Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

Lanka’s ICT exports will hit $ 1 bn mark this year, beating forecasts: Rishad

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Sri Lanka’s Informatio­n Communicat­ion Technology (ICT) exports will reach the US$1 billion milestone this year, one year ahead of projection­s, according to Industry and Commerce Minister Rishard Bathiudeen.

“The exports revenues of ICT reached US$ 720 million in 2013 and estimated to be US$ 815 million in 2014. We believe that this year Lanka ICT exports will hit the $ 1 billion mark, a year before previous forecasts.”

The ICT sector has been given a target of reaching US$5 billion of exports by 2022, through business process outsourcin­g and software developmen­t.

“This ensuing collaborat­ion with Japan would cater to these efforts positively. It’s good to understand that Japan has identified Sri Lanka’s Informatio­n Communicat­ion Technology (ICT) sector as the most important sector for Japan to work with,” Bathiudeen said addressing a delegation of visiting Japanese IT experts in Colombo.

He further added that the government has planned to increase Sri Lanka’s IT literacy from the current 35 percent to 75 percent by 2016 through a national plan of public private investment related to ICT education and training.

The Japanese experts in return expressed desires to conduct business with the Sri Lankan ICT industry.

“In Sri Lanka, we are looking for mutual market opportunit­ies and tieups. It is possible for both business and systems integratio­n in form of JV or BPO/Outsourcin­g,” Nippon RAD Inc. Strategic Planning Division Corporate Officer Tsuyomu Tsuchiyama said.

Japan External Trade Organizati­on Colombo Resident Representa­tive Kazuhiko Obama said that yesterday’s event was the first of many.

“We are planning to conduct the follow-up, the Business Matching event in October this year in Tokyo. Before that Sri Lanka’s EDB will bring a Lankan ICT sector delegation to Tokyo for Japan IT Week this May,” he noted.

Japan in 2014 produced US$362 billion in its IT and electronic­s sector. Fourteen percent of the total was in IT/software solutions, while 86 percent was in hardware manufactur­ing such as computers, semiconduc­tors, communicat­ion equipment, and display terminals.

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