SLASSCOM hails Lankan entry in to Gartner’s Top offshore IT list

Saturday, 25 December 2010 00:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lankan Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) yesterday hailed the inclusion of Sri Lanka in the list of top 30 destinations for offshore IT services by Gartner Inc.

“Gartner’s inclusion of Sri Lanka on the Top 30 clearly outlined the potential of Sri Lankan IT/BPO industry. We are pleased to note Sri Lanka is ranked among the top emerging counties for outsourcing by Gartner,” SLASSCOM Chairman Dinesh Saparamadu said in a statement.

“Our focus is to build the industry to become a 1 billion US dollar export industry by 2015 from our current position of $ 390 million. We need to continue to focus on building market awareness, driving capacity expansions and making our incentives and national policy framework globally competitive. We have built a strong foundation and a productive partnership with the government to drive the growth of the industry,” Saparamadu added.

Gartner, Inc. has identified the Top 30 countries for globally sourced activities in 2010-2011, each one rated according to 10 criteria*, and found that eight new countries have made their debut in the Top 30. Many organisations that choose to move IT services to lower-cost countries are daunted by the task of determining which country or countries would best host their operations.

“This year the Top 30 countries are exclusively emerging nations,” said Ian Marriott, research vice president at Gartner.” As the pace of change is slower in developed countries we have chosen to focus on those locations that are still maturing and developing, domestically and internationally.”

Nine countries from Asia/Pacific were represented in the 30 leading countries, compared with 10 in previous years.

Gartner’s Top 30 locations for offshore services in 2010 in Asia are (in alphabetical order) Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

SLASSCOM said in the past 12 months, Gartner has seen considerable efforts from many countries to consolidate or grow their positions as leading locations for offshore services. Emerging nations have placed significant emphasis on IT and business process services providing a vehicle for their economic growth, as many potential trading partners are moving from recession to tentative growth. The result of this is that eight new countries have moved into the Top 30 — five for the first time - Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Colombia, Mauritius and Peru — along with three re-entrants - Panama, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

SLASSCOM acts as the catalyst of growth for the Sri Lankan IT and BPO industry by facilitating trade and business, propagation of education and employment, encouragement of research and innovation, and by supporting the creation of a progressive national policy framework.