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By Shirajiv Sirimane

Cisco sales in Sri Lanka are growing at a faster rate than the Asia Pacific region said the President Cisco, India and SAARC Region, Manoj Chugh in Colombo yesterday.

He said that Cisco maintains a growth of around 10% in the Asia Pacific region and the figure in Sri Lanka is very much higher. "This is a clear example of the potential Sri Lanka has for our business."

Chugh said that the launching of the E Lanka concept is a bold step taken by the leader of the country at the right time. "I must congratulate Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for taking a step in the right direction." He said that E Lanka will improve the interface between the government and the citizens and it will definitely have a positive impact on the GDP growth.

He said that networking would play a key role in the area of E Lanka and added that Cisco is all about networking. "The Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world and research firms peg IT spending in the area at US$ 260 billion, which is a 6% growth over year 2001.

It is expected that IT spending in this region which includes Sri Lanka will increase by 10% in 2003. - higher than in any other region in the world."

He said that according to reports IT spending in the region is being led by the telecommunications sector which is expected to represent 70.9% in 2002. Hardware is the next spending sector with the year end-user spending forecast at $38.56 billion for 2002.

An industry veteran with 20 years' experience in the IT sector he said that the first Cisco academy in Sri Lanka (SLIIT) has 42 students.

"Today there are 154 Cisco certified networking professionals in Sri Lanka. We want to increase this number to 2,000 by the end of year 2005. Our focus is to develop the local networking talent to address the market needs in Sri Lanka." Chugh said that the first Cisco Networking academy program's (CNAP) Roadshow which was held yesterday was a success. "We are planning to set up at least five more academies next year."

Some of the main Cisco customers in Sri Lanka include SriLankan Airlines, John Keells, Seylan Bank, Hayleys, Standard Chartered Bank, Sampath Bank, Royal Ceramics, Hatton National Bank, Suntel and Commercial Bank.

Set up 17 years ago Cisco started its operations in Sri Lanka in April 2002.

Cisco's revenue in the last financial year stood at US $ 18.9 billion a today it has more than $21.5 billion in cash from its operations. Cisco recorded a 22% productivity increase during the last financial year. According to the latest research from Synergy research, in the world-wide router market Cisco has a 85.5% market share.

In the overall LAN Switching market it has an overall market share of 69.9% while they are also a leading player in the market for networking solutions such as network Security, IP-Technology and wireless networking solutions.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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