As a result of the initiative taken by the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka in collaboration with EDB in order to expand the ‘Export Basket of Sri Lanka’ under the Government’s priorities to double the export foreign income, the Embassy chose the ICT sector as an opportunity gateway for Sri Lankan IT companies as the UAE has modified their ICT sector under the ‘Smart City Concept’, which has the fastest e-gate system among the Middle East countries.
Chairman of the EDB Suresh De Mel opened the session with a brief introduction and indicated the importance of the ICT sector which currently earns over 1 billion USD for Sri Lanka and thanked the Mission for exchanging market intelligence information with Sri Lankan companies. Chairman of the Sri Lanka Business Council in UAE Suren Swaminathan shared their business experience in UAE and highlighted the fact that the Emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah have grown fast in the ICT sector and there are plenty of joint venture opportunities for the Sri Lankan ICT sector in the UAE market.
Ambassador of Sri Lanka to UAE Malraj De Silva requested Sri Lankan ICT professionals in UAE to assist Sri Lankan youths to find new employment opportunities in the UAE market and help them to participate in Bidding/Tender procedures in UAE. Further, the Ambassador highlighted that Sri Lanka can gain cost effective benefits under ‘Outsource Business Model’ instead of establishment of a company in UAE.
The CEO of John Keels IT Ramesh Shanmuganathan sharing their company’s best practices, mentioned how the John Keels overcame challenges when they established an IT business in the UAE before 20 years.
There were over 125 participants including Sri Lanka Professional Association in UAE, Sri Lanka IT Professional Associations (SLITPA) in UAE, Sri Lanka Business Council Dubai, the staff members of the Embassy as well as the Consulate General of Dubai.
At the end of the webinar, the forum decided to work together for creating opportunities for Sri Lankan ICT companies to showcase Sri Lankan products to UAE market as well as to establish links with the leading business partners of UAE, through the ‘Business Committee’ of SLITPA.
