ICTA to host IT/ITES breakfast meeting at Commonwealth Business Forum today
Wednesday, 13 November 2013 00:23
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The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) will host a breakfast meeting today (13) at the Commonwealth Business Forum.
The Forum is being held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel Colombo from 12 to 14 November in conjunction with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The premier business event in the Commonwealth, the forum is expected to be attended by over 1,000 delegates including Heads of Government, Ministers, and world’s top business leaders.
Among the Sri Lankan participants in the IT/ITES breakfast meeting today will be, from ICTA, ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura and ICTA Private Sector Program Head, Fayaz Hudah and from SLASSCOM representing the industry itself, SLASSCOM Chairman/Virtusa Sri Lanka Senior Vice President and General Manager Madu Ratnayake, SLASSCOM Vice Chairman/99X Technologies CEO Mano Sekaram and SLASSCOM Director and HSBC Global Service Delivery Managing Director Decca Fan.
Sri Lanka: Niche destination
Giving a glimpse of the expected deliberation at the breakfast meeting this morning, ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura said: “The theme of the meeting will be ‘Sri Lanka: Niche Destination for IT and Business Process Management’. It is significant that this meeting is being held just three weeks after Sri Lanka bagged the prestigious ‘Offshoring Destination of the Year’ (2013) award in London.”
Delving into how Sri Lanka was adjudged as deserving the award a little bit, ICTA CEO said: “The judges at the National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs) who judged Sri Lanka as the offshoring destination of the year compared the how well each of the applicant destinations had performed in the two key criteria namely strategy (40%) and results (60%). Strategy of the destination which was evaluated with 40% weight included sub criteria such as overall strategic vision of the destination, approach to differentiation, target markets and approaches to them, focus on skills development and talent management, approach to building an innovative continual collaborative environment. Sri Lanka’s IT/BPO industry has set its vision to achieve US$ 5 billion in exports by 2022 while generating 200,000 jobs and creating 1,000 start-ups in this process. Various plans are being put into place by various stakeholders in order to achieve these goals, but all as a cohesive and synchronised effort.”
e-Development agenda
Commenting on the securing of the award as the best offshoring destination in the world, ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura said: “This is yet another fruition of implementing the e-Development agenda of the Government. The award is a great recognition and achievement for the Sri Lankan IT/BPO industry whose workforce has grown by well over a 100% and export revenues have grown almost by 200% in the last five years. Today’s breakfast meeting will be an ideal opportunity to further corroborate Sri Lanka as the niche destination for IT/BPO management.”
As the apex Government body for ICT policy direction and industry development in the country, ICTA will promote the Sri Lankan IT/ITES Industry at this session. Sri Lanka is a trend setter in the South Asian region with many firsts reported in terms of technology adoption and superior products and services offered to the global market. There is heavy investment by industry and Government on technology as the country is keen to accelerate economic growth.
ICTA will present the country’s most recent developments and the opportunities for companies to do business in Sri Lanka. It will encourage the use Sri Lanka as a base to venture into emerging markets in the South Asian region. It will also to tap into the high quality skills and talent available.
