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Orion City CEO Jeevan Gnanam
Sri Lanka’s largest IT park, Orion City, has confirmed that its next building ‘Orion Tower’ – an investment of over $ 400 million – will be ready for operation by the first quarter of next year.
“Our next building ‘Orion Tower’ will be completed by this December and it will be ready for occupation by March next year. This will add 650,000 square feet in addition to the current one million square feet we have at present,” Orion City CEO Jeevan Gnanam told the Daily FT.
A mix of both local and foreign IT/BPM firms have already shown interest for space in the new building.
It aims to reduce cost for IT companies by providing them with a low-cost, acceptable and high-quality package at one central location.
In addition he said the firm is investing over $25 million to set up a data centre project in Kandy as well as setting up a large-scale incubation space for startup companies.
Gnanam expressed confidence that Sri Lanka could grow IT/BPO sector earnings from $1 billion to $5 billion by 2020, but insisted a mindset change was necessary in order for the country to develop.
“Looking at how India and Philippine industries have grown over the years, Sri Lanka can surely achieve the $5 billion target, but we need a little effort and focus. If we want to become like Singapore, we need to think like them,” he added.
Noting that skilled capacity was a concern for the growth of the industry, he said going forward there might be a need to allow foreign talent to come in.
“Industries including tourism and IT/BPO are absorbing a lot of local talent and I do not think that we have enough graduates to fill in the vacuum in these sectors. Thus, going forward, we may have to allow skilled migration,” he stressed.
It was pointed that with technology evolving at a faster pace, the education curriculum in the country should also be updated accordingly to keep abreast with the rest of the world.
“Technology is moving very quickly. In other parts of the world kids are talking about analytics and robotics. I do not think our guys are there yet. We have to catch up and adopt new skillsets and I am sure we can,” Gnanam said.
