‘Sri Lanka ICT exports $ 5 b by 2020’: EDB

Monday, 23 November 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Lankan ICT in marathon Colombo B2B with A-Pac firms
‘Full support by EDB and the Government’: Malwatte
16 Asia Pacific countries meeting Lankan ICT in Colombo
Lankan ICT exports to hit $ 1 b a year earlier than projected

asfsf EDB Chairperson and CEO Indira Malwatte addresses APICTA – 2015 (Asia Pacific ICT 2015) Business Forum event at Cinnamon Lake Hotel on 20 November. From left: EDB Export Services Director Saman Maldeni and APICTA 2015 Co-Chairman Ruwan Amarasekera

Invigorated by Sri Lanka’s ICT exports surge, the country’s apex export facilitator EDB announced a new ICT/BPO exports target and a mere few hours’ B2B sessions between Lankan and Asia-Pacific ICT firms facilitated by EDB reported a whopping marathon of one-to-one business meet jamboree-right here in Colombo. “Let us try to forge ahead with solid business to business meetings today that will materialise to effective commercial activity. That is how all of us in our region can help each other,” stressed EDB Chairperson and CEO Indira Malwatte on 20 November.

Chairperson Malwatte was addressing APICTA – 2015 (Asia Pacific ICT 2015) ICT B2B Forum at Cinnamon Lake Hotel, facilitated by EDB. Held in parallel to the prestigious APICTA Awards Ceremony hosted by Sri Lanka for the first time, the Export Development Board collaborated with the Federation of Information Technology Sri Lanka (FITIS), BCS, Charted Institute for IT Sri Lanka Section (BCSSL), in organising the APICTA Business Forum which featured one-to-one business meetings between Sri Lanka ICT exporters and visiting overseas business delegates for Colombo APICTA Awards event.

At this Forum session, many top Lankan ICT/BPO firms held more than 150 one-to-one B2B meetings with delegates from 16 participating countries in Asia and Pacific on 20 November. Among the participating countries were no less than Australia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Thailand.

“Let us try to forge ahead with five to ten solid business to business meetings today that will materialise to some commercial activity,” said EDB Chairperson Malwatte, and added: “That is how all of us in our region can help each other. EDB is a key facilitator in making Lanka’s ICT exports to be $ 5 billion by 2020. This is a new sector for Sri Lanka and we have an educated pool of people with higher academic and literacy rates.

Even President Maithripala Sirisena declared an IT week on 17 November. This shows the commitment of our government towards knowledge economy. Therefore I call you to take advantage of the opportunities to join with Lankan ICT sector today which is facilitated by EDB and I assure you EDB’s fullest support.”

Sri Lanka is emerging to be a top outsourcing destination for ICT related businesses and as a knowledge centre. Last year Lankan ICT related exports topped $ 790 million and the latest projections are the country will achieve $ 1 billion target this year itself-a whole year before the originally projected timeline.