FITIS welcomes lifting of temporary suspension of computer, IT hardware products

Chairman Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe

HW Chapter President Gnanam Sellathurrai

 The Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS) yesterday welcomed the lifting of temporary suspension of computer and hardware products as a much needed boost for the entire IT industry.

FITIS previously highlighted the consequences given the suspension imposed and the impacts on the technological backbone and economy. Whilst highlighting the issues, FITIS lobbied its concerns to relevant authorities and officials. 

ICTA too played a pivotal role in communicating the concerns enumerated by FITIS to the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Technology, Treasury/Department of Trade and Investment Policy in parallel given its stature as the apex agency for IT, in addition to FITIS’s solo pursuits.

Further, many other bodies namely EDB, Chambers, Industry Associations and other ICT bodies in industry etc. all came together as “one” to reinforce FITIS’ humble plea. 

“FITIS wishes to express its deep gratitude and thanks to all who rallied around for the greater interest of the sustenance of the ICT and all dependent Industries here in Sri Lanka,” it said in a statement. 

“This move enables all of our member organisations and their allied partners to have sufficient stocks to cater to the day-to- day requirements of the Industry in order to keep the technology backbone alive and up to date,” it added. 

FITIS Chairman Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe said: “I am happy for the lift of the temporary suspension and our objective is to assure that enough products are available to maintain the current technology ecosystems. Now we need to find solutions for dollar issues for imports. We thank everyone who supported us.”

FITIS President HW Chapter Gnanam Sellathurrai said: “We realised and analysed the consequences and alerted the relevant authorities about the impact of the ban and now we hope our members and channel partners will focus on the stock’s availability in the country. As the apex Body of ICT, we have managed our members and channel partners very professionally by providing real updates, keeping them in a comfortable zone with great trust on the authorities.”

“I want to thank everyone who really put their effort in lifting this temporary suspension. Especially, FITIS CEO Dinesh Sattrukalsinghe for his tireless effort in coordinating with various authorities during our effort to lift this ban. Still, we are facing dollar shortages for our imports, so the short supply situation of the products will continue for some time. We started our internal discussion on this dollar issue and hope we will get a positive result in due course,” Gnanam added.