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Open World Lanka (Pvt) Limited, a subsidiary of Open World Limited UK, signed an agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) recently to provide IT enabled services for export. The agreement was signed to invest in Open World operations in Colombo, which will provide powerful e-commerce solutions to the international hospitality and travel industry.

Christopher Shallis, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Open World Limited, signed the agreement with Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, Chairman and Director General of the BOI of Sri Lanka, in the presence of Thanula Wijewardana, Chairman-Open World Lanka.

The Board of Investment has identified the IT/BPO sectors as vital sectors of the Sri Lankan economy and promoted projects such as this.

Open World Lanka plans to rapidly expand to a development centre of over 150 IT professionals by the end of 2006. The organisation is looking for motivated IT professionals wishing to work in a dynamic and friendly environment, regularly interacting with overseas teams.

Projects such as Open World will provide many job opportunities for young people. These will be well paid and contribute towards improving the quality of the local workforce.

'With the introduction of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) to Sri Lanka, there is huge potential to develop FOSS based solutions for our client base, Shallis said and added that there are 'extensive plans to fully relocate Open World's production facilities to Sri Lanka to achieve a competitive edge in the e-commerce and travel industry.' Shallis has been visiting Sri Lanka since May 1998 and has a keen interest in developing the local IT community, particularly through extensive training opportunities for many Sri Lankan IT graduates.

Open World provides effective e-commerce solutions for the global travel and hospitality industry. Established in 1995 and with 11 global offices in Asia, Europe and The Americas, Open World has a proven track record and market with over 2,000 hotels and websites for more than 60 brands in over 10 languages.

With its winning combination of Professional Services and Travel Agency teams, Open World integrates intuitive design and creative ingenuity with search marketing science, advanced web engineering and revenue-generating opportunities, all designed to increase direct online business and return on investment. www.openworld.org.

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