IFS secures largest FDI

Hiran H.Senewiratne

IFS, the global enterprise applications company in Sri Lanka will invest Rs 1.2 billion this year to maintain their largest Research and Development (R&D) centre in Colombo, Vice President South Asia region Jayantha de Silva said.

"This is the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received by Sri Lanka and these funds will be used for the development of the local IT sector," de Silva told a media conference to announce the partnership with hSenid a local human resource company.

There funds will mainly be used to maintain their staff and the development of the IT infrastructure in the country, he said. He said that amalgamation of two software companies would help to provide world-class software solutions for customers.

IFS has its largest R&D centre in Colombo with more than 700 staff supporting clients globally. Apart from its existing operations, IFS Sri Lanka markets its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions to South Asia from the regional Sales and Marketing office in Colombo, he said.

He said that today's international context synergy is an excellent thing rather than operating in isolation in the competitive world of business and the core thing we have to follow is the truthfulness, honesty and integrity with the companies to achieve a rapid growth in the sector.

De Silva also said that hSenid is a 100 per cent Sri Lankan company with a very humble beginning and has achieved international accolade by operating successfully in many countries in the region. Because for a foreign company to come to Sri Lanka is quite easy but for a Sri Lankan company to go global is a difficult task but hSenid has successfully done that, he said.

The Chief Executive Officer hSenid Dinesh B. Saparamadu said the company is true Sri Lankan multinational which is dedicated in taking Sri Lankan IT solutions to the world with offices in United States, India, Singapore and R&D centres in Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

With this partnership they could offer businesses the core applications product right form the source that would be implemented by the very owners of its world known applications.

Saparamadu also said this will enable to promote Sri Lankan skills within Sri Lanka and to the region by offering a total solutions package of global standards, which has been developed in Sri Lanka.