Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) – the premier IT industry body of Sri Lanka – intends to achieve US$ 5 billion in IT/software exports by 2022.
Global value of IT Services industry in 2019 was around $ 790 billion with the neighbouring India earning about $ 137 billion and Sri Lanka’s share is less than $ 2 billion.
“Given that the IT/Software industry was exempted from the corporate income tax by the newly-elected Government, it provides an excellent opportunity to attract big IT/BPO foreign investments into Sri Lanka,” Virtusa Sri Lanka Chief Information Officer Madu Ratnayake pointed out.
He expressed this view at a meeting attended by IT leaders in the country under the patronage of Export Development Board (EDB) Chairman Prabhash Subasinghe.
As President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is well acquainted with the IT industry, they could expect a lot of assistance from the Government he remarked.
Ratnayake stated that Europe, the US, and Australia had been identified as the main target markets by the industry.
EDB Chiarman Subasinghe shared his optimism with the industry leaders about the potential of the IT/BPO and promised that the EDB would wholeheartedly support the development of the industry under his leadership.
IT/BPM sector has been one of the six focus sectors identified by the EDB as per the National Export Strategy (NES), and the EDB had undertaken a large number of initiatives to promote the sector in Sri Lanka over the last few years.
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