Citra Social Innovational Lab launched today

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Citra Social Innovational Lab, co-developed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research and the United Nations Development Programme was launched by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today (February 13). As Sri Lanka's first public sector Innovation Lab, Citra works to strengthen institutions, build capacities of the public sector and re-engineer public service delivery through specialized foresight and innovation tools. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe noted that he was concerned about tomorrow. He added that the question of how to digitize the state institutions at a divisional level was a major concern as it was mandatory for administration at the divisional level. Sujeewa Senasinghe, Minister of Science, Technology and Research attended the launch and shared his views. He noted that the main objective of Citra is to create the first Social Innovation lab aligned to support national development priorities through prototyping and testing development solutions for the future. He said that there are about twelve main institutions in his ministry working on Science, Technology and Research, and Citra could do the coordination between those institutions. He also added that NASTICA, another body in his ministry will be regularized making it a co-ordination body bringing Science, Technology and Research together in order to take it to the general public. He finally mentioned that the most practical method to introduce this to the public is to "have an exposition, something more than an exhibition".