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Virtusa Head of Digital, SVP and General Manager Madu Ratnayake, EDB Director – Export Services Saman Maldeni, Hayleys Industrial Solutions and Hayleys BPO Managing Director Dr. Arul Sivagananathan, hSenid Mobile and Founder Member of Yarl IT Hub B. Sayanthan, ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura and SLASSCOM Vice Chairman Mano Sekaram inaugurate the pioneering IT/BPM Export Forum and Entrepreneurship Workshop event on 5 December at Tilko Hotel in Jaffna
Sri Lanka’s surging IT and BPO exports will hit the critical dollar one billion mark as early as next year, surpassing previous expectations, according to the EDB. 
It also stated that the London Stock Exchange and HSBC have praised the Lankan IT sector, as revealed on 5 December in Jaffna, at the pioneering Northern IT Exports Forum by EDB and ICTA, which was packed with members of the regional IT industry.
“We earned $ 719 m from ICT exports, and our projection for 2014 is $ 820 m. At this rate, we expect to hit the $ 1 billion mark very soon – as early as 2015. We have seen 123% growth in IT sector over the last five years. The London Stock Exchange and HSBC also praised the Lankan IT sector with joy,” said SLEDB Director, Export Services Saman Maldeni on 5 December in Jaffna.
Maldeni was addressing the pioneering IT/BPM Export Forum and Entrepreneurship Workshop at Jaffna’s Tilko City Hotel. The first-ever such forum to be held in the Northern Province, it was attended by 30 ICT operators, 30 would-be young entrepreneurs and start-ups and seven leading Lankan IT BPM CEOs.
Held on the theme ‘Accelerating IT Exports and Fostering Entrepreneurship,’ the one-day, one-of-a-kind session consisted of presentations from seven Lankan IT firms – Virtusa, Stax Inc, WSO2, Calcey, CodeGen, Hayleys BPO and 99X Technology, well as top two public sector agencies , ICTA and EDB. Co-organisers of the Forum were EDB and ICTA.
“Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM sector vision 2022 is $ 5 b revenue, 200,000 direct jobs and 1,000 start-ups. The northern region has been identified as one of the major regions that can harness its strengths and skills to make this dream a reality,” said Maldeni.
He added: “Jaffna region’s stress-free environment, availability of skills and infrastructure such as internet and electricity are key factors in this regard. The National Outsource Association of UK awarded Sri Lanka as the ‘Outsource Destination of 2013,’ which shows the up-and-coming potential of the Sri Lankan IT and business processing sector. The sector’s growth was across all IT/BPM sectors, in domestic and export sectors. The London Stock Exchange and HSBC praise for the sector was due to our high quality software products and services that they received. EDB is not a regulator in Lankan exports but a promoter, supporter, facilitator and mediator operating through a regional network.”
A section of the participants at the pioneering IT/BPM Export Forum and Entrepreneurship Workshop event
Addressing the event, SLASSCOM Vice Chairman Mano Sekaram said: “Just five years ago, such an event was merely a pipe dream. Today, however, peace and prosperity is finally the reality we are living in and events like this are not only a possibility but happening as we speak. We kicked off the Jaffna IT Week two days ago at Vembadi School, where we shared with the school children, who are the future leaders of our country, the career prospects in IT/BPM. This was a successful two days in which we had over 2,000 children and youth taking part. Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM sector has taken less than 15 years to become the country’s fifth largest exporter. In 2013, export revenue grew to an estimated $ 719 m, employing 80,000 with 220 firms engaged in it. We have an ambitious vision; our 2022 vision of the industry is to be a $ 5 billion industry, creating 200,000 jobs. Part of our strategy is to build regional ICT capacity creating second-tier cities and fostering entrepreneurship to ignite start-ups.
“Today, the Western Province contributes over 95% of IT/BPM exports. The creation of second tier cities – Kandy, Galle and Jaffna – will IT empower the regions and would see a paradigm shift from being Colombo-centric to regional-centric IT development. Furthermore, it has been identified that the proliferation of ICT in provincial regions is the fastest way of developing marginalised areas. Let me thank all the my industry friends, industry leaders/CEO, EDB officials, ICTA colleagues and our sponsors for working tirelessly to put together this event and coming all the way to Jaffna.”
ICT Agency Sri Lanka CEO Reshan Devapura addressing the event said: “Previously we expected to break the $ 1 billion mark in IT revenue by 2016 or later, but now, with latest revenue projections coming in, we are expecting to hit $ 1 billion revenue by 2015 with 100,000 IT sector employment in 2015.”
The EDB has conducted many IT related events, conferences, trade exhibitions, both locally and abroad. It also successfully conducted export coaching programs for IT sector personnel.
