by Jehan Perera

The government has given emphasis to finding new ways of boosting Sri Lanka’s economic growth.  Among these would be the need to improve the country’s utilisation of digital technologies.  The government has taken pride in the number of Sri Lankan experts it has mobilised to this cause.  Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, who made Dialog a household name in Sri Lanka as a mobile connectivity provider, has been appointed as the Chief Advisor to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Digital Economy. He gave an outline of Sri Lanka’s plans in this regard at the conference on “Building Digital Public Infrastructure for Shared Prosperity” at the BIMSTEC Digital Conclave 2025 held in Colombo.

BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) is a regional organisation comprising seven South and Southeast Asian countries, led by India and aimed at fostering economic and technical collaboration in the Bay of Bengal region. The countries in this grouping are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.  India has promoted BIMSTEC as a key platform for regional cooperation mindful of other regional efforts aimed at mobilising international backing such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative.  It aligns with India’s “Neighbourhood First” and “Act East” policies, enhancing connectivity with both South and Southeast Asia. India leads efforts in counterterrorism, disaster management, and cybersecurity under BIMSTEC’s cooperation framework.

The significance of this conference was that it took place in Sri Lanka at a time when Sri Lanka cannot afford to host such international conferences due to its downgraded economic situation. The fact that experts and policy makers from a range of neighbouring countries were able to visit Sri Lanka was due to Indian goodwill and funding.   The topics discussed at the conference included Digital Public Infrastructure, Digital Identity, Digital Payments, Digital Transformation of Businesses and Digital Governance. Among the key features of digitalisation is that it can both enhance economic efficiency and reduce corruption.  This aspect of digitalisation was brought out by Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe, Deputy Minister who emphasised the government’s commitment to eliminate corruption in his presentation.

INDIAN WITHDRAWAL

India’s role in supporting the expansion and strengthening of Sri Lanka’s digital economy presents a significant opportunity to enhance the country’s development prospects through the more efficient use of available resources and the increasing of intellectual resources. As a regional powerhouse with a rapidly growing digital infrastructure, India can serve as both a model and a key partner in Sri Lanka’s digital transformation. Dr. Saj Mendis, the current Director of the BIMSTEC Secretariat, has emphasised that India is at the forefront of global digitalisation, positioning itself among the world’s leading economies through rapid technological advancements and digital financial inclusion.

In an era where the global landscape is increasingly divided into regional blocs and dominated by major powers prioritising their own strategic interests, it is both pragmatic and beneficial for Sri Lanka to deepen its collaboration with neighbouring India. This was most vividly demonstrated during Sri Lanka’s economic crisis in 2022, when India emerged as the single most important country to provide massive and immediate financial assistance, facilitating critical imports of fuel, food, and medicine through direct foreign currency transfers. Such support is invaluable in a geopolitical context in which small countries get pushed aside or ignored. India’s role as Sri Lanka’s regional partner, reinforces the need for closer economic and technological cooperation with it in the future.

There have been recent indications that India has changed its policies in relation to Sri Lanka from ethnic and cultural linkages to more tangible economic ones, most likely in view of the past controversies over India’s role in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict.  This was evident during President Dissanayake’s visit last month to India where the joint statement gave primary focus to trade and economic agreements that the two countries entered into or pledged to enter into soon.  It also made mention of security aspects in relation to Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the India Ocean. But there was no mention of peacebuilding and an internal political solution to the ethnic conflict of the neighbouring island.  India’s concerns focus on the recurrent efforts of China to ensure its presence in Sri Lanka which it sees as part of China’s broader strategy to extend its influence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, an area India considers vital to its national security.

ENTER CHINA

One of the notable features of the joint statement at the end of President Dissanayake’s visit to India was the absence of any mention of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution or to the holding of Provincial Council elections that would ensure a modicum of power sharing between the ethnic communities in Sri Lanka.  The 13th Amendment was an outcome of the Indo Lanka Peace Accord of 1987 through which India sought to influence Sri Lanka’s internal governance to find a solution to its protracted ethnic conflict.  The roots of the ethnic conflict lie in the inability of the Tamil minority, which is small in relation to the majority community, to be partners in the national or even sub-national decision-making processes. There is concern among the Tamil political parties that failure on the part of India to put pressure on the Sri Lankan government would lead to the negation of their hope for devolved self-government in the areas in which the Tamil people are a majority.

The external pressures on the Sri Lankan government with regard to a political solution to the country’s long unresolved ethnic conflict is likely to further recede following the election of President Donald Trump in the United States and radical shift in US policies that are taking place at the present time.  The US government has chosen to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, where it gave leadership since 2011 to repeated resolutions on Sri Lanka, urging post-war accountability and reconciliation through political reform.  This is likely to reduce pressure on the Sri Lankan government to take action in both those areas, which are controversial within the country.  The new US government has also suspended its foreign assistance through its own international donor agency, USAID, which impacts on Sri Lankan civil society organisations which create awareness fostering an understanding of the political structures necessary for a pluralistic society, drawing inspiration from the experience of different countries for sustainable peace. With the new government signaling a shift toward political reform, civil society can play a role in ensuring these commitments translate into meaningful action.

The vacuum in peacebuilding and national reconciliation left by India and the U.S. may now be filled by a new entrant to the field.  The Sri Lankan media reported that a top-level Chinese delegation led by China’s minister in charge of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission will visit Sri Lanka from February 19 to 23. This will be an eye opener to the Sri Lankan people, who did not know that China has such a ministry dedicated to ethnic affairs. The delegation head, Minister Pan Yue, will hold talks with Sri Lankan counterparts on topics related to ethnic harmony and reconciliation efforts.  The news report also noted that “China continues to make inroads in Sri Lanka’s North with more livelihood assistance programmes.”  The new US government has been open in stating that its foreign assistance needs to be in alignment with its own national interests.  Sri Lanka is unlikely to figure high on the US government’s list of priorities, being a distant island.  But to neighbouring India, Sri Lanka is high priority, which may precipitate Indian interest in securing a political solution to the ethnic conflict once again.