Lakbima News

22-Aug-2010

16-May-2010

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan

The new BoI Chairman Jayampathi Bandaranaike said during the next five years, his economic agency will focus mainly on six areas, which are manufacturing of non- traditional and high value-added sector, manufacture of apparel fabrics and accessories, tourism and leisure, information technology and IT enabled services, agriculture, agri- processing, deep sea fishing, dairy and livestock and the infrastructure.

9-May-2010

The Information & Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), which functions under the Presidential Secretariat, will host the first-ever South Asian Mobile Content Conference in Colombo on June 10, 11.

18-Apr-2010

Department of Labour together with Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, the National Mobile Service Provider, recently launched a new service, where by all EPF claim applicants would be notified via SMS once their application has been submitted to the Central Bank by the Department of Labour. The new service would provide much convenience to applicants as they could now go about their day-to-day tasks until the SMS is sent, saving them both time and money. The new service would be available to all mobile users irrespective of which network they belong to.

28-Mar-2010

By Tharindra Ranasinghe

I was in Sri Lanka last month. While browsing through local Sunday newspapers, I was amazed by the plethora of advertisements placed by “higher education” institutes of various kinds. They were so abundant that some newspapers had dedicated entire sections for such advertisements. Majority of the advertisements promoted numerous ‘degrees’, ‘diplomas’ and ‘masters programs’ with some foreign affiliations. Unfortunately, verifiable information with regard to globally recognized accreditations were missing in majority of them.

21-Feb-2010

With transparency and accountability now firmly embedded in the annals of sustainability reporting in Sri Lanka, ACCA is now preparing for the sixth ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards to be held on February 25th at the Oak Room of the Cinnamon Grand. The high profile event showcases the importance of sustainability reporting, building on the GRI guidelines and triple bottom line reporting. The Chief Guest will be Country Director of GRI Focal Point India Dr Aditi Haldar.

24-Jan-2010

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval for Northshore College of Business and Technology to provide tertiary education services under the BoI.

The company will establish a modern training institute to provide tertiary education. The institute will provide tertiary qualification such as bachelors’ degree programmes and masters’ programmes in Information Technology, Engineering and Business Management faculties.

17-Jan-2010

In an era where most companies are focusing on taking it slow, Sweden based IFS, one of the world’s leading providers of Enterprise Resource Planning (E R P) solutions has transformed its image from the iconic purple and yellow, to a more cutting edge purple and white.

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.

22-Nov-2009

Sri Lanka’s national telecommunication’s service provider - Mobitel signed yet another strategic partnership with the University of Colombo and its Faculty of Science recently. This partnership enables the Faculty of Science to deliver its Masters and Postgraduate courses via the innovative mLearning solution designed by Mobitel.

25-Oct-2009

The entry of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) into Sri Lanka can further delay any prospects for recovery in the Sri Lankan telecom operators’ profitability, says Fitch Ratings. Millicom International Cellular SA recently sold its fully-owned subsidiary in Sri Lanka, Tigo, to Etisalat in a competitive bidding process. Tigo is the third-largest mobile telephony operator in Sri Lanka with a market share of around 20% and a nationwide network footprint.

18-Oct-2009
 
Millicom International Cellular S.A. (“Millicom”) (Nasdaq Stock Market: MICC and Stockholmsbörsen: MIC) Thursday announced it entered into an unconditional agreement for the sale of Tigo (Private) Limited, its Sri Lanka operation, to Etisalat (Emirates Telecommunication Corporation, Dubai) for approximately $155 million in total cash proceeds.

20-Sep-2009

Cyber Concepts (Pvt) Ltd was recently awarded the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Certification by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) B.V of Netherlands, the largest certification body in the world. It thus becomes the very first Sri Lankan software and web solutions company to obtain this latest certification.

The Information Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) selected Cyber Concepts from several other competing companies and funded 75% percent of the certification cost under the ST13 - Company Quality Certification Program funded by the World Bank
Cyber Concepts CEO Ravi Rajapathirane said that the company will now further focus on developing quality software for the local industry where the distinct customisation of the product will have a greater advantage over imported software. “We will help save valuable foreign exchange by winning the confidence of the local industrialists and encouraging them to use Sri Lankan software over the more expensive foreign imports”.

9-Aug-2009
By Tharindra Ranasinghe(CFA, ACMA)

Over the years, we have been very proud and boastful of our education standards. After all, Sri Lanka’s literacy rate is over 90%, almost comparable with any developed nation. And in recent times, we started focusing on IT literacy, correctly recognizing it as a basic skill (almost as basic as ability to read and write) if we are to compete in a global economy.

It was none other than Bill Gates himself who recently congratulated Sri Lanka on the strides made in this regard. However, as evident from the recent spate scandals ranging from outright Ponzi schemes, mismanagement at finance companies and glaring lack of corporate governance in some of the best known financial institutes of the country it is clear that the country is lacking another form of literacy which is as critical in this day and age: that is, Financial Literacy.

12-July-2009

The launching of the ICTA-initiated e-mobile library in Suriyawewa in Hambantota is another step taken to allow poorest sections of the society to reap benefits of Information Technology.

“Nenasakmana”, implemented by the Sooriyawewa Nenasala under the e-Society programme of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), houses four laptops for which power is provided through a solar panel fixed on the roof of the buddy lorry and internet connectivity through a dongle.

Its library is electronic. It contains CDs for kids, school children and farmers. This is, of course, in addition to information on various other disciplines, new technologies and information on government institutions and procedures.

7-June-2009

The Sri Lanka Board of Investment (BoI) has signed agreements for 213 new projects worth Rs.120 billion last year, sources revealed.

Of these projects 131 were in the service sector and accounted for 82 percent of total investment value. The other comprises of projects from the production (factory) sector.

Housing and property development, computer software development and data entry methods, hotels and restaurants and entertainment are among main investment areas from the service sector. Others include education and training institutions, research institutes, commercial offices and call centres. External institutions supporting business ventures, power generation, regional operations centres and information technology are among the projects.

24-May-2009

Bharti Airtel, Asia’s leading Integrated Telecom services provider has announced that it has crossed the 100 million customers mark. This milestone makes the company the 3rd largest single country mobile services operator and sixth largest in-country integrated telecom operator in the world.

“The Indian Telecom sector, seen as providing the most affordable services in the world, has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade. We are proud to have led the telecom revolution that made a positive impact on the lives of people in every corner of the country as well as the Indian economy.

3-May-2009
By Deshamithra Wickramasinghe

Information Technology (IT) graduates in Sri Lanka are highly skilled, when compared with the rest in the region. The standards maintained by Sri Lankan university graduates is one of the main factors that made IFS commence operations here 11 years ago, said Alastair Sorbie, CEO and President IFS.

“We work closely with the university network in the country and tap these resources in accordance with our recruitment procedures. IFS has provided nearly 700 scholarships for IT sector graduates in the Eastern and Southern universities,” he added.

6-Apr-2008
By Lankika Ellepola

TVS electronics, India’s leading IT peripherals manufacturer entered the Sri Lankan market with a wide range of printing equipment to match consumer needs of the country while catering to regional conditions and needs for high performance.
TVS electronics has been a pioneer in Dot Matrix Printing domain with path breaking products, innovative futuristic design and patented technologies that ensure uninterrupted high-quality printing and long printing. TVS electronics is a part of reputed US$ 3.5 billion TVS group, among the top 5 family owned business groups of India.

30-Mar-2008

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) introduced a comprehensive update on the developments in the ICT Capacity Building Programme (ICBP) at The 11th Private Sector Forum held on last week.
The ICBP is a programme implemented by ICTA which is a US$ 5.2 million initiative to provide a short-term boost to private sector ICT firms will be given at this forum.

The ICTA together with the ICT Industry is making strides towards increasing the ICT workforce that will feed this fast growing industry in the form of a ‘National ICT Capacity Building Strategy’. Under the ICTA’s ICT Capacity Building programme many initiatives have been taken to increase HR capacity and quality of the existing ICT Industry that would assist Sri Lankan companies to compete effectively in the international ICT environment.

30-Mar-2008

India has crossed the 250 million mark with the addition of 8.53 million mobile phone subscribers in February.
With this, India is set to become the second largest wireless network in the world after China in the first half of April 2008.
According to telecom regulator Trai, a total of 8.49 million telephone connections were added during February as compared to 8.74 million connections in January 2008.
The total number of telephone connections hit 290.11 million at the end of February 2008 as compared to 281.62 million in January 2008, taking the overall teledensity to 25.31 per cent at the end of February 2008 as against 24.63 per cent in January 2008.

9-Mar-2008

Singapore Informatics the pioneers in introducing IT / NETWORK SECURITY education to Sri Lanka, are proud to announce the launching of the SECURITY 3600 – the ‘ULTIMATE’ NETWORK SECURITY PROGRAMME, in Sri Lanka.

An information Security Specialist must know how to use the tools, tricks and techniques to implement a network defence. Only with this knowledge then we can honestly expect someone to be able to properly defend his system and network against hackers and also to detect if an intrusion has occurred.

Intrusion and Network Forensic employ the same rigorous standards and procedures as computer forensics. Both disciplines seek to facilitate the recovery, analysis, and presentation of computers, computer system, and networks suspected of having been compromised or accessed in unauthorised fashion by internal or external intruders. Such unauthorised entrance into the network environment violates the integrity, confidentiality and availability of the system and jeopardises the ability of the business or public agency to function.

3-Feb-2008
By Ashwin Hemmathagama

Informatics (Pvt.) Ltd a 25 year old IT company in Sri Lanka is exploring the possibility of further expansion of its business into BPO services market.
Director - Sales and Marketing, Priyanga Gunasekera recently looking back at the milestones of Informatics said: “we are a diversified company which covers the entire gamut in IT which includes computer hardware, software solutions, ICT education and another project on agriculture and animal husbandry. We are also looking at expanding into BPO soon”.
Informatics which has an annual turnover of Rs 2 billion also eyes teak and mahogany plantations in its 1,000 acre land leased on long-term from the Government in Eastern Province where the agricultural project is currently going on.

27-Jan-2008
By Lankika Ellepola

System applications products for data processing (SAP) are to be implemented as the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL).
This implementation will cover its business partners and shareholding companies Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and Lanka IOC PLC. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) will consult in this process, to implement the SAP solution in these three companies.
SAP is been chosen after carefully assessing the strengths of the system. The system is well recognized as leading ERP software globally and more than 500 organizations all over the world in Oil and Gas sector have deployed SAP as ERP software. The ERP system once implemented, will lead to online connectivity between all locations of three companies, real time data availability through the integrated network, concurrent updating of data, uniformity in coding of assets, customers, suppliers, centralized controls and ease in obtaining vital management information for better decision making.

4-Nov-2007
By Ashwin Hemmathagama

International software giant Aeturnum Inc. recently confirms an increase in productivity by 25 per cent in the local information technology sector compared to Bangalore.
Aeturnum Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd. (ALL) the subsidiary of Aeturnum Inc. celebrating the first year of operation in Sri Lanka states that the latter has become highly competitive with Bangalore in spite of the security concerns.
“We are looking at doubling our investment by 2008 which will enable to hire almost 100 new software developers. Sri Lanka has become highly competitive when it comes to productivity and quality of the developed software. Investors prefer Sri Lanka where the salaries paid are 15 - 20 per cent lesser compared to Bangalore,” Aeturnum Inc. Chief Executive Officer Rajat Bhakhri said.