lpo kpo Services Information

According to Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chief Executive Officer  Reshan Dewapura Sri Lanka is ideally suited as a venue for legal process outsourcing  (LPO). 

Dewapura said so while participating at the inauguration of ‘Sri Lanka’s First Outsourcing Conference, with a focus on LPO’ held at Cinnamon Grand, Colombo recently.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, (BASL) in collaboration with the International Association of Young Lawyers (Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats) (AIJA) held the international conference in partnership with ICTA.

“Events like this greatly help Sri Lanka  become  the ideal  IT/BPO destination and   ICTA is greatly honoured to be the Strategic Partner, at this significant event”, Dewapura added.

BASL President Shibly Aziz, PC who participated in the conference said: “This Conference on the theme ‘Outsourcing versus Restructuring – Challenges in international Business Structures,’ will go a long way in   creating awareness about Sri Lanka as a preferred destination of choice for LPO. “The AIJA with the active support of ICTA approached us wanting to have an international conference to popularise Sri Lanka as an outsourcing hub for legal services and we grabbed the opportunity. Thanks to this initiative, not only the lawyers but also the business people and the Government  will benefit from the inflow of foreign exchange”.

Addressing the conference  AIJA President Tanja Jussila, pointed out  the value of joining  the AIJA -1.Access to cutting edge Continued Legal Education-credited seminars at attractive price; (2) meeting professionals from all over the world and valuable to one’s own practice; (3) meeting leading and would-be leading lawyers, in-house counsels, bar leaders etc. face-to-face, based on personal knowledge.  

The Finnish Waselius and Wist partner said that AIJA founded 50 years ago (1962)  with a current active membership of more than 3000, was the only global association devoted to lawyers and in-house counsels aged 45 and younger. “We are recognized as the voice of the next generation of lawyers and work closely with sister organizations, bars and public institutions.” Jussila added. 

AIJA provides a forum for young lawyers, readily to adapt to trends including technological advances while maintaining the traditional hallmarks of the legal profession. It is the largest international association of young lawyers in the world aimed to promote professional cooperation and friendship among young career-building legal professionals. AIJA is a bilingual non-profit association, (www.aija.org)

During his address ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura explaining Sri Lanka’s suitability for LPO mainly on three plus points said: “ Sri Lanka is ideally suited as a venue for legal process outsourcing for several reasons. The main being the availability of highly skilled legal resources in this country, educated in the traditions of common law and benefitting from the hybrid system such as Roman Dutch Law inherent in our country. This, combined with the overall advantages of competitive rates and low attrition contributes greatly to Sri Lanka’s attractiveness for LPO.   

“There is a significant number of young English educated legal professionals, passing out from many institutions in Sri Lanka, who can be well engaged in this activity. These professionals will have the opportunity to further familiarize themselves and be engaged with, legal practices and processes of international jurisdictions such as the US and the EU. This in turn will provide a platform for international legal activity to take off on a much bigger scale, and create an echo system, for the improvement of commercial law in general, in this country. All this will no doubt contribute to our target of a Knowledge Hub”, ICTA CEO said succinctly exposing Sri Lanka’s suitability as an ideal venue for LPO. 

“Although we need to be cautious in fixing these targets, as much of this is dependent on the economic circumstances in other countries, looking at our past growth, and other enabling activities that we are implementing in the ICT sector, we feel these are certainly achievable. Sri Lanka has already earned a great reputation as a BPO destination. AT Kearney, Gartner, Tholons Global Services have all given due recognition to Sri Lanaka in their most recent surveys. More and more countries are looking to Sri Lanka for BPO opportunities, and hence the targets mentioned earlier are very realistic.

Stressing the national vision to make the optimum benefits of  ICT  accrue to the people and transform the country as a Dynamic Global Hub including Knowledge Hub, ICTA CEO said: “Our vision is to take the benefits of ICT to everyone, and use ICT as a tool to drive development. We aim to drive ICT to every growth sector in this country, and truly enable them, to maximise their opportunities, with the use of these new technologies. 

“As a country, in this era where Sri Lanka is moving steadily towards Economic Development, the Government is looking to transform the country into a Dynamic Global Hub in multiple sectors. One of the key areas among these, is the creation of a Knowledge Hub. It is no secret, that the growth of the ICT/BPO sector, will be a huge contributing factor to this effort.

“Both in the development of the Business Process Outsourcing industry, and in the creation or in the transformation of Sri Lanka to a Knowledge Hub, the KPO (or the Knowledge Process Outsourcing) activity will take centre stage, and is an area that great emphasis and focus has been placed on. Looking at the high-end nature of the work, the proficiency of the workforce, and the well developed and robust infrastructure, this is an area, which ideally fits into the “Niche” categorisation of Sri Lanka in this sector. 

Pointing out to the great strides made by Sri Lanka towards the  Knowledge Hub state ICTA CEO said: “There are a number of growth pillars in the KPO industry that have been identified, especially as areas of “niche” focus for Sri Lanka. FAO (Financial and Accounting Out-Sourcing), where Sri Lanka has already earned a name as a center of Excellence, Engineering Process Outsourcing, Excellence in Software products, especially in the Telecommunications and Finance sectors, are some among many in this area. Last but not least, and coming to the fore, more and more in the recent past, is LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing).

Giving a view of Sri Lanka’s achievements during the past five years in the IT/BPO  sector in financial terms the ICTA CEO said: “The Sri Lankan IT/BPO Industry has grown tremendously in the last five years. In terms of export revenue, it has moved from a mere USD 60m to a staggering USD 450m industry, and is now the 5th largest foreign exchange earner in the country. The future target for this industry is to reach USD 1 billion by 2015 and USD 2 billion by 2020, and at some point become the largest foreign exchange earner for the country. 

“Looking at ICT development in general, I need to state that, driving the ICT/BPO industry growth, is something that is not done in isolation. It is part of a much wider initiative, where, the success of all components, are intrinsically linked together. This initiative, as most of you are aware is known as the e-Sri Lanka Development programme, the Government’s National e-development agenda, implemented by the ICTA. The vision of taking the dividends of ICT, to every citizen in every village, every business and transforming the way Government works, is driven by a number of programmes. 

“Developing the ICT Infrastructure, Developing the ICT HR skills, increasing the ICT literacy, automating and transforming governments processes, creating the enabling environment and leadership for ICT growth are some of them. Success and accomplishments in all these areas have no doubt contributed and will contribute to the progress of the ICT/BPO industry in the future as well. That is the synergistic nature of the forces of ICT.      

“What we need is a similar synergistic effort from all stake-holders engaged in this BPO industry, in this case specifically in the area of LPO, to grow this sector, and ensure we reach our targets and goals. The ICT Agency is fully committed, as it did in the past, to ensure that the next five year ICT Development plan is successfully implemented, and through that further contribute to the growth of the ICT/BPO industry in Sri Lanka”.   

“In conclusion, I wish to congratulate, the Legal Solutions Forum, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, and the International Association of Young Lawyers, for organising this conference, and thank them for inviting ICTA to partner with them, which as I mentioned, we are delighted to do. I hope that this will be a productive and enriching conference for all, and that it will be the first of many events in this sector, throughout our journey to be a knowledge hub in the region”.

The two-day conference was tailor-made with keynote  presentations and panel discussions and question and answer sessions on timely topics.    Keynote addresses themed “Outsourcing vs. Restructuring”, “Outsourcing to Asia: Goals, Choices and Experiences” and  “Data Protection and ICT related Issues when outsourcing to London, Larnaka and Sri Lanka – Are all the same?”, were presented respectively by  India Bangalore Accuenture Chairman Avinash Vashista, and Asia, Texas Instruments Senior Counsel Gaurav Jabulee and ICTA  Programme Director / Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando. 

AIJA President Tanja Jussila,  President’s Counsel BASL President and Legal Solutions Forum Co-Chair Shibly Aziz, ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura and SLASSCOM Chairman Sujiva Dewaraja  

ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura addressing the conference