Sri Lanka's Apex Organisation for Export Promotion
In a major renewal of its economic cooperation with Sri Lanka, World’s ICT innovation leader has announced that it is ready to form a joint Business Council with Sri Lanka for the first time, as revealed on dEC.04-and Lankan ICT start-ups have received a breakthrough invitation to showcase themselves at one of world’s top-tier start-up events in 2015.
“It is time that we establish a Finland-Sri Lanka Business Council for B2B activities. Such a mechanism will kick-start the process. We are also looking forward to see SME level Sri Lankan ICT BPM and business start-ups at the 2015 ‘Slush’ event in Helsinki” said an upbeat Matti Anttonen, Finnish Deputy Minister of External Economic Relations & Finnish Under-Secretary of State on dEC.04 in Colombo.
Sri Lanka’s surging IT and BPO exports would hit the critical dollar one billion mark as early as next year, surpassing previous expectations! And London Stock Exchange and HSBC have praised the Lankan IT sector ‘with joy’, as revealed on 05 December in Jaffna. And the pioneering Northern IT Exports forum by EDB & ICTA was packed with enthusiastic regional IT industry.
“We earned $719 Mn from ICT exports, and our projection for 2014 is $820 Mn. At this rate, we expect to hit dollar one billion mark very soon-as early as 2015. We have seen 123% growth in IT sector over the last five years. London Stock Exchange and HSBC also praised the Lankan IT sector with joy” said Saman Maldeni (Director, Export Services of SLEDB) on 05 December in Jaffna.
Sri Lanka’s apex export facilitator EDB’s first IT event in Jaffna has been boosted by an influx of Jaffna based operators and would be ICT entrepreneurs on 4 December and the event also packs in-depth industry presentations from no less than seven top Lankan IT firms.
“Almost 20 SME IT operators in Jaffna region have registered for 5 December’s IT/BPM Export Forum in Jaffna. Another 30 prospective IT entrepreneurs from Jaffna who are looking to set-up, too have joined making it a total of 50 players,” said SLASSCOM Vice Chairman Mano Sekaram on 4 December in Colombo.
The Export Development Board of Sri Lanka led a trade delegation from Sri Lanka to participate at the International Chamber of Commerce Conference on Global Economic Recovery which was held in Dhaka on 25-26th October 2014.
On the sidelines of the Conference, nine Sri Lankan companies included in the delegation participated in two Business Match-Making sessions with the members of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) at two events on 27th October. The participating companies represented printed packaging products, garment and textile accessories, IT and education, food processing and electric cable sectors. The delegation also met with the senior officials of the Board of Investment of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
The National IT/BPM Chamber, Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM), in an effort to promote inclusive growth and reconciliation, will stage the Jaffna IT Week from 3-6 December at a number of venues across the region.
The Jaffna IT Week will comprise the Future Careers Program on 3 and 4 December at the Vembadi Girls’ High School, an IT/BPM Export Forum staged at the Tilko City Hotel on 5 December and the Jaffna IT Conference, which will be held at the Kailasapathy Auditorium of the University of Jaffna on 6 December
Six Sri Lankan ICT companies, Brandix I3 Ltd., hSenid Software International, Microimage Ltd., Negete Ltd., Pyxle Ltd. and AP Lanka Ltd. are exhibiting their software products and services at ‘GITEX Technology Week’ from 12 to 16 October at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) organised the country pavilion in coordination with the Sri Lanka Consulate General in Dubai.
As Sri Lanka’s IT exports topped $ 719 m, a business journalist from world’s fourth largest selling newspaper was taken by surprise by the country’s inroads into one of the most demanding niche software markets in the world. “I am really surprised by your ability in our platforms. This is news!” exclaimed Yuichi Kiriyama, business journalist of Japanese language Mainichi Shimbun, the world’s fourth largest selling newspaper.
Yuichi was addressing a special gathering of the software interest group for the Japanese market held on 5 September in Colombo facilitated by the EDB.
Local IT and business process management (BPM) exports have grown “significantly” from US$213 million in 2007 to an estimated $720 million in 2013 and a projected $850 million in 2014; according to the recently issued “Sri Lankan IT-BPM Industry Review 2014″ report, which was commissioned by private sector body SLASSCOM, and prepared by PriceWaterhouseCoopers Sri Lanka.
Further, the report also added that “(total) employment grew from 33,700 in 2007 to an estimated 75,100 employees in 2013, and the number of companies in the industry grew from 170 in 2007 to over 220 in 2013″. At the same time, the report also projects employment for 2014 as reaching 82,850.
SLASSCOM says untapped potential lies outside Fortune 500 firms Sri Lanka has witnessed a brisk growth in export revenue in the field of Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT/BPM) with revenue for 2013 estimated to have increased to US$ 720 million from US$ 605 million in 2012 and projected to rise to US $850 million by end this year. According to a recent industry report by the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM), the primary IT/BPO business association in Sri Lanka, the industry has shown an impressive revenue growth trend of about 238% since year 2007 whilst total employment grew from 33,700 in 2007 to an estimated 75,100 employees in 2013, and the number of companies in the industry grew from 170 in 2007 to over 220 in 2013.
Sri Lanka is leveraging ICT exports to achieve its $20 B goal of 2020. And a new support initiative by the Netherlands is set to elevate Lankan software exporters to latest tech developments. “The government is highly focused on ICT sector as a forex earner and export driver. We cannot ignore ICT if we are to achieve any progress” said Bandula Egodage (Chairman/CEO of EDB) on 19 June in Colombo.
Chairman Egodage was addressing the two day-hands on interactive session “Website Enhancement and Online Marketing ITO/BPO” organised by the EDB for Sri Lankan software manufacturing and export firms. The first ever such hands-on initiative moved by EDB was facilitated by Netherlands’ CBI (Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries)-an agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Joost vander Kooij and Onno Roukens, the two CBI professional consultants who specially arrived from the Netherlands to train the companies in the session helped the more than 25 Lankan participants of the session on a one-to-one basis. Among the ICT giants taking part were John Keells Computer Services, hSenid Business Solutions, 99X Technologies, Cyber Concepts, SewEasy, E-Nowave, InfoMate, Calcey Technologies, Pyxle, Allion Technologies, Dinota Information Technologies, Sanje, i-Context Content Convergence, Four Corners, Akio Information Technologies, Data Management Systems, Lanka Communication Services, E Marketing Eye, and Perfect Business Solution Services.
As the consumer end of digital convergence in the country continued to develop, Sri Lanka has officially begun assessing the promise of the "next big thing" in digital frontier-and Sri Lanka's first Advanced Electronics Design Centre is now on the cards. "This is the first ever initiative for Sri Lanka's ICT sector on the emerging "Internet of Things". There is no doubt that this advanced and novel concept will be useful for everyone" said Sujatha Weerakoone Director General-EDBrecently. Weerakoone was addressing the first ever IoT session held in Sri Lanka, organized by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) .
