Enabling Policy & Legal Environment

Jayantha Fernando is an Attorney who pioneered ICT Law reforms in Sri Lanka for nearly 20 years. With a specialized Masters Degree (LLM) in IT & Communications Law (University of London), he gave leadership to Sri Lanka’s accession to the “Budapest Cybercrime Convention” and Sri Lanka’s ratification of the “UN Electronic Communications Convention”, both first for South Asia.

His ICT Law expertise covers a range of topics, including Information Security/ Cyber Crime, Intellectual Property Rights & Software licensing, Privacy, Electronic Transactions & Mobile Banking, Internet governance and drafting / negotiating complex IT Systems Contracts. He has extensive ICT law and policy reform experience in several countries and serves as an expert with both UNCITRAL and Council of Europe. In his spare time he is a Visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Uni of Colombo, Sri Lanka Law College and at several other Universities.

He sits on several Boards, including at the national Cyber security Institution (Sri Lanka CERT). He was the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of LK Domain Registry (.LK). He is also General Counsel / Chief Legal Officer of ICT Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka.

In the Internet Governance arena, Jayantha was the first South Asian to be elected as Vice Chair of the ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC), and also served in the ICANN Nominating Committee, as its Associate Chair (2005-07). In June 2016, he became the first South East Asian to be elected to the nine (9) member global bureau of The Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The T-CY administers the Budapest Cybercrime Treaty at a global level.

Jayantha Fernando is also a British Chevening Scholar of the UK Govt (2002) and an Eisenhower fellow USA (2012).

Mr. Dharmawardena became a member of the CINTEC Committee on Law and Computers in 1986. He represented the Attorney General’s Department. CINTEC, the predecessor to the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, set up the Committee on Law and Computers to address the “formulation and incorporation into the country’s legal system suitable measures relating to computers and IT ….”. The Committee, at the outset realized that there was a need to examine the law of evidence to ascertain whether it could deal with new conditions that could emerge through the use of IT. This key assignment on the preparation of proposals for legislation was given to Mr. Dharmawardena. This work on the admissibility of information produced by computers and other electronic devices were finalized and resulted in the Evidence (Special Provisions) Act No. 14 of 1995.

Mr. Manju Haththotuwa was educated at Royal College, Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has a BSc (Hons) from the Imperial College, London and also an MBA from the University of London. He was COO / Executive Director at Millennium IT (MIT), an industry leader in Stock Exchange software. Mr. Haththotuwa states that his involvement in ICT at MIT indicated his enthusiasm to develop the ICT sector.

Manju was the founder Managing Director / CEO of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka. ICTA commenced operations on 1st July 2003, at Kirimandala Mawatha, Colombo 05. A key milestone that Manju achieved was setting up ICTA and commencing its operations; setting up the Focus Groups and Working Groups, setting up the processes, commencing the projects and programs, designing the logo and the attractive organization which made it a great place to work. ICTA reached many milestones key during his tenure and the way was paved and the foundation and culture of the organization was established for reaching many more.

Prof. Samaranayake retired from the University of Colombo in 2004 after one of the longest and most distinguished careers spanning a total of 43 years of service, and has already been honored as Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, by the Senate and the Council of the University of Colombo.

Vanniarachchige Kithsiri Samaranayake was born to Mr. And Mrs. V.W. Samaranayake on the 22nd of May 1939 in Colombo. His father was the Principal of the Hewavitharana Vidyalaya, Rajagiriya, and his mother was a teacher at this school. Kithsiri Samaranayake had his early education in that same school and then joined Ananda College in 1948. He sat for a competitive examination through which he was admitted to Royal College in 1950. One of the pillars of his success has been that, through this entire period, Kithsiri Samaranayake lived and breathed in the environment of a Principal’s quarters where he was often co-opted into the educational processes and activities of the school.

Prof. V.K. Samaranayake entered the University of Ceylon to read for a degree in Science in 1956 and was selected to do a Special degree in Mathematics. His academic excellence was recognized and he was offered an Assistant Lecturer post immediately upon completing his degree with First Class Honors in 1961. Thus began a long and illustrious university career which spilled over to a service to the nation.

Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya is the Secretary to the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure. He was educated at Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda and at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He has been awarded a Postgraduate Diploma (ICT) from the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) and completed his MSc Degree at Reading University, UK. Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya is a Sri Lanka Administrative Service officer with more than 30 years of public sector experience. He has been extensively involved in Government computerization projects.

Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya was initially employed at the Rubber Development Department, where he was in charge of the IT Units in the regional offices. He was involved in the computerization of the Rubber Replanting and Subsidy Administration Program from 1985 to 1994. He joined the Ministry of Public Administration as the Senior Assistant Secretary (IT) in 1998. He was a pioneer in introducing the use of ICT to the Ministry of Public Administration; the Ministry commenced emailing Public Administration Circulars to the entire public sector for the first time and these were also published on the Ministry’s website. The first website of the Ministry was created by a team led by Mr. Deshapriya in 1998. In 2003, Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya joined the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka. Eventually in 2005, Mr. Deshapriya was promoted to the post of Director, Re-engineering Government. Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya was a member of the ICTA Leadership Team and was a key person involved in shaping and building the Re-Engineering Government Program.