Surge in demand for ICT products in SL

Indunil HEWAGE

The Sri Lankan ICT industry has been eventful in the recent past due to surging local customer demand for ICT related products. The increased knowledge in ICT among urban consumers have created a need to explore the many options IT offers prior to making an IT purchase.

Sri Lanka is expected to sell 650,000 personnel computers by 2014. Consumers are now aware of the latest IT developments and are also aware of outdated technology. This is clearly shown with the increase in consumer interest and sales of notebooks over desktops over the past year. The demand for ICT related products is far greater than it has ever been,” PCH marketing Head Riswan Anise said.

During the last couple of years, various brands were launched and few withdrew. Many new technologies were launched here almost immediately after they were launched abroad.

The market has begun to show similar behaviour as developed markets. Few industry players have identified the growth potential the industry possesses and had capitalize on it.

According to the Sri Lankan Information Technology forecast, the addressable domestic IT market is expected to grow from US $ 393 million in 2011 to over US $ 742 million over the next five year period. According to a survey conducted by the Export Development Board(EDB), Sri Lanka had 147 ICT companies and 28 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies and these two sectors consist of around16,800 skilled workforce. The top three markets for Sri Lankan IT exports are Europe (UK and Ireland), USA,South Asia and the major BPO markets are New Zealand, Asia mature markets, Middle East and Canada.

“Even though the local industry is still considered to be in its nascent stage, it is happy to note that many high profile investors particularly Infosys-India and other IT related companies have expressed willingness to invest in the IT and Information Technology enabled service industry in Sri Lanka, EDB sources said.