The Government of China plans to support the digitalisation of Sri Lanka’s judicial system, including the introduction of artificial intelligence, NewsFirst reported.
The undertaking emerged from a discussion between Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara and the newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Wei Huaxiang.
What was discussed
The talks covered a range of judicial reforms, according to the Ministry of Justice:
- Measures taken by the government to reduce corruption
- The e-Court project
- Introduction of voice-to-text technology to the judicial system
- Improving court infrastructure
- Measures to reduce prison overcrowding
- Procedures for the disposal of case-related exhibits
The Chinese Ambassador said digitalisation and AI had been successfully implemented within China’s own judicial system. The Ministry said both sides agreed to continue supporting Sri Lanka’s ongoing development programmes.
Context
Of the items listed, voice-to-text transcription is the most immediately concrete. Court records in Sri Lanka are still substantially produced by hand, and the pace of transcription is one of the recognised contributors to case backlog — the same backlog that drives the prison overcrowding also raised at the meeting, since remand populations grow when cases move slowly.
The meeting is at least the fifth publicly reported engagement by Ambassador Wei Huaxiang since he presented credentials in August, following meetings on party relations, media cooperation and smart agriculture.
Not reported
No agreement was said to have been signed, and no cost, funding mechanism or timeline was given. The report does not say what “artificial intelligence” would actually do in a Sri Lankan courtroom — whether it is confined to transcription and case management, or extends to anything touching adjudication itself.
Nor does it record any discussion of safeguards: data protection for court records, who would host the systems, or how judicial independence would be insulated from a foreign-supplied technology stack. Neither side is reported to have addressed those questions.
