IT industry targets US $ 1 b revenue by 2016

by Nilma DOLE

With the end of terrorism and active investments with Government reforms, the information technology industry will exceed its ambitious target of generating more than one billion US dollars in revenue by 2016, said Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunge at ICTA's (Information, Communication and Technology Association Sri Lanka) 'Regional Expert Consultation on Connecting Asia Pacific's Digital Society for Building Resilience' held recently.

He said Sri Lanka is well on its way to achieving its IT targets and recently launched 22 e-Government services to ensure that ICT is enabled at government-management level. Several distinguished international participants from Korea, Nepal, Thailand, South Africa and Malaysia came together on a single platform to share their knowledge on various topics. They highlighted regional broadband connectivity, ICT innovation, resilience building and enabling a national and international environment for paperless trade, and promoting digital inclusion and cross-border legal connectivity.

According to research carried out by A.T. Kearney, the number of Sri Lankans in IT or BPO has almost doubled from 34,000 to 63,000 in 2011. Sri Lanka is largely unrecognised by most as a centre for delivering IT, BPO and other knowledge services. However, the island offers a unique mix of extremely low costs, which is among the lowest anywhere, combined with a highly educated English-speaking population with sophisticated, technical skills and a business environment and infrastructure that is superior to those in most low-cost countries.

About 50 percent of students earning higher education degrees are trained in technical and business disciplines and today, Sri Lanka has already carved out a niche in the section thanks to a strong talent base.

Contrary to the earlier negative image, Sri Lanka is now among the safest lowest-risk emerging markets both in terms of personal safety and business security.

The country instituted economic reforms in the 1970s and has followed pro-business and pro-investment policies ever since. Today, more than 300 IT and BPO companies have established operations in Sri Lanka, more than 600,000 people hold IT or BPO jobs and the sector generates more than US $ 400 million in exports.

Despite being small in size, Sri Lanka has tapped into a niche higher-volume product market to make full use of its knowledge services. It is uniquely positioned to compete in knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) because of its professionals.

A key finding of the survey suggested that Sri Lankans' friendliness, creativity and adaptability to different cultures and environments result in easy integration into foreign operating units.

Sri Lanka also aims to achieve 75 percent IT literacy levels by 2015 and is training 50,000 teachers to meet this target.

Sri Lanka's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has significantly grown in spite of the worldwide economic recession and moreover, the tourism industry has made a major comeback after the dawn of peace in 2009.

It was also noted that Sri Lanka is uniquely positioned to offer companies highly skilled talent and a strong business environment at relatively low costs which will be to Sri Lanka's advantage.