Global technology giant Cisco renews commitment to rebounding Sri Lanka
Daily FT: Witnessing rebound in Sri Lanka, the global technology giant Cisco is renewing its commitment to serve the growing customer base.
“Sri Lanka is now very much on the rebound. There’s a sense of optimism and confidence in the country. It is great to be here and reinstate our commitment to Sri Lanka,” Cisco India and SAARC President Daisy Chittilapilly told the Daily FT in an interview during her recent and first post-COVID visit to Colombo.
She said despite challenging times Cisco’s relationship with Sri Lanka has been longstanding.
“Cisco has been in Sri Lanka for 23 years and counting. We have been with Sri Lanka through thick and thin. We are here to stay as well for the next phase of growth and development and progress in Sri Lanka,” she said.
According to her, the global giant cherishes its partners and enjoys serving its customers. The partners manage a very large ecosystem of resellers in Sri Lanka for Cisco, the worldwide technology leader in networking hardware, software, telecommunications equipment and other high-technology services and products.
Its purpose is to power an inclusive future for all by helping customers reimagine their applications, power hybrid work, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals.
Daisy noted that technology is always evolving and there are always newer things that Cisco is innovating. “Everybody knows we are the people who powered the internet. But today we are known equally for being leaders inside the security in the emerging world of observability and automation. There is a lot of AI capabilities in our tech,” Daisy added.
She described Sri Lanka as an important market for Cisco. “All of the transitions we see in the tech world anywhere are similar in Sri Lanka too. There’s no gap between the adoption of technology in Sri Lanka versus anywhere else in the world,” she said.
“We don’t differentiate between Sri Lanka and other markets. But then I said there is no gap. Anything that we talk to, anything we talk to any customer in any part of the world, we bring to the India and South region as well. There is no gap in the propensity to explore or consume the technology that we make. We do not have a differentiated technology strategy depending on the market. So, everything Cisco makes is available in Sri Lanka. I don’t see a difference between what we sell in the West and what we sell in India and South Asia,” Daisy emphasised.
She noted that the writing is on the wall in terms of ambitions Sri Lanka has put out. “To be competitive and succeed in the new world, it has to be a digital world. It has to be a digital nation and digital country with a digital literate citizenry and Sri Lanka is very well poised to be on the path to becoming a knowledge country, a knowledge economy. The transition from knowledge economy to digital economy is also well underway,” said Daisy, who has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry, including 19 years of leadership experience at Cisco.
“The digitalisation of Sri Lanka will really determine the size of the tech market more than anything else. Demographics certainly can become a dividend in that conversation, but it is not the only thing which contributes to success in the digital world,” she pointed out.
According to Daisy Sri Lanka has a young population that is very digitally savvy. Mobile penetration in Sri Lanka is one of the largest, as a percentage of population. So, high familiarity with technology is the first indicator of a nation poised to be a good place to go for digital talent and digital literacy.
“The spread of telecom and access to the internet, which is usually a harbinger of people who are very comfortable being in the tech space. The rest is about building skills and finding out what can be the space where Sri Lanka can stand for something,” she said.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s economy has shown great resilience to external and internal challenges through the years and is once again on a growth path after facing the challenges posed by the global pandemic and the economic crisis that followed. The ongoing economic activities and Sri Lanka’s target of becoming a regional hub have opened up a host of business/investment opportunities in the ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors. The Sri Lankan government’s move to transform the country into an e-economy with ongoing projects as well as some in the pipeline to digitalise the country’s state administrative sector is indicative of the growing business/investment opportunities in the ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors in the country. The growth and profits recorded by local businesses engaged in the ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors are indicative of the growing business potential in these sectors. With the country on an overall growth path while becoming an emerging business destination in the South Asian region and an increase in the skilled labour force, foreign businesses/investors could confidently explore the growth and business potential in Sri Lanka’s ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors.