SLASSCOM Congratulates President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

December 3, 2019

SLASSCOM congratulated President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his election as the 7th Executive President of Sri Lanka. In a letter addressed to the President, SLASSCOM Chairman Ranil Rajapakse stated that he is delighted to see the importance of developing the knowledge economy feature prominently in the priorities published as part of the President’s mandate.

Ranil Rajapakse stated, “We are heartened to see your commitment to grow our economy through a strong technology and innovation-based approach to make Sri Lanka a global innovation hub. We appreciate your interest in fostering development in the areas of Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology, Robotics, Nanotechnology, and Cloud Computing, and look forward to your support to grow the industry on emerging technologies. Your vision to make Sri Lanka a digitally inclusive country, to create 300,000 job opportunities in the areas of IT/Software Engineering, Business Process Outsourcing and Knowledge Process Outsourcing, and to develop these sectors as a USD 3 billion industry by 2025 aligns well with the SLASSCOM 2022 Vision. We are committed to work alongside the government to serve for the betterment the country. Along with the SLASSCOM Board, we will extend our support to make your vision a reality”.

Responding to the tax concessions and reforms last week, Mr. Rajapakse continued, “As the industry chamber, we are delighted to see the decision to remove all taxes from IT and Enabling Services. We are confident this will propel the Knowledge Solutions sector to be the most significant contributor in the national economy in the years ahead, in addition to being the sector with the highest value-addition”.

SLASSCOM is the national chamber for the knowledge and innovation industry in Sri Lanka and acts as the catalyst of growth for the industry by facilitating trade and business, propagation of education and employment, encouraging research and innovation, and by supporting the creation of a progressive national policy.