The ICT/BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry posted revenues of US$ 310 million in 2010/2011 becoming Sri Lanka’s 6th largest export earner.
Exports from this sector rose by 47% from US$ 210 million in 2009/2010 and are set to reach $1 billion by 2015 if this momentum is continued in the coming years, said Export Development Board, (EDB) Chairman Janaka Ratnayake at a press conference in Colombo this week.
He expressed the belief that the industry will grow by a compound rate of 25% in the next three years.
With the war ending, this industry is poised to be among the top export earners during the next five years, Mr. Ratnayake said, adding that it has the potential of creating more 50,000 direct jobs from the present 15,000. The value addition of service experts from the IT/BPO industry is a near 100 %. The industry is based on knowledge workers and creates high paying jobs for educated youth. Each job in IT/BPO industry creates 3-4 other indirect jobs in the economy, he told Business Times, on the sidelines of the briefing.
This large employment multiplier effect exerts significant economic impact by way of employment creation. Therefore the IT/BPO industry has significant potential to drive regional development as the industry picks up and moves to regional centres. The industry also has no negative impact on the environment, he added.
Large companies have contributed to over 70% of the export revenue with medium and small companies making up the balance.
SLASSCOM (Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies) Secretary General Mano Sekaram who is also the chairman of the EDB's advisory committee for the ICT and BPO sectors pointed out that the key finding of the survey was that 78% of the companies are quality certified by international standard agencies.
He noted that Sri Lanka will be able to attract major IT companies in the world to set up their companies in the island providing many it business opportunities for Sri Lanka.
The PwC survey report said the IT export industry earned $250 million while BPOs earned $60 million in 2010-11, up from $161 million and $48 million, respectively in 2010/2009.
The second part of the survey on the ITES sector (Information Technology Enabled Services) which mainly constitutes BPO’s and KPO’s showed less significant growth when compared to the IT sector, recording export revenue of $60.6 million against $48.8 million earlier. |
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