Internet penetration and its likely impact on Sri Lanka’s economy
Sri Lanka is likely to bring in the benefits of the Internet service with improvements after it entered into a partnership agreement with the tech giant Google Inc. in July 2015 to launch the Loon, the balloon-based Internet service. Incidentally a Loon balloon landed in Sri Lanka last week as per schedule. Internet has dominated the day-to-day life of as many as 5.7 million Sri Lankans with the Internet penetration of almost 26 per cent.
As a nation in transition, the government and the business community needs to recognise and embrace the enormous opportunities that digital technology provide so that it will boost infrastructure and build a competitive environment. It will also allow users, innovators and entrepreneurs to thrive and nurture human capital. There are some areas that can be looked into by Sri Lanka as it has already set a platform to minimise the significant gaps in income distribution, education, health and living standards. This could be done through mega city projects launched to boost the economy of the country and achieving upper income group status for Sri Lanka by 2030 to make it a ‘Centre of Excellence in Asia’.
These objectives could be better achieved when the prospective dynamic Internet facilities are made accessible to the ordinary citizens at an affordable cost. We need to reach out to rural and remote areas as well in this respect. It is expected that the GDP of the country would grow by 1.2 per cent when 10 per cent of the total population use the Internet facility. The following are some of the proven facts behind the economic development that can be predicted in Sri Lanka with the vibrant usage of Internet in the future.
Job opportunities
Internet serves as the powerful medium for job creation despite the fact that it has made some of the jobs obsolete. However, it is considered to be a net job creator as the ratio stands at 2.6 jobs created for every job lost. More jobs are created in the Internet ecosystem itself since the Internet based companies such as web designing and maintenance companies are hiring the employees ranging from engineers to sales personnel to promote their service or products while it can immensely contribute for job creations even in other industries such as social media marketing particularly through Facebook which has around 3.4 million users in Sri Lanka.
Standard of living
It has been apparent over the recent past that the penetration of Internet among the Sri Lankan especially the youth has improved the standard of living. It varies from purchasing products over online portals such as ebay and Amazon to down- loading costly products such as books from leading universities and libraries in the world. Furthermore, some parts of the world are being virtually visited so that the ideas generated though can be put in to practice here at home to uplift the standard of living. Vibrant Internet facility will reduce the gap of opportunities for learning which seems to be an imbalance in the society in terms of access through internet. There is also the emergence of online learning opportunities such as pursuing diplomas, degrees and professional studies.
Business competition
Globalisation is generally fuelled by the reach of the product and services of one company or the country to another without the traditional supply chain. This has led many companies to enter into another country simply through Internet or e-business.This will create a challenge to the local producers but it will ensure innovation and productivity in terms of inputs such as consultancy, ideas and raw materials are found through online procurement. This will bring opportunities to the local businesses to make their market more open and competitive.
Innovation
It is important to encourage innovation for a country to move forward towards prosperity that will result in creating entrepreneurs. The innovative ideas to support research and development are abundantly available online. These are conducted by leading research institutions and universities. This will enormously contribute for new business start-ups while accumulating intellectual capital.
(The writer is a lecturer in Business Studies)