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Good practice Imported

Sri Lanka Go Digital — ICTA and the Export Development Board's Regional SME Digitalisation Training Programme

Sri Lanka · Colombo · See the Sri Lanka profile · See the Colombo profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 83% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Sri Lanka's ICTA and Export Development Board ran "Go Digital," training connecting regional SMEs with digital tools and IT firms — reaching 773 entrepreneurs (45% women) across five provinces in 2018–19 — feeding into ICTA's 2024 target of 750 SMEs adopting core technology.

520
Entrepreneurs reached, 2018 edition
253
Entrepreneurs reached, 2019 edition
45%
Women participants, 2019 edition

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), with the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB)
Period
2018–2019 (Go Digital editions), feeding into ICTA's Vision 2024 target
Keywords
SME digitalisation, ICT for business, export promotion, digital skills training

Context

Sri Lanka's Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) partnered with the Export Development Board (EDB) to run 'Sri Lanka Go Digital,' a series of province-level workshops connecting entrepreneurs with IT companies and platform providers, including sessions with Facebook's and Google's business teams.

Results

In 2018, the programme reached approximately 520 entrepreneurs across four provinces. In 2019, a second edition reached a further 253 entrepreneurs, of whom around 115 (about 45%) were women and more than 15 were people with disabilities. ICTA's subsequent 'Vision 2024' strategy set a target of 750 previously non-tech SMEs adopting digital tools by end-2024, continuing the Go Digital cohort approach.

Conclusions

Reach figures are modest relative to Sri Lanka's SME population of several hundred thousand firms, and no independently audited outcome study was found; the published record documents training reach and multi-stakeholder participation, not measured business-performance change. It is unclear whether the 2024 target of 750 SMEs was met.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Funding levels not disclosed in sources reviewed.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Two editions (2018, 2019), continued as a strand of Vision 2024 strategy.
Staffing & skills
ICTA programme staff, EDB regional and development officers, 20+ partner IT companies

Conditions for success

  • province-level workshop format with platform-provider partners (Facebook, Google)

Common failure modes

  • no independently audited outcome study of participating firms' performance

Where it fits

Governance type
national government agency
Scale
sub-national (province-level)
Income level
lower-middle-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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