Information technology in Sri Lanka

Information Technology in Sri Lanka refers to the business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, software development, IT Services and IT education in Sri Lanka.[1] Sri Lanka is ranked among the top 50 outsourcing destinations by AT Kearney, and Colombo is ranked among "Top 20 Emerging Cities" by Global Services Magazine.[2] The export revenue of this industry grew from USD 213 million in 2007 to an estimated USD 720 million in 2013.[3][4][4]

History

For the purpose of developing IT in Sri Lanka, Computer Society of Sri Lanka was started in 1976.

Sri Lanka's IT, KPO/BPO industry has a short span of history starting around 2000.[1]

For the purpose of educating people about IT in Sri Lanka, Information Technology Society of Sri Lanka was started in 2019.[5]

IT/BPO sector has been identified as a priority sector for economic development in the country.[3]

Business process outsourcing

Sri Lanka is an offshore development center and Joint venture hub for several Fortune 500 companies from North America, UK, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Japan. Well known customers of Sri Lankan BPO industry include Google, J.P. Morgan & Co, Microsoft, Emirates , Infor and Qatar Airways.[3][4]

Sri Lanka's BPO cost is 30% lower than other offshore destinations.

Sri Lanka also won the Outsourcing Destination of the Year award by National Outsourcing Association.

Rankings[3]

Publication	Publisher	Rank
Local Trends Reports	IBM	12
Global Services Location Index	AT Kearney	within top 25
Leading Locations For Offshore Services	Gartner	within top 30
Global Centers of Excellence for Finance & Accounting Outsourcing	Global Services	within top 19
Emerging Global Cities For Finance & Accounting Outsourcing	Tholons	7
Outsourcing Destination of the Year	National Outsourcing Association	1

Government Bodies

The prominent government body related to IT in Sri Lanka is the Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology Division - MoD. Other than that Ministries of Education, Skills development are working on developing the education while Ministry of Industry and Commerce is on industrial level activities.[6]

IT in Sri Lanka is governed under the Information and Communication Technology Act No. 27 of 2003.[7][8]

Other Related Acts

1. Electronic Transactions Act, No. 19 OF 2006
2. National Digital Policy for Sri Lanka
3. Data Protection Bill
4. Telecommunication Levy Act, No. 21 OF 2011
5. Telecommunication Levy Act(Amendment)Act, No. 8 OF 2013

Agencies

1. The Information and Communication Technology Agency (Sri Lanka)
2. Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT)
3. Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)

Organisations

1. Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) similar to India's NASSCOM is another agency working on the development of business, education and employment.[9]

1. The Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS)
2. The ICT Industry Skills Council (ICTISC)

Recent development

There are many global IT services companies established in Sri Lanka such as HSBC, IFS, Intel, Motorola, WNS,RR Donnelley, Virtusa, Pearsons and Accenture.[3]

IT parks

Virtusa At Orion Cirt IT Park

Millennium Information Technologies Campus At Malabe

Trace Expert City

Sri Lanka has few government owned and privately managed IT Parks.[10]

Orion City IT Park established in 2009 is a privately owned IT park situated in Dematagoda area in Colombo. The Park is spread over 16 acres and currently has 550,000 sq feet of developed space.[11] Currently this park houses, Virtusa and several other IT and non-IT companies.[12]

In 2011 a full featured IT park was proposed to be built at Hambantota as a government project.[13] In 2012 this project was approved by the Cabinet.[14]

TRACE Expert City is a similar one. This was developed by Urban Development Authority, working with the Ministry of Defense, This is situated in Maradana.[15]

In February 2016 India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced that they are offering an IT park for Sri Lanka considering the IT industry's importance in the country.[16]

Employment

According to the National ICT workforce Survey 2013, the positive domestic developments and gradual recovery of the global economic situation have created a conducive environment for growth of the industry’s workforce and the projection figure shows that this trend is likely to continue. The overall workforce has grown to 75,107 in 2013 with a projection. In 2013, 63% of the workforce held graduate or post-graduate level qualifications.[3]

IT education

See also: Education in Sri Lanka and Higher education in Sri Lanka

Secondary Education

In the national level curriculum, first computer related subject taught at public schools is Information and Communication Technology. This is an elective subject for GCE Ordinary Level in Sri Lanka. For GCE Advanced Level in Sri Lanka a compulsory subject and an exam called General Information Technology was introduced considering the need of IT literacy for every student. Under the technology stream introduced for GCE Advanced Level in past years a new main subject for IT, Information and Communication Technology is added.[17][18]

Higher Education

With the rapid development of IT industry and job demand in 90's, steps were taken by both government and private sector to improve the IT education in the country.

University of Mortauwa ranked no 1 Google Summer of Code international annual program school based on current year for the period 2005–2016

Criticism

CEPA Controversy

In 2016 January, the Sri Lankan government announced that Indo-Sri Lankan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will be finalized. It is assumed that Sri Lankan IT industry's job market will be opened to Indians by this agreement causing unemployment among Sri Lankans.[19][20][21]

Future

Sri Lanka's IT industry's goal is to achieve USD 5 billion in exports by 2022 while creating 200,000 jobs and uplifting 1,000 tech start-ups.[22]

In 2012 Computer literacy of Sri Lanka was 38%.[14]

This industry also has a target of USD one billion export revenue by 2016.[23]

See also

• Economy of Sri Lanka
• Knowledge economy
• Outsourcing

References

1. "Key Sectors For Investment - Knowledge Services". Retrieved 29 December 2015.
2. "CT/BPO Services". Retrieved 28 December 2015.
3. "Sri Lankan IT/BPM Industry - 2014 Review" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
4. "ICT/BPO Industry In Sri Lanka" (PDF). Sri Lanka Business. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
5. "Warning to users of Face App challenge". hirunews.
6. "THE CONSTITUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA" (PDF). The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. 21 September 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
7. "ICTA". Retrieved 28 January 2016.
8. {{cite journal|title= INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, No. 2 7 OF 2003
9. "About". Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
10. "BOI Administered Zones". Retrieved 29 December 2015.
11. "What we do". Retrieved 29 December 2015.
12. "Orion City fulfills need for top-notch IT Park in Colombo". Info Lanka. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
13. "Hambantota IT Park : prospects, opportunities and challenges". Digit.lk. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
14. "Hambantota IT Park receives cabinet approval". Business Times.
15. "TRACE Expert City". TimeOut Sri Lanka.
16. "India offers to open up IT park in Sri Lanka". Ada Derana. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
17. "Information & Communication Technology" (PDF). National Institute of Education. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
18. "G.C.E. (A/L) ICT Syllabus (Revised)". Ministry of Education. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
19. "CEPA: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly". The Sunday Leader. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
20. Kirindagoda, Thilina. "CEPA With India: Opportunity Or Threat To Sri Lankan Professionals?". Colombo Telegraph. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
21. ජයමාල් චන්ද්‍රසිරි, කෞෂල්‍ය සමින්ද. "ලංකාව ඉඟුරු දී මිරිස් ගන්නයි හදන්නේ". Lankadeepa (in Sinhala). Retrieved 26 January 2016.
22. "SLASSCOM: Driving the IT/BPO Industry of Sri Lanka". Business Today. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
23. "IT industry targets one billion revenue". Lanka Lion Marketing. Retrieved 29 December 2015.