ICTA to conduct SL’S first-ever IT/BPM workforce survey
The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) plans to conduct Sri Lanka’s first-ever workforce survey in the IT/ BPM sector shortly.
Addressing the inauguration event last Tuesday, kicking off the 36th National Information Technology Conference (NITC 2018), organised by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL), ICTA Chairman Prof. Rohan Samarajiva said, “The IT/BPM sector provides quality employment to over 80,000 professionals in this country today. In terms of numbers, we will get the right numbers because we are going to do the workforce survey in the next few months.”
ICTA CEO Damith Hettihewa told Mirror Business that the ICTA would conduct the survey in a few weeks’ time.
“We are just starting the process. Once the procurement process is completed, we can immediately start the survey. It’s a matter of a few weeks,” he noted.
Prof. Samarajiva asserted that Sri Lanka needs to take a different approach in doing things to achieve US $ 5 billion revenue from the IT/BPM sector by 2022, by accelerating the current growth rates.
He noted that the country’s IT/BPM sector, which generates US $ 1.2 billion as service exports, has a local value addition of over 95 percent. However, he pointed out that around 85 percent of the IT/BPM exports were accounted by large firms. Hence, he stressed that the government’s initiative to create 1,000 start-ups under the National Export Strategy would significantly increase the start-ups’ contribution to Sri Lanka’s exports.
Meanwhile, addressing the NITC inauguration ceremony, Telecommunication, Digital Infrastructure and Foreign Employment Minister Harin Fernando revealed that his ministry has commenced a project in collaboration with BBC to distribute Internet of things (IOT) devices to schools in order for school children to expand their horizon through their imagination by letting them create what they want.
Fernando noted that the government is in the process of distributing IOT devices to 120 schools, which would be later extended to cover 1,000 schools across the country.
While noting that 7 percent of Sri Lankan population is considered disabled and onethird of the population is expected to be over 60 in another decade, Prof. Samarajiva emphasised that the IT/BPM sector needs to look at an inclusive workforce by including disabled and senior citizens to the IT/ BPM workforce in order to achieve true transformation.
Moreover, he stressed that attracting more females and the youth is also crucial to achieve the desired targets of the IT/BPM sector.