IT Industry and current economic conditions in Sri Lanka

 The information technology or IT industry is an important sector in the world. It has become so important that the world depends on the smooth operation of the information technology sector.

The IT industry is one of the more important and fastest-growing industries in Sri Lanka also. But with the severe economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the IT sector is also getting affected.

The information technology industry is one of the most robust industries in the world. More than any other industry or economic facet, this industry has an increased productivity, particularly in the developed world, and therefore is a key driver of global economic growth.

Both software development and hardware involved in the IT industry include everything from computer systems to the design, implementation, study, and development of it and management systems. And in Sri Lanka, this is one of the fastest-growing industries.

However, in the current situation, Sri Lanka faces unsustainable debt and a severe balance of payment crisis, which is having a negative impact on growth and poverty.

According to last South Asia, economic focus and Sri Lanka development update, Sri Lanka’s real GDP is expected to fall 9.2 percent in 2022 and a further 4.2 percent in 2023. This economic crisis affects the IT industry in Sri Lanka.

IT Industry in Sri Lanka and its Advantages

The IT industry in Sri Lanka is being used all over the country. In large companies, smaller businesses, schools, and even in households, IT has become a staple for everyone. It helped companies to form international collaborations, allowed more information and resource access to smaller businesses to help their growth, and allowed students to get in touch with students and teachers in different parts of the country, giving them more resources for education.

A lot of people in Sri Lanka have family members living in other countries and the development of the IT industry has helped people to maintain these relationships and connections.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of processes heavily became IT dependent. Schools were online, businesses continued to work remotely, and everything was accessible online. Although all of these options were available before, the pandemic forced IT implementation into our lives and made people dependent on it, making life easier and more things more accessible for everyone. 

The effects or disadvantages of the current economic crisis on the IT industry in Sri Lanka

Although the development of the IT industry in Sri Lanka has had so many benefits in all aspects of the country’s growth and development, the issues arise when situations like the Sri Lankan economic crisis happen. You would have experienced the impacts of these issues yourself, where the country had to sacrifice resources like electricity for short periods of time. As the IT industry is heavily reliant on electricity, this affected a lot of access to, and continued operation of business involved with IT.

 How Sri Lanka has adapted to the economic crisis 

When the economic crisis happened, it was both a shock and a huge adjustment period for everyone in the country. Over the last few years, as Sri Lanka has developed, IT became a huge part of their processes and when we had scheduled power cuts for long periods of time, it caused a lot of interruptions. Sri Lanka was still recovering from the pandemic and almost everything, school, businesses, etc., were online. This made it harder when there was no electricity to run the IT systems.

We have a long way to go in terms of development both for the country and the information technology systems we use. Despite the disadvantages, Sri Lankans have found a way to overcome them and survive, schools have continued, businesses continued to run, and people are the current situation has become normalized as people adapted to it and found ways to make the best out of their situation. 

The IT industry is an ongoing industry that continues to thrive despite economic crisis and problems.

IT is the only field where we can study anywhere and work anywhere.

Therefore, information technology is a very important sector in today’s times.

So, there is no doubt that IT is one of the most relevant and helpful sectors for our future no matter what the economic crisis.

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