The value of Sri Lanka's current IT exports are in the range of US$ 375 million to US$ 400 million, according to Reshan Dewapura, the Chief Executive of the country's Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA).
Speaking at the launch of the National ICT Workforce Survey 2010, Mr. Dewapura also revealed that a specific survey by the country's Export Development Board was currently being done in which more specific data would be available.
Mr. Dewapura also suggested that, in today's terms (June 2011), Sri Lanka had a 60,000 IT workforce, which encompassed both IT and non IT sector jobs. This was double the IT workforce in 2006. He also forecasted 10,000 to 12,000 more jobs would be added early based on the current growth scenario, but did not discount that this number could be even higher.
Mr. Dewapura also noted that it was due to the success of the e-Sri Lanka (e-government) initiative that the country's global ranking in the World Economic Forum's Network Readiness Index (NRI) had dropped to a more investor friendly 48 compared to its previous high of 72, the biggest increase by any country over the last five years. He also revealed that Sri Lanka was in the process of getting a country benchmark done by a global technology analyst, but that the associated cost was proving to be high. Technology analyst Gartner was suggested as being one of the firms being looked into by Sri Lanka for this benchmark. |
E-mail
