EDB targets US$ 5bn ITC exports by 2022 | Daily News

EDB targets US$ 5bn ITC exports by 2022

By year 2022, the Export Development Board (EDB) targets a US$ 5 billion industry export on ICT/BPM.

Owning a 7% share in the Export Product Composition, they had targeted foreign exchange earnings of US$ 1,312 million which they were able to achieve 73% in 2018. This was much higher than that of last year which was US$ 970 million. By 2019, they are targeting a foreign exchange earning of merchandize and services exports of US$ 1,660 million.

Data Science which is playing a major role in the present ICT industry is vital for the development of this industry in Sri Lanka. Hence, the EDB along with the University of Colombo, introduced a short term course on Data Science to the University curriculum. Twenty nine students were registered for this course. Further, they have also signed a MoA with University of Moratuwa, to introduce the same ICT concept to the university curriculum.

Moreover, another MoA was also signed with the SLIIT (Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology), to introduce IoT (Internet of Things) courses. IoT is the network of devices such as vehicles, home appliances that contain electronics, software, actuators and connectivity which permit these things to connect, interact and exchange data.

EDB has also successfully contributed to the Infotel 2018 Exhibition organized by the Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS). Launch of the ICT/BPM brand – Island of Ingenuity (IoI), in collaboration with the EDB and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), was another major initiative. IoI creates a global centre of excellence in high- end product engineering, IP creation and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO).

Southern IT/BPM week was organized in Matara to assist the Development of ICT regionally. Further, they also assisted in SLASSCOM surveys with the aim of providing maximum IT benefits to society.

Training programmes for SMEs were also organized to benefit and uplift them in their development.


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