Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2011-06-08

National Information and Communication Development Plan 2011 - 2016

- this plan has been formulated by the Government under the guidance of a Committee of professional in the field of Information and Communication Technology and in the participation of representatives from Government and Private Sector Institutions and Commercial and Banking Sectors. Views and suggestions were also obtained from the General Public through newspaper advertisements. The following are its main objectives:

* $ 100 million export income by the year 2016;
* creation of 100,000 job opportunities in the field of Information and Communication Technology;
* increase the level of Information and Communication Technology Literacy rate up to 75% by 2016; and,
* establishment of Information and Communication Technology Centres at 25 main cities.

The proposal made by Hon. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology to appoint an Inter-Ministerial Committee to review the progress achieved in the above programme, was approved by the Cabinet.