Sri Lanka beckons Indian IT firms

Monday, 30 October 2006, 20:30 IST
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Bangalore: Sri Lanka's Science and Technology Minister Tissa Vitharana has invited Indian IT firms to invest in the island nation and help replicate India's success in the knowledge sector. "We want to benefit from the IT boom India has been riding on and prevent our talented engineers from leaving the country for greener pastures in the absence of a strong technology base," Vitharana told reporters at BangaloreIT.in, India's premier IT event. Visiting the exposition to gain a first-hand knowledge of the Indian tech industry, he said with about 95 percent literacy, Sri Lanka was in a position to create a knowledge workforce for software and IT-enabled services, including BPO and call centres. "We want the Indian IT industry to make best use of our resources and assist our government in creating an eco-system for replicating India's success story in the knowledge sector." The island nation is also interested in promoting high-tech industries, especially in nano-technology and chip design and semiconductor. "Though our industrial base is small, it is quite flexible. We offer overseas investors fiscal incentives such as tax holiday, interest subsidy and freedom to repatriate profits, besides quality infrastructure, including energy and land," Vitharana pointed out. The Sri Lankan minister is in India with an all-party delegation to study the Panchayat Raj system the island nation is planning to implement.
Source: IANS