The fledgling software industry will get a leg up through concessional sops to achieve a US$ 1 bn export earnings by 2012. In order to support this industry, the public sector will be required to give preference to locally produced software and services.
Further public sector agencies will ensure that a minimum of 50 percent of value addition from a local partner in Sri Lanka if the software is bought from a foreign supplier.
"As an incentive to our private sector to use local software, I propose a 100 percent depreciation in the year of purchase of all locally produced software," Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama said presenting the government's 2005 budget on Thu.
There are about 100 small and medium scale enterprises together with five to six large companies now in operation in this country with foreign exchange earnings around US$ 75 mn.
This industry has targeted US$ 1 billion export earning by 2012 with a total workforce of 40,000 taking advantage of the skills available in Sr