TATA Communications and Co-sponsor Orion City. The
hospitality partner of the summit was The Kingsbury hotel
Colombo and Hemas travel joined as the travel partner. Daily
FT and Daily mirror partnered with the People Summit
as print media partner whilst e-fm joined as the electronic
media partner. The Digital media partner was ReadMe and
the educational media partner was LearnTV.
IT/BPM INDUSTRY
UPBEAT ABOUT
BUDGET 2016:
SLASSCOM
As the national IT/BPM Chamber of Sri Lanka,
SLASSCOM is encouraged by the Budget 2016, which
has taken into consideration the needs of the country’s
flourishing IT/BPM industry and has allocated funds to
support initiatives that are vital to the growth of the industry.
idea per person, with a tenure of three years. The facility
is to be made available to at least 1,000 graduates. These
advances will be granted based purely on the business plans
and will not require any collateral.
Commenting on the Budget, SLASSCOM Chairman Mano
Sekaram stated: “We are encouraged by this export-friendly
Budget, which supports the IT/BPM industry’s three main
initiatives – first, to brand and promote the Lankan IT
industry globally to attract FDI and customers, second, to
strengthen the startup ecosystem and third, investment in
education. We are pleased that our proposals have been
incorporated into the 2016 Budget. The key aspect however,
will be the implementation of these proposals and the
Finance Minister has agreed to an Oversight Committee
consisting of SLASSCOM and Government officials, who
will collectively engage in overseeing the implementation
activities.”
Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake in his Budget
speech said, “To say that the Sri Lankan IT/BPM industry
has been operating below the radar is an understatement. It
is time to make a statement to the world that the country is
in business, and showcase the true potential in the industry.”
It is commendable that the Government has understood
the importance of showcasing IT industry’s true potential
globally, by allocating sums of Rs. 100 million for promotional
activity. The Government, through the Export Development
Board (EDB), will provide 50% (Rs. 100 million) out of the
total budgeted cost for benchmarking and promotional
activity, while SLASSCOM will match the effort by infusing
another Rs. 100 million.
This revitalising focus on the IT/BPM industry by the
Government will certainly aid SLASSCOM in achieving its
‘Vision 20§22’, an aspiration that foresees the Sri Lankan
IT sector becoming a $ 5 billion industry, creating 200,000
direct jobs and enabling the launch of 1,000 startups.
The Government has recognised and shown support to
the 1,000 Startup Program launched by SLASSCOM, by
proposing to initiate a loan scheme through State banks that
provide loans up to a maximum of Rs. 1.5 million per viable
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