Japan’s first IT acceleration program to support SL IT companies | Daily News
Global IT Park Minami Uonuma, Japan celebrates second year anniversary

Japan’s first IT acceleration program to support SL IT companies

President, Adam Innovations Co., Ltd and Founder/CEO of Global IT Park Minami Uonuma, Kaushal Wawlagala
President, Adam Innovations Co., Ltd and Founder/CEO of Global IT Park Minami Uonuma, Kaushal Wawlagala

Global IT Park Minami Uonuma is Japan’s first IT acceleration programme to support Sri Lankan and foreign IT companies to develop next-generation technologies collaborating with Japanese companies. It was initiated by Adam Innovations Co. Ltd., together with Minami Uonuma City Council, Prefectural Government and International University of Japan, said President Adam Innovations Co. Ltd., and Founder/CEO of Global IT Park Minami Uonuma, Kaushal Wawlagala.

“Today, every business is a digital business. In every industry, traditional business models and processes are being transformed by the spread of new digital technologies and the rise of disruptive threats. If electricity is transformed manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution, the impact of digital technology today, is even greater. Digital Technologies are changing the constraints under which every business operates and practices innovation. We started Global IT Park in 2016, to support this endeavor. Many Japanese companies today, embrace digital technologies and seek new business models to thrive in this digital economy. However, it is not easy for them to do so by themselves. They need global tech partners, especially in the software side,” he said.

“We see that there is a great window of opportunity for Sri Lankan IT companies to penetrate into the Japanese market. Most Sri Lankan IT companies start looking at foreign markets from day one. They are good at following global technology trends, while being capable of developing cutting-edge technologies. They also have gained necessary experience and exposure working with foreign countries such as the US and Europe. Our main idea is to help such IT companies to come to Japan and collaboratively work with Japanese companies,” he said.

“Until recently, Japanese companies outsourced software development to China and Vietnam to reduce their cost of operations. But today, software becomes the game changer. It drives the innovation both inside and outside of the company. Software-driven business models change the way business operates. For example, Japan’s number one industry today is automotive. Companies such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan, dominates the world’s automotive Industry. However, while the automotive industry today is undergoing a major transformation. Cars are turning into electric and gasoline engines are becoming obsolete. This will remove many automotive part manufacturers out of business. But, the biggest change is yet to come. That is the introduction of autonomous vehicles (driverless cars). In a driverless car, the software cost of the production is much higher than the hardware cost. This would become a large threat to traditional car makers such as Toyota and Nissan to compete with tech giants such as Google, Apple, Uber, as they are much stronger in software. Therefore, Japanese companies today are heavily investing in software technologies to retain their position,” he said.

“New technologies such as IoT, Machine Learning and other digital technologies are transforming businesses around the world. In Global IT Park, we support such tech companies to visit Japan and develop disruptive technologies for Japanese companies. Most of our projects are R & D level at the moment. For testing and commercialization phases, we try to take those projects to countries such as Sri Lanka and India, where we could bring many Japanese companies to Sri Lanka to embark on their new product development.”

Global IT Park Minami Uonuma, Japan, celebrated its second year anniversary recently.

“Our idea is that during the next decade, technologies would be more software driven, while hardware alone, does not add much value. We strongly believe that Global IT Park could help many Japanese companies to transform. We are getting plenty of attention from both the Japanese multinationals and SMEs,” he said.

“Global IT Park was initiated with a broad vision to attract 350 companies around the world. At its inception, we had 5 foreign IT companies from India and Sri Lanka, while today it has increased up to 8 companies. I am happy to say that there are 6 Sri Lankan IT companies among them,” he added.


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