Sri Lanka to launch GovPay in milestone for digital government services

Sri Lanka is launching its digital government services with GovPay. GovPay is launching on February 7 and will be Sri Lanka’s first step in digitizing government services enabling a more efficient method of payment for such services for the country’s citizens.

Initially, the platform will integrate 16 government institutions with 30 more joining in two further phases until full implementation is reached by April, according to the country’s Ministry of Digital Economy.

GovPay will modernize revenue collection processes, according to Sri Lanka’s government, and it will be launched by its president Anura Kumara Disanayake.

As the South Asian country advances in its digital transformation with one of the DPI pillars being the Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identification (SL-UDI), scholars have homed in on the need for a robust cybersecurity strategy.

To this end, a proposal has been put forward to create a Cybersecurity Task Force dedicated to identify vulnerabilities, prevent potential cyberattacks and implement risk mitigation strategies, with the aim of ensuring data security, system resilience, and public trust in the digital initiative.

“By implementing advanced encryption, real-time threat detection, and strict compliance measures, Sri Lanka can ensure a secure and resilient digital identity ecosystem for its systems,” it reads.

The proposal, by a clinical data scientist, sets out key responsibilities of such a Task Force, and can be read here. Other editorials have called for the building of necessary safeguards in order to guarantee full sovereign control over SL-UID.

The concern is predicated over cooperation with neighboring India. While Sri Lanka’s neighbor has provided considerable assistance, since India has experience with digital identity with its Aadhaar system, it has prompted critics to call attention to the need to safeguard critical infrastructure, which in this case is digital infrastructure.

Sri Lanka is steaming ahead with SL-UDI and recently procured 350 units of biometric hardware, including high-resolution cameras and fingerprint scanners. The tender for the balance of 400 units of the same hardware was awarded, Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne told Biometric Update.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital payments  |  digital public infrastructure  |  government services  |  SL-UDI  |  Sri Lanka