Attracting forex by digital freelance entrepreneurs

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka can mobilise its over 135,000 freelance digital entrepreneurs to bring in the muchneeded foreign exchange but authorities have turned a blind eye to this fact for far too long, digital entrepreneurs say.

A social media platform called the online entrepreneurs club has around 135,000 such digital freelancers who work remotely or within their own confines and earn heavily.

A CEO of a manufacturing company familiar with this community pointed out that the country needs better policies to bring back the money they make into the country.

“They won't bring cash into the country as there aren't any proper tax laws or adequate banking laws to accommodate them,” he said. A digital freelancer told the Business Times that if they want to open a resident foreign currency account in a local bank they ask more than 100 questions and falsely suspect that they are cottoning onto money laundering.

Chamira Jayasinghe, Founder/ CEO Arimac Lanka, developers of Diyasen told the Business Times that what the digital freelance entrepreneurs really need is to be nurtured and facilitated with the freedom to carry out their job.

A software engineer said that most digital freelance entrepreneurs fear that they will get caught to taxes which is why they will not bring the money into the country. These are the main reasons why such freelances usePayoneer which is an American financial services company that provides online money transfer, and digital payment services. These entrepreneurs say that they have around US$10,000 at any given time.

Most digital freelancers open accounts in Singapore and don't bring the money here. “There is a whole ecosystem in the country which the state hasn't caught onto,” the Arimac CEO said. He pointed out that promoting these entrepreneurs will fetch the much needed dollars at this crucial time.

Lasantha Wickremasinghe, a digital entrepreneur, said that he started out as a freelancer about 12 years ago and now has two software development companies. He added the government does not recognise them despite having had meetings with successive governments on how the country can benefit from these freelancers. “Right now what we need is what the rest of the country also wants - electricity and Internet. We also need the state to recognise us as a sector that can bring in forex to the country. As such we need better policies and more awareness on the sector from state authorities.”

Over 135,000 freelancers Earning over $10,000