Sri Lanka among first fifty in BPO Market

Global services location index 2007

By Charmaine FERNANDO

'Global Out sourcing is an irreversible mega trend and is worth US$ 330 billion. Sri Lanka is well poised within the top 50 Global Out sourcing Destinations with tremendous market potential, it was said at the South Europe Meets South Asia (SEMSA) 2009, a two day Technology and Business match-making event organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce at the BMICH, Colombo, recently.

SEMSA was organised under the European Union initiative in association with the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dhaka, Chamber of Commerce and Industry Drama Greece, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Fundacion AdEuropa, Spain.

Speaking to representatives of 80 companies from 6 countries including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, from South Asia and Greece, Slovania and Spain was Minister of Export Development and Internal Trade, Professor G. L. Peiris, the Chief Guests, among distinguished embassy and State officials.

Stimulus package

It was highlighted that in Sri Lanka, Ministry of Trade and Finance has forwarded a stimulus package to the private sector to derive fullest usage of concessions offered in the wake of the global recession. In the ceramics market, Fernwood, Noritake and award winning Dankotuwa porcelain's strategic growth and progress had prompted incentives coming their way. Of 30% of produce to be sold in Sri Lanka and 5% of all foreign earnings will be paid in Sri Lankan Rupees. Tea with powerful brands that has won international acclaim such as Dilmah, Mlesna and McWoods will receive incentives to strengthen value added packaging. The importance of packaging was stressed, as a tool to market products in the South European markets.

SEMSA 2009 objective is to develop business collaborations between South Europe and South Asia promoting the niche markets highly focused on IT-enabled services and the Processed Food sectors. This offers a platform to facilitate one to one business meetings for SMEs where each others needs of quality controlled supplies of services and products find suitable markets and partnerships within South Europe and South Asia.

Rapid growth

It was said that in Sri Lanka 40,000 personnel are employed in the IT sector and the number of employees getting into the IT sector has been growing at a rapid pace since 1983 while today some 11,200 people are employed in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies.

Sri Lanka has a Tech savvy community where 22 universities and private institutes and State educational establishments offer degree programs in IT. Research figures show that 80% of our graduates are IT qualified. Vision of the Sri Lankan Government is to take ICT to the rural communities. In 2003 IT and ICT literate were 5% while it was pushed in rapid succession to 25% in 2008. With the government's initiative making 2009 The Year of ICT, the target for 2010 is a smart 50% with the corporation of State and private sector partnership. Both local and foreign investors in IT and IT-related industry are guaranteed with 100% ownership, tax reliefs, security and equal rights, to boost the industry to the next level. Sri Lanka is pushing to facilitate its US $ 2 billion industry with direct investments from South Europe it was said. In the wake of US and UK business to business joint ventures with Sri Lanka enjoying great heights of success, Sri Lankan BPO companies are sited as outstanding case studies in developed countries. The comparative middle-size in market, vision, talent and intelligent human resources, place Sri Lankan SMEs at an advantageous position up against any South Asian counterpart. India, is not a competitor in that its capacity is of a larger category.

Many firsts

Sri Lankan IT companies excel not only in ICT but in telecommunications as well, which is a plus for any business hub. Sri Lanka boasts many firsts in the IT and IT related industry as well as communications industry. Being the first to adopt mobile network, GPRS, Banking and Finance systems, telecom and industry systems as against the whole of South Asia is no small feat.

Sri Lanka was the first to develop airline systems it was revealed. US based UK company assigned Sri Lanka to develop the Nokia mobile system development while another Sri Lankan company with outstanding achievements, Virtusa, developed the software systems for Motorola. It speaks volumes for Sri Lankan mastery in the industry and its dynamic thrust in to global IT and IT-related business arena. First ever Open Source Non-Profit Disaster Management System in the world, Sahana, is a proud Sri Lankan innovation par excellence, it was revealed at a presentation. In 2005 Wikipedia won the supreme award in software development. In 2006 Sri Lanka won it! These examples personify Sri Lanka's stance as the most vibrant prospect for IT and IT-enabled business partnership in South Asia. Kerney Global Services Location Index 2007 positioned Sri Lanka among the top 50 global outsourcing destinations. In the processed food sector in Sri Lanka, agriculture accounted for around 12% of GDP in 2007. Processed food sector recorded a value of US $ 491 million and accounted for 6% of the country's total exports in 2007.