ICTA hosts IT and ITES meeting at CBF

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) hosted a Breakfast Meeting at the Commonwealth Business Forum at the Cinnamon Grand last week.

The forum, the premier business event in the Commonwealth, was attended by over a thousand delegates including Heads of Government, Ministers, and the world's top business leaders.

Among the Sri Lankan participants in the IT and ITES breakfast meeting were ICTA, CEO Reshan Dewapura and ICTA, Private Sector Program Head, Fayaz Hudah and SLASSCOM Chairman and Virtusa Sri Lanka, Senior Vice President and General Manager Madu Ratnayake, SLASSCOM, Vice Chairman and 99X Technologies, CEO Mano Sekaram and SLASSCOM, Director and HSBC, Global Service Delivery, Managing Director Decca Fan.

ICTA, CEO Reshan Dewapura said, "The theme of the meeting was 'Sri Lanka: Niche Destination for IT and Business Process Management'. It is significant that this meeting was held just three weeks after Sri Lanka bagged the 'Off-shoring Destination of the Year' (2013) award in London".

"The judges at the National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs) who judged Sri Lanka as the off-shoring destination of the year compared how well each of the applicant destinations had performed in the two key criteria, strategy (40%) and results (60%)," he said.

"Sri Lanka's IT and BPO industry has set its vision to achieve US $ 5 billion in exports by 2022 while generating 200,000 jobs and creating 1,000 start ups in this process. Plans are being put into place by various stakeholders to achieve these goals, through a cohesive and synchronised effort," Dewapura said.

"This is yet another fruition of implementing the e-Development agenda of the Government. The Sri Lankan IT and BPO workforce has grown by over 100% and export revenue has grown almost by 200% in the past five years," he said.

"ICTA presented the country's most recent developments and the opportunities for companies to do business. It also encouraged the use of Sri Lanka as a base to venture into emerging markets in the South Asian region and tap into the skills and talent," an ICTA spokesman said.