Sri Lanka Targets 200,000 Job By 2022 In IT Sector

The Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITISL) plans to increase Sri Lanka’s IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES) exports to US$5 billion, while providing employment to 200,000 by 2022, FITISL Chairman Dr. Kithsiri Manchanayake said on July 31.

Last year, IT and ITES exports fetched US$786 million, which has since grown to US$ 1.2 billion, a US$ 414 million, a 52.7 per cent growth, FITIS Vice President Prasad Hettiarachchi said.

Manchanayake who was speaking at the launch of Infotel 2018, which took place in a Colombo hotel, said the current workforce employed by the IT and ITES numbered 80,000. The FITISL Chairman further said, Infotel 2018 which will be held at the BMICH in November plans to reach out to 40,000 students. He also said it will comprise a total of 100 exhibitors of whom 20 will be foreign.

“Any company that doesn’t embrace new technology is good as dead,” he warned. Sri Lanka Telecom Chief Marketing Officer Ajantha Seneviratne who also spoke at this occasion said that Sri Lanka is only in the kindergarten of the digital economy.

“Social and cultural transformation should go hand in hand with digitization, otherwise we will fall back to square one,” he cautioned. The hurdles that digitization must overcome are both socio-economic and sociopolitical challenges, Seneviratne added.