Page 60 - UDYAMA FINAL final for web

DAI Business sub-index of Sri framework, in an analysis of developing economies in infra-
Lanka recorded only 0.44 but sco- about 50 Sri Lankan companies structure, adoption, and skills.
red more (0.60) in DAI Govern- across multiple industries, DQ
ment Sub-index where the gov- scored 35 places, where it slightly In the vision of placing Sri Lanka
ernment uses digital technologies higher than the global median of on the bench of Asia’s booming
more intensively than private 33 (Figure 8). In comparison with digital economy, the Ministry of
setor firms. other Asia Pacific emerging Telecommunications & Develop-
markets (Malaysia, Thailand, ment Infrastructure and the Min-
Within the last couple of decades, Vietnam, Philippines, and Indo- istry of Development Strategies
almost 25 percent of global top nesia), Sri Lanka exhibits & International Trade identified
business trumps lost their leader- strengths in connectivity, digital 10 priority projects; 1. Creating a
ship positions as digital technolo- marketing, investment in digital dedicated fast track channel for
gy ramped up competition, disr- initiatives, and the ability to move exporting goods and services 2.
upted industries, and forced com- quickly. Educating small companies on
panies out of business. Nowa- how to list their products on
days, digitally-matured compa- But, when compared with China, local/international digital plat-
nies across all industries become India, Japan and more-developed forms (enterprise), Leveraging
forerunners and leading industries countries, Sri Lanka is far behind. ground-level administrative cen-
in the economy. The McKinsey Sri Lankan companies lag in ters to carry out large-scale digital
Digital Quotient framework dev- appetite for risk, ability to literacy programs for smallholder
eloped a global multisectoral ben- integrate their digital priorities farmers and artisanal fishers (for
chmark across four core pillars of into the overall business strategy, agriculture), Using digital media
successful digital transformation- automation of internal and cust- to carry out large-scale digital
strategy, capabilities, orga- omer-facing processes, and adop- service quality training modules
nizational practices, and culture- tion of a collaborative culture to train SMEs on international
encompassing 18 management between the digital teams and visitor preferences and imple-
practices, including customer ex- business functions. mentable action steps to improve
perience, automation and digital service quality (Tourism) 3. Crea-
talent, at over 500 companies (the In summing up all these indices tion of data governance/personal
company score is calculated on a together, it is obvious that Sri data protection act and regula-
scale of 0 to 100). According to Lanka’s current digital profile tions to ensure proper guidelines
this McKinsey Digital Quotient is still lagging behind other are established for the use of vast

Figure 8: Significant variance in digital maturity of Sri Lankan players
Source: McKinsey & Company: Unlocking Sri Lanka’s digital opportunity, 2018

58 January 2021