The Hindu : Business : M&M to develop IT Park in Sri Lanka

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Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008
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M&M to develop IT Park in Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Signs agreement with Board of Investment of the island nation

Project will create 25,000 new jobs
M&M committed to develop SEZ

COLOMBO: The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) and Mahindra & Mahindra inked an agreement on Tuesday under which the latter will develop an Information Technology Park in the island nation. Located at a 53 acre site in Katunayake, near the only international airport in Sri Lanka, the project involves development of 2.6-3 million sq. ft. of space that can be used for the different types of IT related activities.

The agreement was signed by Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, and Arun Nanda, Vice-Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra, in the presence of Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce, who is now on an official visit here as leader of a high level Government and business delegation. It was also announced on the occasion that Mahindra & Mahindra was committed to develop a 900-acre special economic zone (SEZ) in Trincomalee in the east and a formal agreement on the SEZ could be expected in the next 30 days.

The two Ministers termed the developments as ‘historic’ and a major leap forward in the economic relations between India and Sri Lanka.

“Mahindras’ investment in the SEZ, the NTPC investment in the 250 MW power project in Trincomalee worth $250 million and the Indian Oil Corporation’s lube oil plant meet the strategic concerns of India and political concerns of Sri Lanka that we must devolve powers to provinces. It is a marriage of strategic concerns of India and economic concerns of Lanka,” Mr. Ramesh said.

The IT Park site will be built and managed by Mahindra & Mahindra and the company will market the site, making space available to interested investors in the IT, BPO and IT-enabled services sectors.

Arun Nanda, Vice-Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra, said the main strength of his company was its ability to bring to the new IT zone top-level IT companies from India and other countries.

“The project will create 25,000 new software jobs in Sri Lanka, which is a tenfold increase of Sri Lanka’s current pool of IT workers”.

On the proposed SEZ in the east, the Sri Lanka Minister said the project would definitely fast track development in the Eastern Province.

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