Page 36 - CPM Sri Lanka-Chartered Manager-Sept. 2021

THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED PROFESSIONAL MANAGERS OF SRI LANKA
SEPTEMBER 2021

The Port City will also endeavor to attract foreign
startups to setup in Sri Lanka to serve regional
fast-growing markets such as India, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, etc. Plug and play offices, research labs
in emerging tech, modern amenities to ‘live, work,
learn, and play’ are some of the facilities Port City
has on offer. All this will create a thriving ecosystem
for startups and scaleups driving the innovation
quotient of Sri Lanka to higher levels.

Would it be correct to say that there is limited
potential to scale up traditional IT-BPM
sectors to achieve this export target? What
opportunities do you see in high value/ niche
sub-sectors that Sri Lanka will have a unique
competitive advantage in?

There is nothing called traditional IT-BPM sectors.
IT-BPM landscape is everchanging along with
business models. Sri Lankan companies in the
IT-BPM sector are well geared, equipped, and
skilled to meet and thrive in these ever-changing
environments. This aptitude is one key factor for us
to be identified as the “Island of Ingenuity”. While
covering various industries from Aerospace to
Defense, Manufacturing, Retail, BFI, Food, Service,
Automotive etc. in multiple emerging technologies
such as AI, IOT, AR, VR, Mixed Reality, Robotics to
name a few, it is the way we do things that gives we are moving up the value chain through niche
us a competitive advantage. Quality, creativity, IT-BPM product and service offerings. Sri Lanka has
inclusiveness, ESG are some key points of attraction an enviable track record in product engineering
we thrive on. and high value Finance and Accounting
Outsourcing. These are now being transformed
When envisioning the growth of the IT industry by adopting technologies such as AI/ML, Data
by almost 5x over the next four years, Analytics, Automation. SLASSCOM is also working
have you considered the availability of towards making Sri Lanka a creator of Intellectual
skilled workers and a consistent supply, in Property. Enabling local and foreign Products and
comparison to our big neighbor, India? Platform companies to register and protect their

Sri Lanka cannot be a scale player due to its IPs, facilitation of branding and ‘go to market’
limited population compared to some of the other programmes, attracting local and foreign capital
sourcing destinations in the region. But instead, will help us grow the industry exponentially. Having

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