Sri Lanka’s IT industry export revenue could go up to even USD 10 billion per annum if the right focus and thinking are in place, Softlogic Holdings PLC Chairman Ashok Pathirage said.
He was addressing the media on the partnership forged between Softlogic Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Softlogic Holdings PLC and one of the world’s leading ICT solutions providers, Huawei in Colombo last week.
“We certainly could reach a higher target than USD 3 billion in IT exports revenue if the country has the human resources for which the partnership between the two renowned entities for IT solutions will enable Sri Lanka to the required workforce for the industry,” Pathirage said. Sri Lanka’s IT/BPO export revenue has been close to USD 1.2 billion. The partnership encompasses providing Enterprise Solutions, Cloud and AI to bring innovative ICT solutions to the Sri Lankan market.
“If the IT industry can grow by around -40 percent per annum the country could achieve the envisaged economic growth rate of between five to six percent,” Pathirage said, adding that the world tide over many hurdles during the height of the pandemic shows the potential of the IT industry.
Huawei Technologies Lanka Co (Pvt) Ltd Enterprise Business Group Vice President Indika De Zoysa said around 10 percent of Huawei’s global revenue is invested on research and development globally.
“We cannot quantify the investment component in Sri Lanka but since launching operations over two decades ago have invested on capacity development in education and many other key sectors,” Zoysa said.
According to the World Bank, the global economy is worth USD 86.598 trillion, of which the digital economy contributes approximately 15% of the overall GDP and is anticipated to grow to 24.3% by 2025 (UNCTAD).
Softlogic Information Technologies Chief Executive Officer/Director RoshanRassool said in the past decade many revolutions have taken place – the internet revolution, the mobile revolution and even the social media revolution: however there are a lot of organisations in Sri Lanka that have not adapted to these changes. What we are trying to do at Softlogic is to help them transform digitally.
Huawei Sri Lanka CEO, Liang Yi said, “The partnership with Softlogic will enable us to provide innovative solutions to the Sri Lankan market, mainly using the disruptive technologies of Huawei such as cloud, connectivity, AI and Smart City technologies. We have established a competitive information and communications technology (ICT) portfolio of end-to-end solutions in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing.”
“In today’s world, collaborative smart ecosystems are essential in a modern, connected office, which leverages cloud capabilities to deliver a seamless user-centric experience, designed to enhance the way teams work together wherever they work from,” Liang Yi said.
He said that Softlogic Technologies’ IT sector provides a platform for Huawei to provide a range of solutions along the IT value chain that could cater to the ICT landscape as well as a number of other industries including Education, Healthcare, Retail and Transport.