Govt agencies to be connected through GIS technology: ICTA

Sep 08, 2015 (LBO) - Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are fast becoming the platform of collaboration between organizations and the public mainly in the case of governments to enhance development, an official said.







“All government buildings in Sri Lanka will be linked by high speed broadband to enable officials to share data and work in a collaborative manner,” Muhunthan Canagey, chief executive of the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) said.

“The new government’s aim is to connect 3,500 state buildings with 100 megabyte connectivity to each other and to an information back bone of 100 gigabytes across all 25 districts,” he said.

“This will enable information to be shared among organizations.” Data of the type produced by GIS technology is used by many agencies for collaboration between organizations. Canagey was addressing a forum organized by GIS Solutions, a subsidiary of Justin Time Group and are the sole distributor in the island for ArcGIS products.





Sri Lanka has over 15,000 GIS professionals and uses and has been used in the country for over 25 years.



“Sri Lanka can take advantage of this innovative technology to maximize economic development including rural development, drive business efficiency,” Ashani Jayasinghe-Dabare, CEO, GIS Solutions said.



“Government agencies currently are the majority users of GIS technology and what we want is for the agencies to start data sharing,” she said.



GIS is being used in many countries, including US, Singapore, Malaysia, China, and Vietnam and can also be used for multiple applications including tracking persons.