IT industry to become top foreign exchange earner

26-Feb-2010

By Mario Andree
 
Sri Lanka is focusing on developing the IT industry to make it the leading foreign exchange earner within the next 10 years and earnings are likely to hit more than US$ two billion within the next five years.

Since Sri Lanka’s IT technology and applications are still in the ‘first generation’ stage, there is an urgent need to adopt latest technology and applications for the industry to become the leading foreign exchange earner within the next 10 years.

As current Sri Lankan technologies are insufficient to compete with globally-used applications, it is necessary to adopt the latest systems to boost the IT industry, said Latitude 655 business development director Mani Kulasooriya.

It is necessary to harvest local talents for the development process, and bring in more high-tech solutions that can meet the requirement of the international markets,

Many Sri Lankan IT engineers are operating in the Silicon Valley and their skills match world standards, he added and stressed the need to promote Lankan professionals to assist the process of developing the local IT sector in a significant manner.

The ICT and BPO sector also focuses on creating more than 100,000 jobs within the next five years.

The industry can achieve its goals by developing the standards of the IT fields in Sri Lanka.