Digital Champions Network will bring 400 senior officials from 95 state institutions to accelerate Sri Lanka’s public sector digital shift.
The Digital Champions Network will be established with 400 senior state officials to accelerate digital transformation across Sri Lanka’s public sector.
The government has taken steps to form this special team to lead and strengthen digitalization within state institutions. The network has been named the “Public-Impact Champions Network” or PIC-Net.
The move is aimed at improving how government institutions use technology, redesign public services, improve internal processes, and deliver better citizen experiences in the digital era.
The 400 officials will be selected to represent 95 state institutions, including ministries, state-owned enterprises and provincial councils.
Their main responsibility will be to properly establish, guide, and strengthen digitalization programs across the public sector. This raises expectations that government services could become faster, more connected, and more efficient if the program is implemented effectively.
According to a special directive issued by Secretary to the President N. S. Kumanayake, PIC-Net will function as the central force for implementing digitalization activities within state institutions.
The directive identifies the network as a key component of the Digital Economy Plan approved by the Cabinet.
With the full support and intervention of the Presidential Secretariat, the GovTech Sri Lanka institution and the Ministry of Digital Economy will coordinate the entire program.
Under the new structure, each participating state institution must appoint a team of four special officials from among its staff.
These four roles have been identified as the Digital Champion, the Experience Champion, the Process Champion, and the Transformation Champion.
Each role is expected to contribute to a different part of the digital transformation process. Together, they will be responsible for improving technology use, service delivery, process efficiency, and institutional change.
The circular issued by the Presidential Secretariat further emphasized that the team will carry collective responsibility for creating service excellence suited to the digital era within the public sector.
The network is also expected to help state institutions use new technology more effectively, improve public service delivery experiences, and promote process efficiency and institutional changes through an integrated approach.
However, questions remain over how quickly state institutions can adapt to this model, especially in areas where digital systems, staff capacity, and internal processes remain weak.
Every department head has now been made responsible for nominating between 16 and 20 qualified candidates for the selection process of future Digital Champions covering the four assigned roles.
The circular further states that the selected officials will be directed toward structured capacity development programs, workshops, and expert consultancy support.
These programs are expected to build practical competencies in digital transformation, service redesign, process development, and institutional change management.
What happens next could be critical, as the success of PIC-Net will depend not only on appointing 400 officials, but on whether those officials are empowered to overcome bureaucracy, modernize outdated systems, and deliver real digital change across Sri Lanka’s public sector.
