The stage is set to establish data science as the third pillar within Sri Lanka’s ICT exports with the launch of the Training Program in Fundamentals of Data Science offered by the Center for Data Science, Department of Statistics, University of Colombo.
The course fee of this program is subsidized through the National Export Strategy (NES) initiatives through the Export Development Board (EDB) and Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM). Jeevan Gnanam, Chairman SLASSCOM, identified the importance of growing the country’s capacity and capability in the areas of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence as key for growing the industry and for our skills to remain competitive. Currently Sri Lanka’s IT exports are estimated to be over USD 1.2 billion and is the fifth-largest export earner offering Software/Product Development and Business Process Management (BPM) services. The industry is growing rapidly with the potential to reach USD 5 billion by 2022 with a workforce of 200,000 employees.Due to multiple technological advancements, the ability to capture data generated by various processes has become more viable and inexpensive.
