EDB drives Sri Lanka’s ICT sector to penetrate Japanese market

EDB will continue to support Sri Lanka’s participation in Japan IT Week 2017 ‍from 10-12 May at Tokyo Big Sight in Japan. The Sri Lanka pavilion, which will be present at the Software and Apps Development Expo (SODEC) could be a launch pad for Sri Lankan ICT companies to enter the Japanese market.

Japan IT Week (http://www.japan-it.jp/en/) is Japan’s largest ICT trade show where you can find the latest ICT technology and solutions. A number of information systems managers, management executives, sales managers, system integrators and managers from IT system divisions will visit Japan IT Week to personally conduct business with exhibitors.

Sri Lankan pavilion at Japan IT Week 2016

EDB has helped Sri Lanka’s ICT industry penetrate the Japanese market since 2014. Having identified the potential of the Japan ICT market, EDB organised an ICT sector interest group on the Japanese market and organised an exposure visit to Japan IT Week in 2014. The Sri Lankan Embassy in Japan arranged meetings for the delegation with institutions such as Japan Information Technology Service Industry Association (JISA), the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI), the Japan Users Association of Information Systems (JUAS), FUJITSU, CANNON IT Solutions Inc. and JETRO Japan. 

As a follow-up to this visit, Japanese media representatives visited Sri Lanka in 2014 and EDB arranged meetings for them with local ICT organisations. The media published positive media reports in a leading Japanese newspaper. With these initiatives, the Japanese Government also identified the Sri Lankan ICT sector as a prospective sector for software development collaboration. 

EDB facilitated the country’s participation in Japan IT Week in May 2015 with it being represented by six ICT companies. It also organised participation for CEATEC 2015, with the assistance of JETRO in October of the same year, where another six Sri Lankan ICT companies were introduced to the Japanese market. In all these initiatives, the Sri Lankan delegation had successful meetings with officials from the Japan Information Technology Services Industry Association (JISA) and Japan Users Association of Information Systems (JUAS). As a result of this relationship, JISA signed an MoU with its Sri Lankan counterpart SLASSCOM in November 2015 in Colombo for mutual cooperation in the ICT industry. At the beginning of 2016, JISA sent a Japanese ICT delegation to Colombo. 

Some of the Sri Lanka seminar participants at JITW 2016

In 2016 EDB once again organised Sri Lanka’s participation in Japan IT Week (http://www.japan-it.jp/en/) in May with nine ICT companies and with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Embassy in Japan and JETRO Colombo. The event was considered Japan’s largest IT exhibition with over 1,400 exhibitors and about 90,000 visitors consisting of  13 parallel exhibition sectors such as Software & Apps Development, Big Data, Data Storage, Information Security, Web & Digital Marketing,  Data Center, Cloud Computing, Mobile Solutions, IoT/M2M , Direct Commerce Solutions, Consumer IT Products and Store and Retail IT Solutions.  

After successful networking meetings and awareness seminars on the Sri Lankan ICT sector, the participants already clinched deals worth over $ 2 million with leading Japanese IT companies through joint ventures, business agents and sales agreements. This is a remarkable achievement as Japan is traditionally a market with slow progress compared to western countries. These newly generated businesses have opened the doors to new initiatives between both countries. 

A Japanese-owned ICT company in Sri Lanka Metatechno Lanka partnered hSenid Software International, another leading ICT company in Sri Lanka, to open the Lanka Nippon Biztech Institute (LNBTI) last July with the objective of creating ICT professionals suited for Japanese companies with the Japanese language skills. 

Furthermore, Adam Innovations, a company based in Japan, organised an investment promotion visit and set up the Global IT (GIT) Park in Niigata Prefecture in Japan and invited Sri Lankan IT companies to establish their presence in GIT Park. Five Sri Lankan ICT companies have already set up their offices in this park. As part of these ongoing initiatives, arrangements were made by the EDB to organise B2B networking meetings in Japan early next year in addition to the Sri Lanka participation in Japan IT Week 2017.  

For more details on Japanese promotional events, including the Sri Lanka pavilion at Japan IT Week 2017, please visit the EDB website www.srilankabusiness.com/edb/announcements.html.