BOI contributed to the development of IT and BPO sector

Among the sectors of the national economy that the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka has sought to actively promote, is the IT and BPO sector like many Asian nations, Sri Lanka has identified the IT and BPO sector as areas of economic activity that will be developed in the future.

The "IT Industry" is an umbrella term that covers software development, programming and also the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Many of the 100 or so companies that constitute the local industry are SMEs which have been actively involved in the development of software products and have provided services for both the local and export markets.

The IT/ BPO sector is one, which offers great potential for growth. In just one decade it underwent a nearly twenty-fold growth. In 1996 it was a US$ 5 million industry that rose to US$ 66 million in 2001 becoming a US$ 98 million industry in 2006.

It is therefore understandable that the Sri Lanka's Software Exporters Association has set a target of $ 1.0 billion in export revenue by 2012.

In Sri Lanka the principal companies in the sector are Millennium Information technologies, Virtusa, Kingslake Engineering services and Informatics International.

These companies have succeeded in developing advanced applications for a number of overseas clients. Internationally renowned companies that have invested in Sri Lanka include IFS of Sweden and Isogen.

Sri Lanka's BPO sector includes a number of operations dealing with software development, customer support and accounting services.

Altogether an estimated 25 companies are engaged in BPO service type operations. The estimated workforce in this sector is around 4,000. The industry is essentially export orientated and the Sri Lankan BPO sector serves the USA, the UK, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

Among the BOI enterprises that are engaged in BPO type operations are HSBC Data Processing Centre that is housed in a State of the Art building at Kotte. HSBC Staff are given intensive training including training overseas and linguistic training.