Sri Lanka among top 50 outsourcing destinations

Anjana Samarasinghe

Sri Lanka is to develop a national strategy to make the country a centre for excellence in the IT-BPO industry at the National IT-BPO capacity Summit (NICS) 2007 which will be held end August.

Speaking at the press conference which was held yesterday Chairman of the Technical Committee of the NICS Madu Ratnayake said this strategy will focus on making Sri Lanka a centre for excellence in areas such as financial accounting, engineering, legal, banking, mobile telecommunication and insurance in the IT-BPO sector.

Global consulting giant, A.T. Kearney’s 2007 Global Services Location Index highlights Sri Lanka among the top 50 outsourcing destinations.

Sri Lanka enters the index at rank 29 among the 50 nations which AT Kearney ranks. “However Sri Lanka is well recognised for accounting and financial outsourcing,” he said.

NICS will also focus on promoting ICT careers, education and developing capacity building in ICT.

‘The IT workforce is rapidly growing and employers are seeking more professionals for expansion of their businesses. Each year there are 300,000 students who sit for the GCE A/L and only 100,000 get through the exams. Out of this, only 15,000 qualify to enter University. These segments can be attracted into the local IT-BPO industry, he said.

The Summit also precedes a awards night where exceptional and significant contributions to the IT-BPO industry and the individuals who have driven it will be recognised. Apart from the NICS there will be the first ever National IT-BPO Career Guidance Fair in collaboration with the Ministry of Education on September 1 and 2 at the BMICH.

Chairperson of the Career Guidance Fair Dr. Archana Arcot said there are many career opportunities and career growth opportunities in the IT-BPO sector. She said this Career Fair is to support students, parents and others to discover new avenues in IT-BPO. They are targeting nearly 4,000 students and school leavers in the county for the fair.

The NICS 2007 is jointly organised by the Information Communication Technology of Sri Lanka, academia and key industry leaders.