World has reached the era of Indian Ocean says the minister.

Asian countries are now superseding Europe in the areas of economy, technology and mechanical
power says Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka. The nineteenth century was dominated by Europe and
America surrounding the Atlantic Ocean, 20th century by Soviet Land, Japan and America in the Pacific
Ocean and now in the 21st century, it has become the era of Asia and Indian Ocean. Asian countries
predominantly handle the commercial deals in the route from Iran to India via Indonesia exploiting both
the sea way and air way. The use of advanced information technology is also prevailing in Asia compared
to other countries.

Asian countries were never known to have a passion for conquering the world; if they did they would
have become the most powerful countries of the world before several decades, when the Chinese
sailor Zheng He travelled the world in a giant fleet of 317 ships and 28,000 men. This ship was 17 times
larger than the ship Columbus used to travel. The minister expressed these ideas yesterday (19 th) at the
diploma certificate presentation ceremony held at BMICH, Colombo for 540 students who completed
the Information Management diploma.

Recalling his university life, the minister said he also had the opportunity to use the very first computer
brought to Sri Lanka as an engineering student of the University of Moratuwa under the chancellorship
of Sir Arthur C. Clarke. The minister said that technology has been developed very much since then, and
Sri Lanka is maintaining a high standard in the field, pointing out that 700 students are following the
Information Technology degree at the University of Moratuwa today. He further added that the next
revolutionary step in the computer technology will be the quantum computers.

Sri Lanka along with rest of the Asian countries is strongly affiliated to the advancements of technology,
said the minister. Every village in our country is supplied with electricity, schools, hospitals and transport
facilities today. We should be proud that Sri Lanka is having a very high standard of living compared to
the other countries in the region.