that the country is poised for greater economic growth and development and much of that will be fueled by the use of software and the power of IT.

Sri Lanka’s high literacy rate, at over 90%, and its high standards of education and healthcare give it a strong economic foundation. The country’s IT literacy rate is nearing 20%, which represents a significant jump from 8% only a few years ago.

Read more at Govenment of Sri Lanka website

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