Sri Lankan ICT industry will be represented at the world’s largest ICT exposition – CeBIT 2008, with the patronage of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

CeBIT ranks as the biggest and world’s No.1 trade show and a market place for ICT sector worldwide. It is expected to have exhibitors from around 75 countries and expected number of visitors were approx. 500,000 from all over the world.

The participating Sri Lankan companies will display their ICT products and services in the Sri Lanka pavilion located in the business solutions, banking and finance and outsourcing section of the exhibition. Participating Sri Lankan companies are in the fields of ERP Solutions, BPO and KPO services, Consultancy support services in ICT, HR Solutions and Mobile solutions etc.

There is a steady growth in the Sri Lankan ICT export sector during last several years, As per the Central Bank statistics. exports of ICT sector in 2006 was US$170 mn. This growth of the ICT export sector has been reflected in the increase of ICT export companies during the last several years. There are more than 250 ICT exporting companies operating in the country. Most of these companies are in the small and medium scale and one of their major constraints is finding steady customers from international markets for their products and services

In this respect, it is expected that participation in a global exposition like CeBIT would help for these companies to interact closely with international ICT buyers and partners. In addition , participating companies of a trade exposition in magnitude of CeBIT would accrue benefits such as getting exposure to the global ICT market place , familiarisation with new technology trends , understanding the ICT market trends and meeting the competition apart from the direct business generations.

Contingent of Sri Lankan ICT companies at CeBIT 2008 also expect to meet Swedish ICT companies after their participation at CeBIT 2008. Scandinavian market has been identified as one of the most potential ICT market for the Sri Lankan ICT exporters. Among these Scandinavian markets, Sweden has become the international pace setter in meeting between telecommunication and IT. This convergence specially in the mobile sector became one of the important sectors for the Sri Lankan ICT exporters to identify Sweden as a important country to enter into Scandinavia and also to European markets. Participating Sri Lankan ICT companies look forward to generate fruitful business linkages, strategic alliances with their Swedish counterparts.