The total value of Sri Lanka’s IT industry, including BPOs, is around US$ 395 million, in terms of income generation, and this could be increased further to US$ one billion, provided the number of IT and IT-related graduates increase, said Virtusa Vice President/General Manager Madu Ratnayake.
"Sri Lanka’s annual IT and IT-related graduate output is around 5,000, which is far below the number required by the industry. Therefore, the country needs to increase the number of graduates in order to meet the industry’s demand, Ratnayake told the Financial Review.
"The industry demand for IT and IT-related graduates for a year is more than 10,000 and the total output from state universities and private institutes are less than half of the required amount," he said.
"Due to supply constraints of skilled and qualified graduates to the job market, the country is losing a large quantum of foreign exchange," Ratnayake said.
The IT and BPO industry is the fifth largest foreign exchange earner in the country and has enormous growth potential. A target of US $ one billion in earnings by 2015 has been set.
"This year we expect 5,500 IT and IT-related graduates to enter the market, and with the 25 percent year on year growth, the demand for these graduates will increase tremendously not only in Sri Lanka but also overseas as well," he said.
SLASCOM, the IT sector chamber, is looking at ways and means to increase the number of IT and IT-related graduates because by 2015, the industry expects the number of employment opportunities to reach 100,000 in Sri Lanka, Ratnayake said.
Ratnayake said that Virtusa, being a global company, was in the process of broadening its horizon in many countries in the world.
The company is offering a window of opportunities for local IT and IT-related graduates to work for world class business entities.
Further, they will also offer various employment opportunities for non-IT graduates in various other disciplines as well.
ITPRO
තව graduates ල වැඩි වෙන්න වෙන්න මුන්ට අපිව කුනු පඩියට ගන්න පුලුවන් නෙ 
we have to go for very low salaries not only @ virtusa, in many companies it's the same now except for MIT and IFS may be
