Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 9 : Sri Lanka can follow the growth strategies of Technopark and collaborate with the IT companies in India to burgeon its nascent IT sector to benefit the island nation, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, Lankan MP and leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), said on Friday.

Technopark set up here in the nineties was the first such park in the country.

Dissanayaka was speaking during an interaction with Col Sanjeev Nair (Retd), CEO of Technopark, as he led a delegation to Technopark on Friday.

The programme was organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of lndia.

Noting that policy inconsistency creates a lot of problems in Sri Lanka's IT sector, Dissanayaka lauded the Kerala government's intervention and initiatives in building an immaculate IT ecosystem in the state, besides acknowledging the growth of Technopark.

'Sri Lanka's IT sector contributes only $1.2 billion to the country's GDP. Since we have identified the IT sector as a key and thriving area, collaborations with Technopark would be a good strategy for long-term achievements,' Dissanayaka said.

JVP is the largest party under the broad entity National People's Power (NPP) in Sri Lanka.

Stating that currently Sri Lanka has a few IT/ITeS platforms, Dissanayaka said NPP has set the target of increasing the contribution of the IT sector to the GDP to $10 billion in eight years.

Highlighting that India plays a major role in the global IT industry, Dissanayaka said collaboration and understanding with the neighbouring country is going to benefit Sri Lanka in building its IT ecosystem.

Nair on his part gave an insight about the IT ecosystem in Kerala, besides delineating the achievements of Technopark.

He said Sri Lanka can adopt measures to ensure ease of doing business, fostering startup ecosystem by giving them various domain specific challenges to be addressed by latest innovative technological trends, besides improving mobility, leveraging the availability of talent and developing a sound social fabric to emerge as an IT hub.

/IANS