TECHNOLOGY

Sri Lanka a technology and knowledge hub soon - Deputy Finance Minister

by Gamini Warushamana

Sri Lanka is very optimistic of foreign investments and business opportunities in IT/BPO, telecommunication, science and technology sectors and will become a technology and knowledge economy hub in the region, Deputy Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama said.

Dr Amunugama addresses the conference pic:Sumanachandra Ariyawansa

He was addressing the 24th CACCI conference and Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2010 in Colombo last week.

“We have literate people and we have British type education system started during the colonial era.”

Even before independence Sri Lanka invested huge amount of money on education. Sri Lanka is the only country in the region that provides free education from kindergarten to post-graduate level.

However, with all these positive aspects of our education system we have doubts on whether we use this advantage effectively in the economic development of the country.

Of course, in some areas we have great advantage. For instance recently at a summit held in Japan it was revealed that the middle management level workforce in Sri Lanka is the best in the region. We have the most educated apparel industry workers, he said.

However, there are a lot of issues in the education system and we have recognised them as well.

Now we want to transform the system to meet today’s labour market demand and the needs of the modern economy.

We strongly believe that developing countries need technology and should invest on technology more than developed countries for a leap forward in development.

Today, Asia has become the engine of growth in the global economy.

This was highlighted at the IMF and World Bank meetings I attended during the past few years and it was noted that though US and European economies are down, China, India and South East Asian economies are performing well during the global economic crisis.

Dr Amunugama said that in technological advancement too Asia has come up with a lot of exciting innovations.

India has produced a Nano car at $ 1,000 cost and a computer at $ 100 cost.

We have also realised the advantage of the English language for the advancement of technology. We have attempted to make English a compulsory subject. A lot of experiments are taking place and all issues are considered in this respect.

We were one of the best English speaking countries in the world and we lost that position during the last 50 years.

Today we want to regain our prime position.

We believe that technology will be important for a leap forward in development for a small country like Sri Lanka. All our investments on IT and communication technologies are in line with this objective. IT has been introduced to the school curricular.

We have planned for US$ 1 billion export income from the IT BPO sector and it is not a big task, when we look at Bangalore and Hydrabad. Earlier issues such as power and communication infrastructure were a barrier for the growth of the IT BPO industry.

They are no longer issues as the government has invested heavily on these sectors. Sri Lanka is becoming a technologically oriented society.

Over 60% of households have electricity, supply, 14 million out of the 20 million population have telephones. Telephone penetration will be increased to 80-90% in the next few years, he said.

SLASSCOM, AAT to promote BPO industry

Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) partners with the 9 Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AAT) to jointly drive capacity building in Accounting and Finance to cater to the rapidly growing BPO industry in Sri Lanka.

From left: Project Officer SLASSCOM -David Charles, Director and Treasurer SLASSCOM-, Chief Executive Officer-Hello Corp - Omar Fatharally, General Secretary SLASSCOM - Madu Ratnayake, Vice President and General Manager Virtusa, President AAT Sri Lanka - T. Dharmarajah , Chief Executive Officer AAT Sri Lanka - Tishanga Kumarasinghe and Director Computer Training AAT Sri Lanka - Ms. Siyamala Sumanthiran.

AAT Sri Lanka was established in 1987, on the initiative of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka with the primary objective of producing Accounting Technicians for the private and public sector. During this period AAT Sri Lanka has acquired a reputation for producing quality accounting technicians to the nation.

AAT Sri Lanka has also gained international recognition and has obtained associate membership of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA).

The main purpose of signing the mutual agreement is to collaborate in promoting Sri Lanka as a global sourcing destination for Finance and Accounting BPOs and to increase the number of qualified Accounting and Finance professionals in the country.

President AAT Sri Lanka T. Dharmarajah said the purpose of this MoU is to develop academic and educational co-operation and to promote mutual understanding between the two organisations to jointly promote Accounting, BPO and IT as a preferred career choice among the student population and the business community to increase the number of qualified accounting professionals suitable to serve BPO organisations.

Sri Lanka is fast emerging as a niche Center of Excellence (CoE) for Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO). Recent global services magazine survey ranks Sri Lanka among the top 20 centers of excellence for FAO in the world.

Leading global companies such as WNS, Amba Research, Quattro and HSBC have set up their FAO centers in Sri Lanka to take advantage of the growing pool of highly qualified accounting professionals in Sri Lanka.

The Global finance and accounting BPO industry is growing rapidly.

With our niche focus on FAO and already established global recognition as a best emerging destination for FAO, we are well positioned to take part in this global market opportunity to create wealth and jobs in Sri Lanka.

We are delighted to partner with AAT, who has pioneered large scale capacity building, to take the industry forward.” said General Secretary SLASSCOM, Madu Ratnayake

Managing Director, Sampath Bank G.L.H. Premaratne lights the oil lamp to open the Ingiriya branch. DGM Information Technology Vimal Indrasoma and Manager Dulip Jayaratne, Ingiriya branch are also in the picture.

Sampath Bank in Ingiriya

The 140th Sampath Bank branch was opened at, Panadura Road, Ingiriya, last week bringing new age banking to the people in Ingiriya and surrounding areas, with real-time transactions enabled through the electronically linked branch network around the island, 24 hour on-line banking services and automated facilities.

Savings schemes that offer high interest rates for juniors, seniors, professionals; loan facilities with low interest rates and flexible repayment plans; leases that offer convenience and flexibility, credit and debit card facilities with a host of benefits are just some of the products and services offered by Sampath Bank.

PCH moves into IDC/BPO operations

PC House Limited’s new subsidiary, Proficinity Limited with an initial investment of US $ 3 million provides employment to 250.

The company will cater to the outsourcing requirements of local and foreign markets. Proficinity Limited is planning to move into Internet Data Centre (IDC) operations with the expectation of providing hosted and managed data services to corporate and public sectors. Proficinity intends to operate the outsourcing business as well as the IDC operations maintaining a high level of quality.

Special emphasis will be made with regard to customer orientation and maintenance of confidentiality of the information processed.

PCH, having identified the potential for BPO services in Sri Lanka has already commenced its operations by providing data conversion and digitising services to some of the public sector institutions.

PCH plans to invest in setting up a fully fledged 200 seat BPO operation in order to provide data entry services, data conversion services, book keeping and accounting services.

Proficinity Limited will initially position itself to serve the demand for outsourced services by domestic corporates and will enter the export BPO market subsequently.

Maintaining an in-house data centre can be costly and thus it may be viable from a financial aspect to outsource to a dedicated centre where data security can be guaranteed.

PCH aims to invest in a state-of-the-art IDC, to provide secure hosting and managed service.