For SL to become a tech hub, digital maturity in all areas of economic activity is key

A webinar hosted by the Daily FT in association with SLID, ICCSL; SLASSCOM and the University of Greenwich UK under the theme ‘Making Sri Lanka a Technology Hub’ in the Indian Ocean highlighted the need for Sri Lanka to advance its technology and digital maturity in all its areas of economic activity to be competitive and to grow global market share. 

Therefore, the panellists noted that Sri Lanka’s technology or digital quotient must be on trajectory to remain on par with those we compete against, like India, Singapore, Dubai, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia or the Philippines. SLID Chairman Faizal Salieh during his introductory remarks opined that technology has to remain in the forefront of the corporate agenda going forward. In that light, this particular webinar and the substance of the discussion would be of much value.

The first of the keynotes was delivered by Youth and Sports, Development Coordination and Monitoring Minister and State Minister of Digital Technology and Enterprise Development Namal Rajapaksa. With relevance to the theme, Rajapaksa drew attention to what was part of the expressed Government policy by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, that 2022 is designated the ‘Year of Technology’ with a view to realizing the goal of a “massive” social revolution, making Sri Lanka’s emerging generation tech savvy and with training in IT skills by way of a reformed education system. 

It is part of the goal that every aspect of life and business in this country as well as agriculture will be brought within the ambit of digitalisation. For this, there will be prudent investment required to leverage on developing trends and in managing IT for the future development of Sri Lanka. 

He also placed due emphasis on e-Governance to overcome the many delays in governmental services, which are not successful in efficiently delivering what is required by the people of this country. The planned ‘technology parks’ which will cater especially to the IT and attendant industries, was underscored as being a vital component in fostering employment as well as expanding on the capacity to play a role in the global market. 

When asked by Nisthar Cassim to comment further on the policy initiatives of Government, he referred to a project that would bring digital accessibility to all the provinces and to all communities, for which there is attention being given with Broadband expansion and the laying of fibre-optic cables in the Gamata Sangnivedanaya scheme. 

It is hoped that after overcoming the infrastructure hurdles that exist, the project would see fruition in 2023 when 4G and fibre-optic capability will be on hand islandwide. Regulatory matters will also be given close attention so that technology companies will feel motivated to invest and set up their business in Sri Lanka. 

Digital Warehousing as a concept is also receiving attention, with definite steps toward increasing capacity in e-Commerce, and the possibility for enabling non-digital industries to reach towards marketing their produce or products on the digital platforms, be it within the country or overseas. 

Rajapaksa was followed by Indian Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Industries and Commerce, and Information Technology of Telangana Rama Rao, who is a Graduate from the University  of Hyderabad. In his political life, he was seen as a mover and shaker, which in time, led to the forming of the State of Telangana. 

He set up the largest start-up incubator, T-Hub. The platform located at Gachibowliis one of Rao’s landmark initiatives for the State’s young talent pool to innovate, incubate and incorporate new ideas for entrepreneurship. Up to 300 start-ups and provides a futuristic workspace for up to 800 people at once. 

His keynote was in the form of a conversation that was conducted with SLID Vice Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody. Rao indicated that the digital revolution was one which the governments of India were determined to be part of, and the groundwork for that leap was created in the 1990s and in time for the new millennium when so much began to happen in this IT field.  

This led to not just BPO/KPO services being set up in India for top corporate entities in the world, but there was cutting edge technological research that was being taken up by the young people of India. This position of strength facilitated the arrival of the five top global players in digital technology to set up their second office away from home and their second largest office for research and development, located in India.

Rao also insisted that despite the claims of ‘machine learning’ and the wonders of AI, Human Capital is still key to economic success, and he sees the need to continue developing such talent, which he names “think force” (as opposed to ‘workforce’). He noted that the COVID-19 issue served as a catalyst in India to push ahead with digitalisation, and the response to the new regime was very quickly adapted to and pursued much faster than seemed possible pre-pandemic.

When asked about why Western business interests choose to set up in India and to invest, he responded by saying that it was largely a business decision on the part of those investors, but they would likely also recognise that India is a very large market, and that could influence them to seek the real potential they have. 

He suggested that Sri Lanka too could develop policies that are built on a similar potential, given its proximity to nations in the region, and such policies would need to be designed to make investors comfortable about setting up and securing access to places outside of the island.

When asked to elaborate on Human Capital development, he said that India has the advantage of a large number of graduates, and they are notably able when it comes to problem solving and handling assignments, but they do lack in presentation skills. The Telangana Academy of Skills and Knowledge (TASK) was set up to address this shortfall in ‘soft skills’.  

This has helped compellingly in having a ‘workplace-ready’ think-force.  Investors on their side will also be persuaded to hire local talent to work for them. He advised Sri Lanka to “create a very attractive package so that an investor would want to invest in your country, which mixes leisure, lifestyle and a talented technologically savvy pool of personnel”, to take forward the enterprise the investor wishes to locate in Sri Lanka.  

He thought that it would be prudent for India and Sri Lanka to partner each other in the drive towards digitalisation, because it will only be beneficial to the whole of the south Asian region to build together. The panel discussion that followed, included:

Axiata Group Executive Vice President/CEO – Telecommunications Business Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya 

University of Greenwhich – UK Professor of Computational Science and Engineering/Director – Partnerships and Internationalisation Prof. Mayur K. Patel

University of Buckingham – UK Dean of Computing, Law and Psychology Prof. Harin Sellahewa

HCL Corporate Vice President and Program Director for New Vistas Srimathi Shivashankar

New Zealand Amazon Web Services (AWS) Head of Territory Dr. Haren Sam (Samarasekera)    

Kiu Global Founder/CEO Steve Landman

ICTA Chairman/Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka Director-General Oshada Senanayake

Huawei Chief Digital Officer/Executive Consultant Michael McDonald

 The first question that was delivered to the entire panel, ‘What is it that Sri Lanka can do to fast-track the way to making it a technology hub and what is it that needs doing right’? had several responses.

Prof. Mayur Patel stated that education has to be taken note of. The system has had a long gestation period, but now it is important to know how the right and appropriate education can be delivered to the people and thus develop the vitally needed talent pool. Such talent is not just in Colombo, but there needs to be a truly inclusive environment in place to bring young people from all parts.  

All this needs to be affordable to all. He also mentioned that SMEs need to be facilitated more to actually contribute, while linking with the technology that is being utilised. Again, underscoring the value in inclusivity. With that, the need to set up Innovation centres around the country, which would not be about job opportunities but rather have the young people think creatively about what they can do and develop, being empowered with digitalisation that is being launched.

Prof. Harin Sellahewa said that the challenge is to keep the technologically-savvy young people in the country. There are opportunities all over the world and most would consider those opportunities overseas as being far more lucrative. He felt the matter needs addressing where quality of life is assured and also for the next generation, so that the talent does not feel that they cannot find fulfilment in their own country but have to leave.

Srimathi Shivashankar added that more than 1,000 engineers who have STEM as their academic background are doing very well with HCL, and all within a relatively short period and notwithstanding the issues with the pandemic, she noted. HCL has set up in Sri Lanka with a view to delivering services to several Fortune 500 companies. With that, and the growth experienced, steady career pathways can be drafted to retain the people. 

“We also train personnel, and such re-skilling is where also we can ensure retention of people,” she said. She recommended more work-integrated higher education to exploit the passion that Lankans do have for picking things up and building on what they observe and imbibe in a ‘knowledge centre’ rather than via the customary learning environment. 

At HCL she has taken on A/Level qualified youngsters and exposed them to skilling programs, and they have turned out to be excellent coders, data- analysts and engineers. “Earn, learn and continue to learn” is a bon mot Srimathi chose to stress. 

She also mentioned that investors are not merely looking for talent, although that is vital, but also Revenue Recognition. There also has to be an assured ROI when they invest because of the inherent capacity they know they can trust, and that it actually resides in Sri Lanka.

Michael McDonald of Huawei said he sees the advantage in securing 4G and 5G technologies that would ‘leapfrog’ technologies and sees that opportunity triumph over relying on fibre-optic lines to enable communities toward digitalisation. Such infrastructure obviously needs investment and the question is who will pay? 

He said that the Telco companies in the field would be very interested in assessing ROI, which then means that policy of Government and clearly defined plans for development need to be clear. Regulatory issues need to be solved and a better comprehension of the ‘spectrum’ issues as the doorway is being opened,  with benefits to the whole economy and not just for Telco firms. 

Dr Steve Landman is based in Vietnam, and he noted that in that country people go abroad and then learn and gain experience, and then they realise that they can and should achieve something to improve the lot for the people of their land, and they come back and contribute. Therefore, Steve wondered if there is the possibility of going beyond the emphasis on what the country itself does within, but can also harness the resources that are to be found overseas and win them back to where they originated.  

He also noted that there are capital issues and these are addressed, in many countries, when the private sector and Government work together. In Vietnam when the former expats return they also bring with them the links and associations they have developed in their time abroad, and investments from those sources have flowed into the country.  

Vietnam has done incredibly well, with five years tax free for start-ups, which speaks very well for excellent policy decisions taken by the State. Also, digitalising the farmers he felt was a very important thing to work on. 

Dr. Haren Samarasekere reiterated the need for infrastructure in digital technologies but also indicated that physical infrastructure is equally important. Products and services that people are developing or have manufactured have to be effectively delivered, and that will require a sound parallel emphasis on the physical infrastructure.  

On another tack, he also spoke about innovation as something that has to have relevance in the real world of providing solutions to problems. That need was requiring some careful planning. Such innovation can be utilised in building brands that transcend national borders, and that is something that also needs to be brought to bear when plotting innovation to solve problems that people encounter everywhere.

Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya suggested that the concept of a Technology Hub needs to be clearly understood in the context of a rapidly developing techno-landscape. Although the term ‘hub’ has usually been seen as a location where there is some physical manifestation of presence, infrastructure-heavy and asset-heavy, the possibility of the virtual environment overrides these limitations, and that is an advantage to smaller countries such as Sri Lanka.  

As much as brands such as Uber and AirBnB do not have infrastructure, they are nevertheless a ‘hub’. Likewise, Sri Lanka can be serving as a hub. Coming to terms with the new megatrends e.g. AI and Blockchain, gives Lanka an opportunity to stem into multiple geographies.  But all this needs policies and friction-free enablement as well as skills.

Oshada Senanayake saw the need for a substantial transformation from a technology perspective to a citizen’s experience perspective. He said that there is already the groundwork laid with the TRC and the ICTA, all committed to driving the agenda and the formulation of policy in tandem with the Ministry. 

Spectrum and 5G is very much in focus and the budget 2022 has provided for going ahead with the matter with the first auction of spectrum being planned in early 2022. With the matter of affordability, Senanayake said that Sri Lanka’s rankings have been very notably good, and are ahead of some other nations in this regard, where broadband is affordable to most. 

He also placed value on human capital building as did several other panellists. Speaking as regulator, he said that the role now requires one to be a Catalyser and Accelerator in the digital transformation. A factor that needs very significant planning is enabling the concept of working from home or in independent spaces. The present platforms have limitations and fresh ones will have to be worked on. 

The moderator Jeevan Gnanam directed another question to Dr. Hans about the nexus between digitalisation and social transformation. Hans replied by saying that affordability comes into the scheme of reckoning, but also vital is the matter of inclusivity. Unless and until there is belief in the idea that every citizen needs to be enabled and trusted with that capacity to function within that emerging sphere, then the needed social transformation will not be achieved 

anytime soon.