Thursday Sep 19, 2024
Thursday Sep 19, 2024
Tuesday, 2 December 2014 00:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Staged at a number of venues across the region, the Jaffna IT Week will include a Future Careers Program cum exhibition on 3 and 4 December at the Vembadi Girls’ High School. It will be followed by an IT/BPM Export Forum staged at the Tilko City Hotel on 5 December. This will be followed by the Jaffna IT Conference, which will be held at the Kailasapathy Auditorium of the Jaffna University on 6 December.
The Future Careers’ program cum exhibition will be organised by ICTA, SLASSCOM and the Education Ministry. Targeting schoolchildren this program cum exhibition will try to educate them about the IT/BPM industry both in Sri Lanka and overseas. It will open their eyes to the wide range of possibilities and job opportunities available within the sector.
The program on the penultimate day, 5 December, will consist of a one-day workshop on exports/entrepreneurship, sponsored by the Export Development Board (EDB), tailor-made for would-be entrepreneurs and businesses. The Jaffna IT Conference held on the JIW’s last day will be hosted by the Jaffna University. Focused on IT undergraduates of State Universities, island-wide, this conference will be an ideal opportunity for exposure to the core of the country’s IT industry. Some of the country’s leading IT/BPM sector personalities are lined up to be featured at this conference, thus opening up avenues and opportunities otherwise and difficult to access.
A media conference was held in Colombo recently both to launch the Jaffna IT Week and brief the media and through them the public about the Jaffna IT Week. The web-site www.jaffnaitweek.com was also launched at this media briefing held at Hotel Taj Samudra, Colombo.
ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura, SLASSCOM Vice Chairman and Jaffna IT Week Convener Mano Sekaram, SLASSCOM Executive Director Dharshan Cooray, Virtusa Senior Vice President and General Manager and SLASSCOM Emeritus Chairman Madu Ratnayake, SLEDB Chairman/CEO Bandula Egodage, and Jaffna University Senior Lecturer Dr. A. Ramanan also participated in the media briefing.
Aimed at literally take the IT/BPM sector to the north it will cater specially to budding entrepreneurs, keen undergraduates and young school children still choosing a career path. Thus this event will reach out to everyone, and will be the starting point of similar initiatives in other parts of the country.
Building regional ICT capacity is necessary for inclusive growth and the IT/BPM industry can assist greatly in reducing regional disparity in economic growth. Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM sector has taken less than 15 years to become the country’s fifth largest exporter. In 2013, export revenue grew to an estimated $ 720 million, total employment increased to 33,700 and companies in the industry now stand at over 220.
Today, the Western Province contributes over 95% of IT/BPM exports. The creation of ‘Second Tier Cities’ will empower regions and would see a paradigm shift from being Colombo-centric to regional-centric IT development. Furthermore, it has been identified that the proliferation of ICT in provincial regions is the fastest way of developing marginalised areas.
The concept of ‘IT Weeks’ will promote the creation of second tier cities and lay the foundation on which further development can take place. Jaffna, Kandy and Hambantota have shown potential to be developed as regional hubs. This is so given the infrastructure already in place, current and planned development, and their capacity to generate skilled workforces (through existing schools and universities etc.)
In Jaffna, over four days, the Jaffna IT Week will feature key Government stakeholders and Sri Lanka’s top IT industry thought leaders and tech entrepreneurs. It will be a significant event, not only for the promotion of IT in Jaffna but also in terms of bridging the digital divide and bringing about reconciliation.
