Sri Lanka working towards positioning country as a key destination for IT/BPM services
Sri Lankan authorities have outlined plans to expand the country’s IT/BPM industry and encourage investments into the sector at the recently concluded Sri Lanka Investment Forum 2021.
Secretary to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Technology, Jayantha de Silva who initiated the Government’s plans to build five Techno Parks in the coming years to encourage investments into the IT/BPM industry has reportedly stated that under the Government’s plan for technology diffusion, they will be going into health, education, tourism and many other areas.
The panel of global speakers has reportedly cited their testimonies on how Sri Lanka has evolved greatly over the last decade and is rich in capability development, investment infrastructure and skilled talent.
“The exposure the event gave to Sri Lanka as a unique country to invest in was immense,” Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) Chairman Channa Manoharan has said.
Global Sourcing Association CEO and Global Technology and Business Services Council Chairperson Kerry Hallard has been quoted as saying how encouraging it was to have partners like SLASSCOM working towards initiating best practices and standards for the future of the global technology and business services industry.
HCL Technologies Corporate Vice President Srimathi Shivashankar has reportedly stated that they were well educated and have a high level of digital literacy when compared to regional peers, with no disparity in terms of gender and other factors.
According to reports, Axiata Group CFO Vivek Sood, highlighting how the country’s IT/BPM sector is highly sophisticated and is strongly supported by the Government noted, “In 2018, when Axiata evaluated regional destinations to locate the nucleus of our software strategy, Sri Lanka stood out in terms of excellence in innovation capacity, demonstrated by Dialog. This is a testament to the quality of the country’s software development service industry.”
London Stock Exchange (LSE) Group Global Head of Corporate Services Dee Liyanwela has been quoted in the local media as saying that Sri Lanka is a strategic global hub for the LSE Group, explaining that the company has 1,800 colleagues working in Sri Lanka with plans to increase this further. “Throughout our presence in Sri Lanka, we benefited from technology, expertise and access to world-class talent,” he has stated.
IFS CEO Darren Roos has also said that Sri Lanka is a key contributor to IFS’s growth strategy and has proven itself as an enabler of competitive advantage, on top of its ability to offer scalability and accelerated growth potential.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s ongoing development programme and the improving ease of doing business environment have helped the country present itself as an emerging business destination in the South Asian region. Given this level of development, there has been expansions in almost all key economic sectors. However, there has been a growth momentum recorded in the fields of ICT and digital infrastructure development. With Sri Lanka fast becoming a business hub in the South Asian region given it’s geographical positioning in the Indian ocean and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country, foreign businesses/investors could explore business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20210628/Z_5 |