{"id":89074,"date":"2019-05-19T16:16:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T23:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=89074"},"modified":"2019-05-19T16:20:52","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T23:20:52","slug":"minister-sujeewa-sengasinghe-says-technology-and-innovation-will-be-brought-closer-to-the-public-ensuring-that-one-will-be-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/19\/minister-sujeewa-sengasinghe-says-technology-and-innovation-will-be-brought-closer-to-the-public-ensuring-that-one-will-be-left-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Sujeewa Sengasinghe says technology and innovation will be brought closer to the public ensuring that no one will be left behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, Geneva<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

“Shilpa\nSena”, a rolling exposition will be launched island wide in July, geared\ntowards bringing technological skills, knowledge and products to the general\npublic, at a time when the country embraces new and emerging technologies. The\naim of the exposition is to bridge the technological divide in the society\nwhile ensuring that no one will be left behind, as part of the government’s\nwider policy of achieving 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Minister of\nScience, Technology and Research Sujeewa Senasinghe made these remarks\naddressing the High-Level Round Table on “The impact of rapid\ntechnological change on sustainable development” on 14 May 2019 while\nparticipating in the 22nd Session of the Commission on Science and Technology\nfor Development (CSTD). The theme of this year’s Commission was “The role\nof science, technology and innovation in empowering people and in ensuring\ninclusiveness and equality” and saw the participation of developing\ncountries from Asia, Africa and Latin America as well as developed countries.
\n
\nSpeaking further, Minister Senasinghe stated that Nanotechnology,\nBiotechnology, Neurotechnology, 5G and Internet of Things, Personalised\nMedicine, Blue-green Technologies, New Energy, Robotics and Industrial\nAutomation, Mechatronics, Artificial Intelligence and Space Technology have\nbeen identified as priority technology themes by the government for action.\nHighlighting the importance of Blue-Green economy, he stated that the objective\nof this initiative is to utilize ocean resources through enhanced scientific\nknowledge while drawing from Sri Lanka’s rich heritage of indigenous knowledge.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\na bilateral meeting with Director of Division of Technology and Logistics,\nUnited Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Ms. Shamika\nSirimanne on 14 May 2019, Minister of Science, Technology and Research outlined\nthe various initiatives of the Ministry including on diffusion of science\nliteracy among the public. As part of these initiatives, Vidatha Resource\nCentres – an island wide network of science and technology centres will be\nconverted to technology transfer offices while more school students will be\nencouraged to follow STEM education. The Ministry of Science, Technology and\nResearch will seek through private and public partnerships to increase value\naddition of export products such as naturally occurring minerals in Sri Lanka\nincluding graphite stated the Minister. Tax rebates will be also provided for\nprivate companies and industries to encourage setting up partnerships with\nuniversities. Mrs. Sirimanne expressing her views on the programmes of the\nMinistry of Science, Technology and Research, invited Sri Lanka to share these\nbest practices with UNCTAD to disseminate among developing countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nthe visit, Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe held a meeting with Ms. Arancha\nGonzalez, Executive Director of International Trade Centre in Geneva on 17 May\n2019 at which the parties discussed the progress of ITC’s collaboration with\nSri Lanka. Minister of Science, Technology and Research sought ITC’s assistance\non developing Sri Lanka’s expertise on quality control. Using technology to\nimprove the processes would empower segments of societies, in particular women\nempowerment through improved economic conditions, Ms. Gonzalez highlighted.\nMinister Sujeewa Senasinghe briefed the Executive Director of ITC of the many\ninitiatives undertaken by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research to\nlink markets and innovation and the proposed projects to connect public\ninstitutions and private sector ensuring that both sides benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permanent\nRepresentative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and other International\nOrganizations Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez, Deputy Permanent Representative Mrs.\nSamantha Jayasuriya, Minister Counsellor Ms. Shashika Somaratne, First\nSecretary (Commercial) Ms. Tharaka Botheju and Second Secretary Ms. Rajmi\nManatunga were associated with Minister Senasinghe at the meetings.

\nPermanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations

\nGeneva

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, Geneva “Shilpa Sena”, a rolling exposition will be launched island wide in July, geared towards bringing technological skills, knowledge and products to the general public, at a time when the country embraces new and emerging technologies. The aim of the exposition is to bridge the technological divide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}