Sri Lanka is to expand Electronic Document Attestation System (e-DAS) of the Foreign Ministry to Divisional Secretariat level of the country.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministries of Foreign and Home Affairs recently enabling the expansion of the system initially as a pilot project at 19 Divisional Secretariats in the Galle District.
The expectation is to extend the facility to all 332 Divisional Secretariats island-wide subsequently.
Connecting the Divisional Secretariats island-wide will allow the general public to have their required documentation processed at the nearest Divisional Secretariat, without visiting the Consular Affairs Division in Colombo.
People in the Northern Province who currently visit the Regional Consular Office in Jaffna for this purpose too would be able to have document attestation done through their nearest Divisional Secretariats instead of the Regional Consular Office.
For the pilot project, the Canadian Government has donated equipment worth 6.8 million rupees through the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Functioning of the Electronic Document Attestation System at the Divisional Secretariat level would effectively serve the community of migrant workers who annually remit a substantial amount of foreign exchange to the country.
This initiative is part of the endeavors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to streamline, decentralize and improve Consular service delivery to the public through digitalization.
