The IT industry needs 100,000 to 150,000 workforce and is expected to reach US $ one billion in the next two to three years. This growth will provide a significant boost to the Sri Lankan economy, Information and Communication Technology Agency Sri Lanka, Chief Operating Officer Reshan Dewapura said. The ICT industry has progressed significantly in the past five years. Over 40,000 jobs have been created and the size of the industry has grown to reach US $ 275 million.
The IT/BPO industry is the fifth largest foreign exchange revenue earner in the country. Sri Lanka is ranked 16th in the BPO Location Attractive Index with expectations to go up further in the near future, Mr. Dewapura stated.
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| ICTA Chief Operating Officer Reshan Dewapura |
Sri Lanka has the capability and capacity to have a greatly developed ICT industry by addressing the lack of a resource pool in the field. This area has been prioritised and is being addressed at present to expand skill levels and to scale up.
It is an important step also to have mainstreamed ICT into the school curriculum.
The Government has recognised ICT as a key enabler and the ICT industry as a key growth industry. The ICT outreach has been widened by the 640 Nenasala outlets (Wisdom outlets) set up island-wide especially in rural areas. This goes a long way in serving the people in these areas, the ICTA COO pointed out.
There is an improvement in youth accessing ICT and the initial drawback to promote this among people due to the language barrier has now been addressed with the introduction of local language accessibility in computers.
The Government is committed to increase the IT literacy rate up to at least 50 percent within the next few years. Many awareness programmes to promote the ICT industry as a career path are being carried out. The ICT industry offers wider and varied professional career opportunities with good prospects.
Remarkable progress has also been made in the projects under the Re-Engineering Government programme.
The phase one of the Lanka Government Network project which connects all provinces, districts and divisional secretariets is completed with plans to complete the phase two this year. The digitalisation of birth, marriage and death certificates has made public life easy. The Lanka Gate - a set of infrastructures that has a platform to host government services and a portal to present those services to the public - is in the process of being implemented and a number of Government services are expected to be provided.
The e-transaction service where online motor vehicle revenue licences could be obtained is now a fully available facility.
One of the key components of the e- Sri Lanka programme is human resource development. In this area capacity building has been carried out and 15,000 Government officers have been trained.
Steps have been taken to build key components of ICT to promote Sri Lanka as a knowledge hub in the region.
Plans are under way to position the country as a skilled and professional BPO service provider facilitating a niche hub status in financial and legal services, software and IT outsourcing, Mr. Dewapura affirmed. |
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