Target for $3 b ICTA industry as planned

The target to make US$ 3 billion ICT industry in three years from the current $ 1.5 billion is underway with the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) incubating 450 start-ups by year-end, officials said.

“In the next year, we aim to have 600 start-ups and bring it to 1000 more startups. Within three years we need startups to bring the industry to the targeted $3 billion,” Oshada Senanayake, Chairman Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRC) told the Business Times recently. The ICTA aims to create funding for local start-ups or to collaborate with angel funds.

“ICTA will mentor the start-ups. The aim is to create more innovation than products. So far, we have more service-oriented businesses in the industry such as call centres etc. We want to create more local accounting, HR management, software etc,” Mr. Senanayake added. He said the digital economy in Sri Lanka, estimated to be $3.47 billion or 4.37 per cent of GDP, is gradually emerging.

“Sri Lanka’s ICT/BPM workforce is supposed to reach 300,000 from 125,000 in 2018, which would then be supporting the target of $3 billion,” he said. He pointed out that to climb the ease of doing business indices Sri Lanka needs to get rid of archaic procedures and automate certain procedures. “We are engaging and enabling the ICT industry to do this for us by designing local software products and thereby creating a local reference to be a springboard to build metro products and go global with them.”

He pointed out that the goal is to build a digital economy driven by technology entrepreneurs to increase the export and foreign earnings from the technology sector and related knowledge services. “ICTA is also working on an ambitious plan with the industry and the relevant regulatory entities to bridge the country’s digital divide, creating an inclusive digital ecosystem. It is a fundamental necessity to building the technology-based society,” he added.

He said ICTA is now conducting regional roadshows. The first one was done in March in Jaffna, in June the southern regional start-up hub was created while the central province roadshow to Kandy, Anuradhapura, Matale, and Kegalle was launched last month. The regional start-up hub for the central province was set up in Kandy, Mr. Senanayake added. “The best Internet of Things (IoT) start-up was from the northern regional start-up hub.”