The National People’s Power (NPP) has received accolades for the creation of a dedicated Ministry for Digital Economy. Over the last ten years, much has been said and promised about ‘digitalisation’ of Sri Lanka and how it will open the door to better governance and improve economic performance of the Indian Ocean island nation. A previous government had commissioned a National Digital Economic Strategy for 2030. Many experts have opined that digitalisation will greatly benefit Sri Lanka.
Last month, the Government of Sweden announced that it has sent a formal request to China for cooperation over the suspected sabotage of two undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. Swedish Premier Ulf Kristersson, said authorities were seeking “clarity” from China about what happened to the two fibre-optic cables between Finland and Germany and Sweden and Lithuania last week. “Today I can tell you that we have additionally sent a formal request to work together with Swedish authorities to get clarity about what has happened,” he said in a press conference. “We expect China will choose to work together as we have requested.” His comments come amid speculation about the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, which sailed over the cables at about the time they were severed and has remained anchored since 19 November in the Kattegat Strait between Sweden and Denmark, where it is being monitored by multiple vessels, including the Danish Navy.
The incident, which has serious economic, diplomatic and security implications, comes in the wake of damage to the ‘Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines’, which carried natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Both were damaged in explosions in September 2022. This August some reports claimed that the explosions were the work of a small Ukrainian sabotage team but this was denied by the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The continued disruption and suspected sabotage of the critical digital infrastructure which connects nations, has given rise to concerns that ‘Cold War’ era seabed warfare tactics has once again returned as asymmetric threats.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s digital communications, umbilical to the world, remain vulnerable. This is due to the bureaucracy dragging its feet on enacting legislation on the protection of undersea data cables. Sri Lanka’s connectivity, trade and digital economy as an island nation is largely dependent on seven undersea fibre-optic data cables which remain under- protected by local legislation. This gap in legislation, leaves Sri Lanka’s national security and economic recovery in a vulnerable State, with a part of the critical digital infrastructure of the country lacking a legal framework for protection. Such legislation, had it been introduced at the time it was discussed, would have placed Sri Lanka as the regional leader in submarine cable protection, offering the island State which seeks to improve her ‘hub’ status and attract tech investments, especially in tandem with the Personal Data Protection Act, which was adopted.
The risks posed to Sri Lanka’s under undersea critical maritime and digital infrastructure is not one Sri Lanka can afford to ignore, and wait to fix ‘once something has happened’, as our economy is fragile and the island cannot weather serious disruptions at this stage. Sri Lanka is no stranger to the dangers posed to the submarine data cables which link the island to the world. In 2004, Sri Lanka suffered its first major internet and international communications outage which lasted a few days when the Indian flagged merchant vessel State of Nagaland dragged its anchor over the SEA-ME-WE3 data cable that supplied linkages to the SLT. The incident occurred in a coastal sea area which has restrictions put in place to stop ships from deploying the anchor. The SLT later took the vessel owners to court seeking $ 5 million as compensation for damages. The cost to the economy from the outage has not been calculated.
Globally, submarine cables carry 95% of the world’s total communications, while satellites are only able to handle 7% of global data traffic. Many key submarine cables that link Europe with the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Australia, the Pacific Islands and Africa lay on the seabed of Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The highest density of submarine cables in the Indian Ocean falls in Sri Lanka’s EEZ or travels around the Island. Sri Lanka is connected to the world through seven submarine data cables.
The draft of the National Submarine Cables Protection and Resilience Framework (NSCPRF), a pursuit which began under the Yahapalanaya Government’s tenure in 2018, completed in 2020 and was earmarked to be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval in 2022, was again been shifted to another branch of the Government without being submitted for approval. However, no legislation was submitted to Parliament and approved, leaving Sri Lanka vulnerable as it was found to be in 2004, and the process for the legislation began in 2019. As such, it would be prudent for the new Government to address this matter diligently and introduce the Legislature we need to secure Sri Lanka’s critical national infrastructure, as our future depends on them.