ICT

‘Events such as LPO confab promote Sri Lanka as ‘niche IT/BPO’ destination’

Events such as Sri Lanka’s First legal process outsourcing (LPO) conference greatly help country become ideal IT/BPO destination, said Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) CEO Reshan Dewapura so while participating at the inauguration of ‘Sri Lanka's First Outsourcing Conference, with a focus on LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) held at Cinnamon Grand, Colombo yesterday.

“ICTA is greatly honoured to be involved as the Strategic Partner, at this significant event”, Dewapura told the large gathering of local and foreign participants underlining the event's importance.

Long association with outsourcing sector

Tracing the fairly long association of ICTA with the outsourcing sector Dewapura said,

“The ICT Agency's association, with the “out-sourcing sector” goes back a long while now, where for many years, we have been driving the government's agenda, of developing and growing the country's ICT/BPO industry, and promoting Sri Lanka as an “niche IT/BPO” destination. I see events such as these, further contributing to that effort, and strengthening the partnership that we have with the multitude of stake-holders who are engaged in this sphere”.

Vision to make optimum benefits reach people

Stressing the national vision to make the optimum benefits of ICT accrue to the people and transform the country as a Dynamic Global Hub including Knowledge Hub, ICTA CEO said: “Our vision is to take the benefits of ICT to everyone, and use ICT as a tool to drive development. We aim to drive ICT to every growth sector in this country, and truly enable them, to maximize their opportunities, with the use of these new technologies.

“As a country, in this era where Sri Lanka is moving steadily towards Economic Development, the government is looking to transform the country into a Dynamic Global Hub in multiple sectors. One of the key areas among these, is the creation of a Knowledge Hub. It is no secret, that the growth of the ICT/BPO sector, will be a huge contributing factor to this effort.

“Both in the development of the Business Process Outsourcing industry, and in the creation or in the transformation of Sri Lanka to a Knowledge Hub, the KPO (or the Knowledge Process Outsourcing) activity will take centre stage, and is an area that great emphasis and focus has been placed on. Looking at the high-end nature of the work, the proficiency of the workforce, and the well developed & robust infrastructure, this is an area, which ideally fits into the “Niche” categorization of Sri Lanka in this sector.

Strides towards Knowledge Hub state

Pointing out to the great strides made by Sri Lanka towards the Knowledge Hub state ICTA CEO said: “There are a number of growth pillars in the KPO industry that have been identified, especially as areas of “niche” focus for Sri Lanka. FAO (Financial and Accounting Out-Sourcing), where Sri Lanka has already earned a name as a center of Excellence, Engineering Process Outsourcing, Excellence in Software products, especially in the Telecommunications and Finance sectors, are some among many in this area. Last but not least, and coming to the fore, more and more in the recent past, is LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing).

Sri Lanka's triple strength - skilled legal resources, English, competitive rates

Dewapura explaining Sri Lanka's suitability for LPO mainly on three plus points said: “ Sri Lanka is ideally suited as a venue for legal process outsourcing for several reasons. The main being the availability of highly skilled legal resources in this country, educated in the traditions of common law and benefitting from the hybrid system such as Roman Dutch Law inherent in our country. This, combined with the overall advantages of competitive rates and low attrition contributes greatly to Sri Lanka's attractiveness for LPO.

“There are a significant number of young English educated legal professionals, passing out from many institutions in Sri Lanka, who can be well engaged in this activity. These professionals will have the opportunity to further familiarize themselves and be engaged with, legal practices and processes of international jurisdictions such as the US and the EU. This in turn will provide a platform for international legal activity to take off on a much bigger scale, and create an echo system, for the improvement of commercial law in general, in this country. All this will no doubt contribute to our target of a Knowledge Hub.

Five-year achievements

Giving a view of Sri Lanka's achievements during the past five years in the IT/BPO sector in financial terms the ICTA CEO said: “The Sri Lankan IT/BPO Industry has grown tremendously in the last five years. In terms of export revenue, it has moved from a mere USD 60m to a staggering USD 450m industry, and is now the 5th largest foreign exchange earner in the country. The future target for this industry is to reach USD 1 billion by 2015 and USD 2 billion by 2020, and at some point become the largest foreign exchange earner for the country.

Sri Lanka reputed as a BPO destination

“Although we need to be cautious in fixing these targets, as much of this is dependent on the economic circumstances in other countries, looking at our past growth, and other enabling activities that we implementing in the ICT sector, we feel these are certainly achievable. Sri Lanka has already earned a great reputation as a BPO destination. AT Kearney, Gartner, Tholons Global Services have all given due recognition to Sri Lanaka in their most recent surveys. More and more countries are looking to Sri Lanka for BPO opportunities, and hence the targets mentioned earlier are very realistic.

Combined effort

“Looking at ICT development in general, I need to state that, driving the ICT/BPO industry growth, is something that is not done in isolation. It is part of a much wider initiative, where, the success of all components, are intrinsically linked together. This initiative, as most of you are aware is known as the e-Sri Lanka Development programme, the Government's National e-development agenda, implemented by the ICTA. The vision of taking the dividends of ICT, to every citizen in every village, every business and transforming the way Government works, is driven by a number of programmes.

“Developing the ICT Infrastructure, Developing the ICT HR skills, increasing the ICT literacy, automating and transforming governments processes, creating the enabling environment and leadership for ICT growth are some of them. Success and accomplishments in all these areas have no doubt contributed and will contribute to the progress of the ICT/BPO industry in the future as well. That is the synergistic nature of the forces of ICT.

“What we need is a similar synergistic effort from all stake-holders engaged in this BPO industry, in this case specifically in the area of LPO, to grow this sector, and ensure we reach our targets and goals. The ICT Agency is fully committed, as it did in the past, to ensure that the next five year ICT Development plan is successfully implemented, and through that further contribute to the growth of the ICT/BPO industry in Sri Lanka”.

First of many events

“In conclusion, I wish to congratulate, the Legal Solutions Forum, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, and the International Association of Young Lawyers, for organising this conference, and thank them for inviting ICTA to partner with them, which as I mentioned, we are delighted to do. I hope that this will be a productive and enriching conference for all, and that it will be the first of many events in this sector, through-out our journey to be a knowledge hub in the region”.

The two-day conference (9-10) has been tailor-made with keynote presentations and panel discussions and question and answer sessions on timely topics. Yesterday's keynote addresses themed “Outsourcing vs. Restructuring” and “Outsourcing to Asia: Goals, Choices and Experiences”, were presented respectively by India Bangalore Accuenture Chairman Avinash Vashista, and Asia, Texas Instruments Senior Counsel Gaurav Jabulee.

Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats (AIJA) (International Association of Young Lawyers) was formed 50 years ago and with more than 3000 active members, is the largest such organization in the world. AIJA, with maximum age limit for active membership set at 45 years of age, provides a forum for young lawyers, inter alia, readily to adapt to trends including technological advances while maintaining the traditional hallmarks of the legal profession.

China vows to pursue balanced trade with US

SHANGHAIFeb A top Chinese official on Sunday vowed Beijing would pursue more balanced trade with the United States, as the country's Vice President Xi Jinping prepares for an official US visit.

Xi, the country's leader-in-waiting, is likely to face a barrage of complaints over China's allegedly discriminatory trade policies when he visits the United States in the coming week.

Trade tensions between the world's two largest economies are on the rise as US President Barack Obama seeks to spark economic growth and create jobs -- and bids for re-election -- by attacking the deep US trade deficit with China.

China's Vice Minister of Commerce, Gao Hucheng, said both countries should make efforts to address the imbalance.

“The imbalance in bilateral trade is a fact,” Gao was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying.

“Both sides must gradually resolve it in the course of adjusting the economic structure.” The US trade deficit with China reached a record high of more than $295 billion in 2011, according to US figures.

Gao said the United States could sell more to China if Washington would loosen its export controls, particularly for technology products.

Washington should also be “fair” to Chinese companies seeking to invest in the United States, he said.

In the report, Gao made no mention of the value of China's yuan currency, a perennial sticking point with the United States.

US officials have long accused China of keeping its currency artificially low to boost its exports.

But China defends its exchange rate regime, saying it is moving gradually to make the yuan more flexible.

AFP