Road shows in Australia, Singapore to build contacts:

IT, BPO industry targets US $ 420 million

Anjana Samarasinghe

The Sri Lankan IT and BPO industry targets US$ 420 million export earnings for this year.

SLASSCOM Director and Vice President Madu Ratnayake told Daily News Business that the profitability of IT and BPO companies in Sri Lanka is improving and the industry is growing at a 26 percent annual growth rate. Last year the total export earnings were recorded as US $ 400 million.

Most of the companies in this sector are expanding around the country and some companies are keen on expanding to the North East areas where they could easily source human capital. “However the infrastructure and the human resource development are vital for these companies to commence operations in the North-East parts of the country,” he said.

The industry has identified Australia as a potential market and organized a road show there recently.

“Sri Lankan companies were able to build solid business contacts with their Australian partners at the road show. They are planning to have another road show in Singapore too.

“The industry is growing at a 26 percent growth rate and we need more human resources to facilitate this growth,” Ratnayake said.

“There were around 5,000 IT graduates who entered into the industry last year whereas it needs 7,500 IT graduates. In 2015 the IT and BPO industry targets around 100,000 job opportunities to be created when the industry achieves US$ 1 billion export earnings target.

Compared to other industries in the country the salary scales of the IT and BPO industry is much higher. In the BPO industry a beginner could earn between Rs 15,000 to 20,000 while in the IT sector a fresh IT graduate could earn around Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 per month.

There is a mismatch between higher education systems and the needs of the industry job market. SLASSCOM recently entered into an agreement with the Vocational Training Authority of Sri Lanka to correct this mismatch between supply and demand of manpower for the IT and BPO industry.