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e-Asia 2009 SL potential destination for offshore IT services
6-Dec-2009
By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan
“Sri Lanka has emerged a potential destination for offshore IT services,” pointed out World Bank experts, at the e-Asia ICT confab that concluded Friday.
The much awaited e-Asia 2009 themed “Opportunities for Digital Asia” saw the World Bank launching its “Information and Communication for Development: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact” (South Asian release) - IC4D report.
Although it was revealed that Sri Lanka or the South Asia region has experienced a significant expansion in the reach and usage of ICT networks and services over the past decade, the authors of the IC4D report said that “South Asia still lags behind many other countries in overall ICT performance.”
The World Bank supports Sri Lanka in the implementation of e-Lanka projects (US$53million) which aims to enhance growth and equity through improved access and use of ICT by citizens, businesses, and government. E-Lanka also supports the construction of a national ICT backbone. Between 2009-2011, WB will also support capacity building by the regulator TRC (Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) to strengthen responses to convergence. IFC has invested US$ 100 million in Dialog Telekom, now Sri Lanka’s largest telecommunication company in terms of market capitalization.
Offshore IT services
At the report launch, World Bank Country Director Naoko Ishii stressed that while India is successful in Information Technology and IT enabled services, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have also emerged as potential destinations for offshore IT services.
“I am amazed at what ICT can do for a country’s development. ICT has empowered the Sri Lankan rural population and connected them with global markets, eliminating the need to reach the capital city (Colombo) for their local needs. Another interesting discovery is the noticeable increase in efficiency of the government service through the e-Government programme.
“The growth effect is proven to be stronger in developing countries than in developed countries. The report also mentions that innovative ICT solutions often emerge from developing countries and these countries can accelerate the development process from within.”
The report also identifies areas for improvement such as access, affordability and the quality of the Internet and mobile services. The report gave each of the South Asian countries scores of three or four on a scale of 1-10 in overall ICT performance, a measure that includes access, affordability and adoption.
This impact and potential of ICT for development, is what made the World Bank group to back the ICT4D agenda.
Development partner
The Country Manager said, “We are the largest development partner in this area in over 100 countries. This report illustrates new opportunities offered by ICT, analyses issues it faces and introduces good practice.”
The regular publication ICT4D of the World Bank Group addresses the critical role that information and communication technologies play in economic development. If has found that regional improvements in ICT affordability in South Asia has led to 500 million new subscribers accessing telephone services and double digit growth in subscription to mobile telephones (in each country in the region since 2004).
In the global context, the report shows that every 10 percentage-point increase in high speed Internet connection, there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points. The report also identifies the mobile platform as the single most powerful way to reach and deliver public and private services to hundreds of millions of people in remote and rural areas across the developing world.
Report authors says that developing countries should seize this largely untapped opportunity with less than 15% of the potential global market for IT services industries currently being exploited. In 2007, this market represented nearly US$ 500 billion.