Lanka moots quality, skilled labour

Investment fund account to be created:

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Sri Lanka is looking for a high wage labour economy in the future where productivity will be the key factor.

Treasury Secretary Dr P B Jayasundera said quality labour will be provided in a professional manner to the international labour market in the future with value addition. “Then higher salaries could be demanded and there won’t be any semi-skilled labour after that,” he said.

He was delivering the keynote address on ‘Sri Lanka beyond 2011,and the industry’s role for a knowledge economy’ at the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM ) Cheif Information Officer(CIO) Council Meeting at the Cinnamon Grand yesterday.

Dr Jayasundara said Sri Lanka has been resilient under extremely difficult situations for over 20 years and now it is evolving with the service sector therefore it needs to join the transformation rapidly towards knowledge economy.

An investment fund account will be created shortly to support the industry. The pharmaceutical sector must link to the knowledge economy and encourage foreign investment on essential drugs.

Elaborating on the growth of all sectors such as tourism, agriculture, apparel, tea and rubber he said the private sector must lead and initiate looking at all aspects such as productivity and market where the government will facilitate them. Mphasis Regional Director George Manuelpillai said Sri Lanka has a rich and untapped employable talent pool, strong infrastructure and a great attitude to work with. The sustained coalition of all these attributes has already proven to provide unmatched service to the global clientele.

Mphasis investment in Sri Lanka is a testimony to its commitment to the development of the country’s IT landscape and he hoped the partnership will fuel their growth in emerging markets.

SLASSCOM Board Member and IFS South Asia Vice President Jayantha De Silva said any industry must have cooperation between the industry layer, represented by SLASSCOM, and the operational layer represented by the Chief Information Officers as they are the people who put the model into action and thus it is very important to work closely with them. The Government is also another important layer in the IT-BPO industry,” he said.