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HCL Tech is looking to hire 3,000 people over the next three years at its Sri Lanka software delivery centre.
Srimathi Shivashankar, Corporate Vice-President and Programme Director, New Vistas, HCL, told BusinessLine : “We see it as an emerging hub of talent.”
The employees, located in Colombo, will work in areas such as application development, BPO and infrastructure management services.
In February, HCL had announced the opening of the centre following an agreement with the Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka.
After the onset of Covid-19, the Sri Lankan government is looking at IT as a key enabler in creating jobs, especially at a time when tourism and hospitality have taken a hit. “The government has come up with single window clearances for investment in the knowledge economy as it looks to sustain its per capita income,” said Shivashankar.
HCL Technologies will operate through its subsidiary, HCL Technologies Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, which will implement its Work Integrated Education Programme to foster growth by cooperating with local ICT and engineering institutions to develop and train the island’s talent pool. “A key part of HCL’s business and development strategy in Sri Lanka will be to generate local employment and provide the right skilling programmes that will augment the growth of the knowledge services industry in the island,” said Shivashankar. This is similar to the playbook followed by HCL Technologies and other IT companies in India who have made it into a $191-billion industry.
Growing industry
Even though IT is a nascent sector, with the country getting into it around 2007, the Sri Lankan government believes that with its educated talent pool it can transition into a knowledge economy. Since 2007, Sri Lanka is considered to be a strong destination for providing off-shore services for ITeS as well as services related to finance and accounting, legal, insurance, banking and telecommunications. Already, firms such as Accenture, Aviva, IFS and Virtusa are operating in Sri Lanka. Add to this, a number of large multinationals – the London Stock Exchange, Microsoft, Google, JP Morgan and HSBC – have set up offshore business support and shared service centres in the country.
Additionally, the government is giving tax concessions with an objective to create local jobs. The IT sector in the island nation generated $900 million in revenues in 2017, data reveal.
HCL has delivery centres in 44 countries, which include the Americas, Europe, the UK and France. In these locations, it is looking to recruit an increasing number of locals. It has 150,000 employees and as of June, localisation in the US stood at 67.8 per cent. In FY20, HCL Technologies hired around 6,300 employees globally.
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