Malabe IT park to tap nearly 200 IT companies

18-Jun-2008

By Santhush Fernando

The proposed Malabe IT Park with an investment close to Rs 9 billion, would be capable of housing nearly 200 Information Technology (IT) companies.

“In the first phase, we plan to bring in about 50 Indian IT companies, while at its final stages, nearly 150 to 200 companies will be able to set up offices here.” Executive Director, Infinity Infotech Parks, Pulak Chamaria, said at a news conference held last week at the Ministry of Enterprise Development & Investment Promotion.

Malabe IT Park is a collaboration of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), with an Indian consortium comprising Infinity Infotech Parks Ltd and PS Group Reality Ltd.

The Letter of Intent (LOI) was issued to Infinity Infotech Parks Ltd, which operates IT parks in India, notably in Kolkata and the PS Group Realty Ltd, a renowned real estate developer in India. Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) is to sign an agreement with the companies within one and a half months, while construction of the new zone will start within nine months. The agreement will be signed on behalf of the Indian consortium by Pulak Chamaria and Chairman, SLIlT, Prof. Sam Karunaratne.
Selection of the party to develop and manage the IT Park in Malabe was done through an open bidding process by the BoI, with Ernst & Young India, vastly experienced in carrying out Private-Public Partnership (PPP) bid process management globally, retained as advisor to the BoI to manage the bid process and select the investor. The process was facilitated by BoI and the project will be categorised a BOI project under PPP basis, it was revealed.

With a view to place Sri Lanka in the global IT map, the BoI, along with the SLIIT, had sought to develop an IT Park equipped with all modern facilities and services for promoting IT, IT Enabled Services (ITES), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and other knowledge based industries in the country. The BoI, along with the SLIIT, has developed a unique PPP model as a means to develop large-scale infrastructure projects.

The IT Park will be constructed on a I5-acre plot within the SLIIT campus in Malabe and will, primarily, cater to the growing demand in Sri Lanka for high quality dedicated IT space.

The BoI and the SLIIT carried out extensive research on how to develop IT parks. The proposed IT Park has been conceptualised with the latest know how relating to such parks and special emphasis has been given to make the ambience appealing to those who will be working there.

This project will provide around 20,000 direct employment and around 80,000 indirect employment opportunities The IT Park would be equipped with state-of-the-art-technology and provide high speed data communication services, including lease line connectivity and fibre optic networks. In addition, the Park will also provide infrastructure facilities such as uninterrupted quality power, water supply, air conditioning facilities and parking.

The SLIIT, a degree-awarding institute in the field of IT, recognised by the University Grants Commission, was established in 1999 to educate and train IT professionals required for the fast growing IT industry in Sri Lanka and presently, graduates around 3,000 IT professionals annually.