Sri Lanka's First women’s BPO Launched in Uduvil to Commemorate International Women's Day

11th March 2012, www.sundayobserver.lk

ICTA launched the first women’s rural BPO on March 8 to commemorate International Women's day. It is also the third rural BPO to be launched. This BPO, in the Jaffna District, is being launched in partnership with the Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunities.

This initiative is not only the very first in the Northern Province but it is also the very first women’s BPO in the country, a senior ICTA spokesperson said. According to ICTA sources it is the outcome of successful collaboration between the ICTA which has been at the helm of driving ICT in rural areas and the Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunity, FARO a non profit organisation that actively supports employment generation in rural areas by outsourcing business processes of Colombo-based blue chip companies to the village.

This new BPO, named after the Founder of the School is the Eliza Agnew BPO Service Centre is hosted at the Uduvil Girls’ College in Jaffna. Partnering FARO on this venture is Hayleys Business Solutions International (Pvt) Ltd., HBSI (Pvt) Ltd who is very enthusiastic about their foray into rural areas with outsourcing work. The Company was closely involved in the project from the onset – in selecting operators, training and equipping the Centre.

ICTA sees this as a very important milestone in its efforts at taking the benefits of ICT to every village and every citizen. More importantly it supports the Government of Sri Lanka in its efforts at ensuring an equitable development of the country. The e-Society program of ICTA has implemented over 200 ICT based projects across the country. These projects have delivered to the door step of rural communities a host of valuable services – crop price information delivered to farmers via their mobiles; coordinates for fishing locations delivered to fisherman via their mobiles; text-to- Braille software which opens up the Internet and e-mail up for the visually impaired; e-learning software that makes learning fun for children.

The very first rural BPO was opened in Mahavilachchiya in the Anuradhapura District.

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.

Related Info :

• Sri Lanka Eyes Legal Process Outsourcing with LPO Conference Initiated by International Association of Young Lawyers AIJA

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

• NY Times Highlights Sri Lanka’s Contribution to Global Outsourcing - Accountants & Accounting Services BPO