Sri Lanka Among Top 20 Outsourcing IT/BPO Destinations - The Tholons 2012 Top 100

07th February 2012, www.island.lk

The Tholons 2012 Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations report identifies the top global cities and counties for outsourcing IT/BPO services. With the improvement in the country’s value proposition in IT/BPO, Sri Lanka is clearly emerging as a global sourcing destination in the region. The positive socio-political developments driven by the country’s improving security conditions have been highlighted as key reasons for attracting more companies focused on FAO (finance and accounting outsourcing) and Software Development, in addition to the vast pool of accountants and software engineers in Sri Lanka.


In this year’s report, fourteen cities have been cited from the South Asian region, with Colombo, Sri Lanka moving up the ranking by one position to number 19th position. The report highlights that South Asia is experiencing a continuing stream of investment from outsourced service providers with high- value solutions to across vertical specific industries.

Leveraging on the location advantages, recently the global IT/BPO company Mphasis (an HP Company), set up their delivery center in Colombo to provide high- value Finance Accounting Outsourcing services out of Sri Lanka. The leading BPO service provider, First Source entered Sri Lanka with a joint venture with Dialog. Several others have set operations during the last two years, adding to the fast growing IT/BPO exports out of Sri Lanka.

The reports goes on to state that the growth has also been accelerated by the conclusion of the 30-year civil strife in the northwestern region of the country paving the way for recovery and rehabilitation, serving to attract investments into the country. These positive developments in the country serves to move Colombo up one spot to 19th place this year, and remain as one of the top emerging cities in the report.

"Sri Lanka moving up the ranking highlights the improving strengths as an outsourcing destination. During the last two years, we witnessed steady expansion of existing players and a new interest from global companies to operate out of Sri Lanka. The IT/BPO and Knowledge Service industry is targeted to grow to become a billion dollar industry by 2015." said Madu Ratnayake, Vice President of SLASSCOM.

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Sri Lanka an Attractive Location for Finance & Accounting Outsourcing FAO BPO Operations. Has World’s Second Largest Pool of CIMA Professionals

14th March 2011, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka is becoming an attractive location for 'Finance and Accounting Outsourcing' (FAO) with the world’s second largest pool of management accountants and wages lower than India, a report said.

"The availability of a large pool of skilled finance and accounting professionals makes FAO one of the most logical niche competences to continue to build capacity," said Dinesh Saparamadu, chairman of Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Association (SLASSCOM).

"The key export markets for Sri Lankan FAO industry are USA, Europe and Asia Pacific regions."

Sri Lanka has been recognized as a service hub for financial services outsourcing globally for its niche competency, he said in a statement.

Many global companies, including UK Accounting and Legal Services Center of WNS, Investment Research Center of Amba Research, UK Banking Center of HSBC, and Finance & Accounting Center of RR Donnelley, have set up their delivery centres in Sri Lanka.

SLASSCOM has published an industry report on the FAO sector in Sri Lanka, prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers and sponsored by Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

It provides information on Sri Lanka's accounting talent and statistics about the FAO industry, which will help to market the island.

"Colombo is comparatively cost competitive and has a lower upward wage pressure than many established global sourcing destinations, and the country’s labour costs rank 15 – 20 percent lower than in India," the statement said.

"The attractiveness of the sector is also underscored by the availability of a sizable skilled workforce of finance and accounting professionals.

"Sri Lanka now has the world’s second largest pool of CIMA trained students and members outside of the UK."

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants is the world's largest professional body of management accountants.

The pool of students and fully qualified accounting professionals (including technicians) in Sri Lanka is estimated at around 86,000 and 25,000.

Higher education in accountancy is offered by five main professional accountancy bodies, 15 state universities and numerous foreign affiliated private universities operating in the country.

"Sri Lanka offers a rapidly growing skilled workforce which is low cost, highly productive, English speaking and loyal," said the statement by SLASSCOM, a Sri Lankan IT and BPO industry outfit.

In 2009, global consulting firm, AT Kearney, ranked Sri Lanka at number 16 on their top 20 global outsourcing destinations list, while Global Services Magazine ranked Colombo amongst their top 20 emerging outsourcing cities in the world.

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