Technology awareness, adaptation high

Indunil HEWAGE

*Healthy rate of investment activities

*Sri Lanka showing signs of potential

Technology adaptation and awareness in Sri Lanka is much higher than in other countries in the SAARC region, a Cisco Systems (India) senior official said. Many Sri

Lankan blue chip companies, banking and financial institutions have shown keen interest in investing in new technologies in the world to provide a satisfactory service to their customers.

Cisco Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd, India-East and SAARC Vice President Amit Malik told Daily News Business “We are currently bullish and have categorized several countries in the SAARC region to ascertain the potential markets to spread our network. We saw that Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the markets with major potential in the region.

“In Sri Lanka we see a good bulk in all segments of the economy particularly in commercial, financial , Government and service providers sectors.

“Service providers are investing a lot here and the Government is talking about big investments. Commercial enterprises are transforming and we see a healthy rate of investment activities taking place in the country,” he said. He said Sri Lanka has to leverage on technology and it has to be used as a educational and health aid to reap benefits for the well-being of the people.

“However, many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are unable to invest on novel technology as access to finance is the major stumbling block faced by the SME’s in Sri Lanka. We are optimistic that SMEs will also emerge as potential enterprises using the advantages of present healthy environment in Sri Lanka,” Malik said.