Jaffna IT Week will help boost exports

Over 25 Chief Executive Officers from the IT and BPM sector will take part in the Jaffna IT Week next month. The IT Week in the North will help boost the growth of the sector in the region and achieve the US $ 5 billion export target by 2020.

"Within the next five years, we want to see fifty percent of our IT-BPO companies moving out of Colombo to the regions," SLASSCOM Vice Chairman and 99x Technology CEO, Mano Sekaram told the the media at the launch of the Jaffna IT Week website recently. The event will take place from December 3-6 in Jaffna.

The event comprises Future Careers Program (on December 3 and 4 at the Vembadi Girls' High School), an IT-BPM Export Forum (at Tilko City Hotel on December 5) and Jaffna IT Conference (at the Kailasapathy auditorium of University of Jaffna on December 6).

The Export Development Board (EDB) is partnering SLASSCOM in this initiative with Information and Communications Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the Ministry of Education, the

University of Jaffna and the Yarl IT Hub.

Among the top CEOs and IT leaders expected to be in Jaffna are, Dr. Sankalpa Gamwarige (Zone24X7), Reshan Dewapura (ICTA), Jayantha de Silva (IFS), Imran Vilcassim (Microsoft), Dinesh Saparamadu (hSENID), Jit Seneviratne (Millennium IT), Sanjiva Weerawarana (WSO2), Madu Ratnayake (Virtusa), Anuradha Tennakoon (Motorola), Harsha Subasinghe (CODEGEN) and Mano Sekaram (99X Technology).

Chairman and CEO, EDB, Bandula Egodage said, "SLAASCOM, ICTA, EDB and all the IT-BPM firms are setting up a milestone. The EDB is a facilitator in this event.

The government is focusing on the IT-BPM sector as it has a great future. IT plays a major role in the development of non-traditional exports."

"At present, IT is concentrated in Colombo but the way forward is taking them to the regions starting with tier two cities. Jaffna is the third city after Kandy and Galle.

The EDB has conducted IT related events, conferences, trade exhibitions, here and abroad," he said.