EDB continues the Sri Lanka participation at Japan IT Week 2017 from 10th -12th May at Tokyo big sight, Japan. Sri Lanka pavilion which will locate in Software and Apps Development Expo (SODEC) could be a launching pad for Sri Lankan ICT companies to enter Japan market.
Japan IT Week http://www.japan-it.jp/en/ ] is truly Japan's largest ICT trade show where you can find any kinds of latest IC T technologies/solutions. A great number of information systems manager, management executives, sales managers, system integrators and managers from IT system division will visit Japan IT Week to conduct business face to face with exhibitors.
EDB facilitated Sri Lanka’s ICT industry to penetrate into Japanese market since 2014. Having identified the potential of Japan ICT market, EDB organized an ICT sector interest group on Japanese market and organized an exposure visit to Japan IT week in 2014. The Sri Lankan Embassy in Japan arranged meetings for the delegation with institutions such as Japan Information Technology Service Industry Association (JISA), Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI), Japan Users Association of Information Systems (JUAS), FUJITSU, CANNON IT Solutions Inc. and JETRO Japan. As the follow up of this visit, Japanese media representatives visited Sri Lanka in 2014 and EDB arranged meetings for them, with the local ICT sector organizations. This media representatives published positive media reports in leading Japanese Newspaper. With these initiatives, Japanese government also identified the Sri Lanka’s ICT sector as a prospective sector to work collaboratively for Software development.
EDB organized the 2015 participation at Japan IT Week in May 2015 with six ICT companies and also organized the participation at CEATEC 2015, with the assistance of JETRO in October same year, where another six Sri Lankan ICT companies were introduced to the Japanese market. In all these initiatives Sri Lankan delegation had successful meetings with Japan Information Technology Services Industry Association (JISA) and Japan Users Association of Information Systems (JUAS). As a result of this relationship JISA signed a MOU with it’s Sri Lankan counterpart SLASSCOM in November 2015, Colombo for mutual cooperation in ICT industry. Beginning of 2016, JISA organized a Japanese ICT delegation to Colombo.
In 2016 EDB organized the second participation of Japan IT week (http://www.japan-it.jp/en/) in May with nine ICT companies and with the assistance of Sri Lanka Embassy in Japan and JETRO Colombo. The event considered as the Japan’s largest IT exhibition with over 1400 exhibitors and about 90,000 visitors consist of 13 parallel exhibition sectors such as Software & Apps Development, Big Data, Data Storage, Information Security, Web & Digital Marketing, Data Center, Cloud Computing, Mobile Solutions , IoT/M2M , Direct Commerce Solutions, Consumer IT Products, Store & Retail IT Solutions.
After successful networking meetings and awareness seminars on Sri Lankan ICT sector, the participants already clinched deals worth over US$ 2Mn with leading Japanese IT companies through Joint Ventures, Business agents and sales agreements. This is a remarkable achievement as Japan is traditionally a market with slow progress compared to western countries. These newly generated businesses has opened doors to new initiatives between both countries.
A Japanese owned ICT company in Sri Lanka, Metatechno Lanka ventured with hSenid Software International, another leading ICT company in Sri Lanka opened the Lanka Nippon Biztech Institute (LNBTI) in last July with the objective of creating ICT professionals suited for Japanese companies with the Japanese language skills. Also Adam Innovations, Japan based company organized an investment promotion visit and initiated to set up the Global IT (GIT) Park in Niigata Prefecture, Japan and invited Sri Lankan IT companies to establish in GIT park. Five Sri Lankan ICT companies already set up their offices in this park. As a part of these ongoing initiatives, arrangements are made by EDB to organize B2B networking meetings in Japan early next year in addition to the Sri Lanka participation in Japan IT Week 2017.
For more details on Japanese promotional events including Sri Lanka pavilion @ Japan IT Week 2017, please visit EDB web site https://www.srilankabusiness.com/edb/announcements.html
