• Govt. to invest in ICT infrastructure and talent development
• Plans to produce software engineers to bolster dollar income

The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) plans to escalate service sector revenue to $ 5 billion by 2030, after the sector recorded $ 3.1 billion in 2023 and the ICT sector recorded $ 1.2 billion, The Daily Morning Business learns.

Speaking to The Daily Morning Business, EDB Chairperson and CEO Mangala Wijesinghe said: “There are 85,000 ICT sector proposals available in Sri Lanka. We are planning plenty of infrastructural facilities, training and development to facilitate the ICT sector, with the target of increasing the service export revenue to $ 5 billion by 2030.”

Wijesinghe added that currently, they are negotiating with other educational institutions to produce more software engineers, allowing the country to improve the BPM system and boost the dollar income.

Moreover, the EDB participated in the 18th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business 2024 (APK 2024) that was held in New Delhi from 24–26 October, where they emphasised the government’s new approach to gain more exporters with the new anti-corruption policy, the transparency and procurement system, and digitalisation in all government institutions.

According to the EDB, they are anticipating implementing “the single window” concept, focused on simplifying the approval process by integrating the key institutions together. Further, It is anticipated that this strategy will speed up approvals and lessen the difficulties the exporters currently face when finding new markets.

Exporters frequently struggle to find buyers and keep track of the required paperwork. This technology aims to streamline these procedures in line with the government’s new digitisation ambitions, facilitating quicker and smoother commercial transactions for exporters.

Additionally, the new government is also planning to expand the export basket. The country is exporting 2,900 products now. By 2030, they are planning to increase it to 5,000 products.

There are already 4,435 exporters, and EDB intends to expand that number. To that end, they anticipate to begin with the four regional centres, Galle, Kurunegala, Kandy, and Jaffna. They intend to produce and identify entrepreneurs at the village level and develop certain export-oriented entrepreneurs, particularly in the SME sectors.

“We are negotiating with relevant funding organisations because we want to get their support to further develop and strengthen these entrepreneurs. We have to give them more training and development. We have to find out what’s the bias for their products. These are the new activities we are planning to achieve,” he added.