Sri Lanka’s digital decade: The role Port City Colombo must play

“Opportunities do not wait. If you hesitate, someone else will seize them.” — Lee Kuan Yew

When policymakers, investors and industry leaders discuss Sri Lanka’s economic transformation, the conversation almost always arrives at the same conclusion. The gap between where the country is and where it needs to be is real, but the ingredients to close it are already present.

That observation is correct. But it misses something important.

Ingredients alone do not build a competitive economy. What converts potential into performance is a platform, a concentrated environment where the right regulatory conditions, physical infrastructure, and commercial frameworks exist together, at a standard that global enterprises demand.

Without such an assurance, multinational companies are unlikely to commit the significant capital required to shift or establish operations in a new location. Sri Lanka has been building toward that platform for some time. However, in light of the ongoing and unprecedented shifts in the global economy, the time for bold and decisive action is now.

What the next decade can look like

When Dubai Internet City made its foundational infrastructure decisions in the early 2000s, few predicted it would grow to host over 4,000 companies and 31,000 professionals, adding AED 100 billion to the emirate’s economy over fifteen years, drawing not just technology firms, but financial services, media, and professional services enterprises seeking a stable regulatory platform.

Similarly, GIFT City in India, dismissed as overambitious when first ideated in 2007, crossed 1,150 registered entities by February 2026 with yearly growth that few analysts had modelled. Today it hosts banks, asset managers, insurance firms, and technology companies, a multi-sector ecosystem built on institutional certainty.

Companies come, talent follows, education institutions establish, and supporting services build around the ecosystem. What begins as a zone becomes an economy within an economy. That is the trajectory Port City Colombo is positioned to follow.

Sri Lanka has what it needs to compete. Realised FDI inflows grew 72% in 2025, crossing $1 billion for the first time. The conditions are converging in a way they have not before. What this moment requires is the institutional and infrastructure certainty that converts that potential into something global companies can actually point to and say: this works, and we are building here

What Port City Colombo brings to the table

Port City Colombo’s architecture is designed for exactly this kind of investment. Dollarised transactions, an independent regulatory commission, English-language commercial frameworks, and a structure that lets international companies establish fully on their own terms. The independent regulatory framework ensures institutional continuity beyond political cycles, a critical factor for long-term capital deployment. For multinational enterprises evaluating where to establish regional operations, whether in financial services, technology, logistics, or professional services, these are the conditions that determine whether a location makes the shortlist at all.

The early traction is visible. More than half of the companies registered as Authorised Persons operate in IT and technology-enabled services. By late 2025, approximately 1 million square feet of office space was occupied, with the Business Centre reflecting occupancy levels above 95%. IFS has announced a facility expected to create 1,000 jobs. Recent amendments to the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act have strengthened governance and streamlined regulatory oversight.

What converts early momentum into sustained growth is infrastructure readiness: reliable connectivity, stable power, and clear regulatory frameworks around cross-border operations. Get that right early, and the impact compounds. From resilience to transformation, Port City Colombo plays a pivotal role. It expands Sri Lanka’s economic capacity rather than substituting for existing hubs, creating new opportunities that strengthen the entire system. Infrastructure brings companies, companies bring talent, talent brings capital, and that sequence, once started, turns into a virtuous cycle that can help revitalise other sectors of the Sri Lankan economy.

Sri Lanka already has natural advantages. Five subsea cable landing stations connect the country to the global data network. Port City Colombo adds the institutional and commercial layer that converts that connectivity into something a global company can actually build on.

The corridor and the talent

Sri Lanka’s geography is one of its most underused arguments. Sitting at the intersection of the Asia-Middle East-Africa maritime and data corridor, handling over 15% of South Asia’s transshipment volume, and able to engage Indian, Gulf, Chinese and Western commercial interests simultaneously without alignment to any single bloc, few locations in the Indian Ocean can offer the same reach. For global enterprises, that neutrality translates directly into commercial resilience.

Sri Lanka is building toward a national workforce target of 300,000 professionals across technology, finance, logistics, and advanced services. Brain drain has complicated that trajectory, but global education institutions establishing within Port City Colombo represent a direct structural solution. Training talent for zone-based companies while positioning Colombo as a regional destination for skilled professionals across multiple sectors.

Dubai Internet City took fifteen years to add AED 100 billion to Dubai’s economy. GIFT City crossed 1,150 registered entities after two decades of sustained institutional commitment. Sri Lanka now has everything those success stories started with: the geography, the framework, the connectivity infrastructure, and investment confidence that grew 72% in a single year. If we play our cards right, Port City Colombo is where Sri Lanka’s digital decade gets built

Sri Lanka’s digital decade: Port City is the platform we need

Regional competitors are investing heavily in the economic infrastructure and institutional frameworks that attract high-value cross-sector investment. The decisions that determine which cities and zones capture the next wave of global capital and enterprise activity are being made now, not in five years.

Sri Lanka has what it needs to compete. Realised FDI inflows grew 72% in 2025, crossing $1 billion for the first time. The conditions are converging in a way they have not before. What this moment requires is the institutional and infrastructure certainty that converts that potential into something global companies can actually point to and say: this works, and we are building here.

Dubai Internet City took fifteen years to add AED 100 billion to Dubai’s economy. GIFT City crossed 1,150 registered entities after two decades of sustained institutional commitment. Sri Lanka now has everything those success stories started with: the geography, the framework, the connectivity infrastructure, and investment confidence that grew 72% in a single year.

If we play our cards right, Port City Colombo is where Sri Lanka’s digital decade gets built.

(The author is the Vice President, Computer Society of Sri Lanka and Immediate Past Chairman, FITIS)