Knowledge Cluster

Mar 21, 2013 (LBO) - Sri Lanka Urban Development Authority and the military is building a 'knowledge park' in the capital Colombo at the cost of about seven million US dollars which will be ready by the year-end, officials said.









Defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told business forum of Sri Lanka's software and business process outsourcing chamber (SLASSCOM) that Tripoli Market in Colombo's Maradana area, will be renovated for use by a cluster of private firms.

Sankalpa Gamwarige, general manager of Zone24x7, an information technology firm said it will be reconstructed by the Navy, bringing down costs.

The park will have electronic, software, business process outsourcing, fashion design, pharmaceutical and health professionals, with universities of Moratuwa and Peradeniya also being represented.

By clustering firms together allowing people to interact with each other innovation and new ideas are more easily promoted, industry officials said.

"Value addition happens when you put different things together," Gamwarige said.

"The whole idea is to come up with one place where we can connect different people's ideas and thoughts."

Gamwarige said since a group of companies first met the Secretary Rajapaksa t