Sri Lanka’s Electrical & Electronic Exports Industry

Our industry overview

A non-traditional export sector that could be identified as a relatively new entrant to the Sri Lankan exports industry, the Electrical and Electronic sector has shown steady growth over the years. Globally this industry is considered to be one of the fastest growing sectors. The growth in exports of Sri Lankan Electrical and Electronic products and services no doubt reflects this global trend.

The unique proposition of ‘Design-to-Delivery’ capability that the local industry possesses, rapid growth and advancement of the country’s IT sector, coupled with a multitude of other attractive value additions that Sri Lanka presents, makes the country an ideal sourcing destination for buyers from around the world.

The Electrical & Electronic sector has been identified as a key growth sector within the National Export Strategy, attracting due attention and support from the state. Supporting the country’s economy by contributing millions of dollars annually, this sector empowers the country’s youth in skill enhancement and employment generation.

With a comparatively large talent pool of highly skilled middle tier workers and substantially large numbers of local Engineering Professionals, catering to many world-renowned brands in Automobile, Telecommunication, Consumer Electronics, Industrial Automation and Medical sectors, Sri Lanka’s Electrical and Electronic exports have shown sustained growth over the past two decades.

The current statistics indicate a total of US$1.6 billion as annual export earnings from Sri Lanka’s Electrical & Electronic industry, along with ICT-enabled knowledge and innovation industries. Electrical & Electronics manufacturers and service providers in Sri Lanka, at present operate within the domains of Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS), Electrical and Electronics Component Manufacturing, Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM), and Design Services, coupled with Research & Development, thus offering an end-to-end value offering to global buyers.

‘Design to Delivery Destination’ - ideal position for local exporters

Owing to the inherent uniqueness of the sector, the local exporters of Electrical and Electronic goods and services have the unique opportunity to offer end-to-end solutions to their customers. Sri Lanka possesses a large, resourceful knowledge base amongst the technology centric academia enabling an efficient transition of idea generation, research backed innovations and design capability towards delivering world class products and services, which provides Sri Lanka with a unique competitive edge.

Over 100 Sri Lankan manufacturers and service providers in the Electrical and Electronic industry operate within Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS), Electrical and Electronics Component Manufacturing, Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM), Design Services, and Research & Development domains. The current export product span has enabled the local industry to be sub-segmented into fourteen (14) sub sectors, exporting over thirty (30) different product categories.

Find more information

Unique propositions in the Sri Lankan Electrical and Electronics exports industry

The products and services offered by the Sri Lankan Electrical and Electronics export industry are of global standards. In addition, buyers are presented with a multitude of value additions that are unique and incomparable to other countries in the region that export similar products and services. Therefore, Sri Lankan exporters in the Electrical and Electronic sector are able to differentiate their products or services as a comprehensive value offering to customers, which is a ‘hard-find’ in other countries. Amongst many such value additions, the few listed below are extremely critical to attract global markets.

• Talented skilled labour
  Sri Lankan exporters are immensely benefited by the efficiencies, knowledge, quality of work, coupled with strong work ethics exhibited by the talented and trained electrical and electronics engineering professionals within the industry. The country’s reputed university system continues to produce highly competent professionals that enhance product and service provision. Being considered a most lucrative industry for employment, the sector attracts a talented and young cohort of considerable numbers every year.
• Reputation for quality
  The unblemished reputation the country holds for high quality goods and services that are exported, along with the standards and accreditations the industry players maintain, have become hallmarks of the Sri Lankan Electrical and Electronics exports sector.
• Uncompromised service
  The local industry is renowned for its dependability, and flexibility in accommodating challenging delivery and service levels that are required by global buyers. Catering to an established small-medium global market niche and many large markets, the hospitality, the customer service, untarnished delivery records, and assurance of customer satisfaction our industry offers are unparalleled. These attributes of the Electrical and Electronic export industry in Sri Lanka attract buyers from various global markets to the country.
• Logistical efficiency and enablers
  Thanks to the uniquely strategic location in the main sea routes and accessibility thus created, Sri Lanka is known as a logistics hub in international trade, which provides a significant advantage to the local exporters. Many bilateral and multilateral trade free agreements, duty and tax concessions offered by the state, act as enablers that the local exporters use as key competitive differentiators.

More on value additions that could be used as competitive differentiators