Home » News »

Absolutely poverty-free Sri Lanka by 2020, predicts PB

 

Dr. P.B. Jayasundare‘Sri Lanka will have attained the status of an advanced middle-income country by 2020, absolutely free of poverty, Dr. P.B. Jayasundare, Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Planning observed last week after the IT/BPM Industry Review 2014 was presented to him at the Institute of Policy Studies in Colombo.

The IT/BPM Industry Review 2014 indicated that export revenue earned by the industry grew to US$ 720 million in 2013 from US$ 213 million in 2007 while total employment increased to 75,100 from 33,700 in the corresponding period.

“Your review’s future outlook indicates that you have set your vision to achieve US$ 5 billion in exports by 2022 while generating 200, 000 jobs, and creating 1,000 startups. But I want to see that target achieved by 2020. My ambitions are more passionate than yours,” he said with good humour.

Madu Ratnayake, Chairman SLASSCOM, speaking at the event said, “Our global brand position improved significantly during the last five years. ATKearney ranked Sri Lanka among the top 25 destinations in their global ranking in the last three consecutive rankings. Gartner ranked Sri Lanka among the top 30 global locations. IBM, Tholons and several others ranked Sri Lanka at the top of their respective leader boards. The recent ‘Outsourcing Destination of the Year’ award in the UK by the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) was a true validation of the tremendous progress we’ve been able to achieve.”

By Sanath Nanayakkare
Source: The Island (Sri Lanka)