ICTA plans BPO centres for rural areas

Hiran H. Senewiratne

BPO CENTRES: The Government intends to set up Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centres for local industries in rural areas in a bid to promote this concept to the level of exporting services, Managing Director/CEO -Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) Manju Hattotuwa said.

ICTA is now taken a keen interest on this matter and wants to include BPO skills in the school curriculum with the assistance of the Ministry of Education.

Under this programme they will provide IT and English language skills for schoolchildren especially A/L students to prepare them for this attractive career, he said.

Hattotuwa expects school children to be equipped with certain skills for future BPO jobs by enhancing negation language skill, English knowledge and IT skills for them.

They also pay more emphasis on language skills for the purpose of exporting BPO services to other countries, which could be promoted in Sri Lanka as a BPO hotspot in the region, he said.

Hattotuwa said that they would initially concentrate on the local BPO centres targeting at local industries especially in rural areas and that would ultimately be matured to export BPO centres level/standard.

The BPO centres, which are stationed in urban areas, will be export overseas, he said.

He said that certain blue-chip companies have started local BPO centres locally to retail outlets in the Sinhala and Tamil languages, which is a good sign to promote the export BPO market in the future.

India is the leader in the BPO industry and we could penetrate the BPO market through the Indian Asia Free Trade Agreement.

Sri Lanka has a good business climate and well educated and a widely travelled population. They have an international outlook and a good working ethic, he said. In view of the current situation Sri Lanka could become a BPO hotspot, he said.