Elects industry stalwart Indika De Zoysa as new chairman for 2023/2024

FITIS - Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka, the apex body of the ICT industry, recently elected its Board of Directors for the year 2023/2024 at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 28^th April 2023 at JAIC Hilton, amidst a large gathering of its membership. Top industry professional Indika De Zoysa was unanimously elected as the new chairman after Industry veteran Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe completed his two-year term as the FITIS Chairman.

Outgoing Chairman Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe presented an overview of activities that was carried out during the past term of office spanning 2021/2023. He reiterated that unity was key and that all members need to come together and work towards creating value for society. Dr. Samarasinghe further mentioned that there may be a need to necessitate constitutional amendments and consolidation of chapters to ensure greater benefit to FITIS members. He also highlighted that the two strategic focuses of FITIS will help drive exponential growth of organizations and also the thrust around intellectual property (IP) will boost the Digital Economy to greater heights. He further elaborated on actions taken during the several crisis to support the industry and business community and thanked the outgoing board, all past chairmen, all Exco members, FITIS staff and all partners and sponsors who supported FITIS during the past year.

The newly-elected Chairman Indika De Zoysa, Strategic Advisor of Huawei Technologies Sri Lanka, reiterated on the importance of aligning the entirety of FITIS Chapters under one umbrella to contribute to the national agenda in terms of boosting Sri Lanka’s digital economy to USD 15 billion by 2030 from USD 3.7 billion in 2020. He further said that the digital economy has been growing at a higher pace than the GDPs of many countries thus FITIS too stood committed to spearhead and drive the Digital Economy Agenda for Sri Lanka, in line with President Ranil Wickramasinghe’s realization and launch of DIGIECON 2030 on 30^th March 2023.

Mr. De Zoysa fields a dynamic and versatile team, comprising Senior Vice Chairman Dr. Dayan Rajapakse, Chairman of ESOFT Group of Companies—a veteran in the education sector, Vice Chairmen Channa De Silva, CEO of LankaPay—who has been instrumental in driving the digital payments revolution in Sri Lanka and Mr. Thariq Sanoon, CEO of Gennext—an Infrastructure specialist in the ICT terrain.

In addition, the following board members were elected for 2023/2024 to further strengthen FITIS with their diverse acumen and capabilities namely, Gnanam Sellathurrai, Director/CEO of Forttune Channels PVT Limited (President – ICT Infrastructure Chapter),  Shanaka Fernando ( Vice President- ICT Infrastructure Chapter),  Sanjaya Dayananda, Vice President-Global Alliances and Partnerships of Millennium IT ESP Pvt. Ltd. (President-Software Chapter), Mr. Kalinga Ihalagedera, Chief Product Officer of OREL IT (Vice President-Software Chapter), Mr. Amila Bandara, Chief Operating Officer - Business Development of ESOFT Metro Campus (President-Education & Training Chapter), Dr. Sampath Kannangara,  CEO/Executive and Dean of ICBT Campus (Vice President - Education & Training Chapter),
Lakmal Embuldeniya, Vice President of Tech One Global (President - Professional Chapter), Ashane Jayasekera, Deputy Managing Partner of BDO Sri Lanka and Managing Director BDO Partners Pvt Ltd. (Vice President - Professional Chapter), Ramanan Devairakam, General Manager of Dialog Axiata (President - Communication Chapter), Manjula Kulasuriya,  Head of Office Automation at Debug Group of Companies
(President - Office Automation Chapter), Mr. Omar Sahib, Founder/CEO of WEBXPAY, (President - Digital Services Chapter) and Nagarajah Nirmalan, CEO/Principal Consultant of Kenvisa (President - Professional Consultants Chapter).

Chapter presentations followed thereon wherein the allied Chapter presidents showcased their chapter’s achievements over the past term and plans for the ensuing term in support of invigorating the digital economy.

Further, De Zoysa stated that Sri Lanka was way back at 4% of GDP compared to rest of the developed countries who boasted of digital economy in the range of 20% of GDP, whilst the world over average ranged at 30%, whilst developed nations boasted of a digital economy in the range of 40%.

He mentioned that it is an upheaval task for Sri Lanka but was confident that FITIS, with its board and its membership spanning the entire spectrum of the local ICT sector, can deliver upon this promise. Thus. He appealed to all FITIS members to stay focused on the digital economy vision as it would be the last chance for Sri Lanka to boost its economy.

As part of the AGM, awards were presented to outgoing Board members in appreciation of their services rendered during 2022/23.  Also, the new Board members were welcomed by the outgoing chairman by donning them with a medallion.

The outgoing Senior Vice Chairman Prof. Gihan Dias thanked all corporate partners and members as well as the outgoing board for their contributions over the past year, which enabled the past year to be an eventful year.

After completing a successful tenure as its Immediate Past Chairman, Abbas Kamrudeen was re-elected to serve on the Board as its Past Chairman, while industry veteran Suresh Tharmarajah was re-elected to serve on the board as an Advisory Board Member for another term of office.