Sri Lanka's mobile operator Dialog Axiata , a subsidiary of Malaysia's Axiata announced a business process outsourcing (BPO) joint venture with India's Firstsource Solutions in the island nation.
The initial investment from the Mumbai-based back office services firm will be $1 million and expand later, Firstsource CEO and Managing Director Mathew Vallance told reporters in Colombo. He declined to reveal the total investment.
"Firstsource Solutions and Dialog will hold a 74 percent and a 26 percent stake respectively in DBS," Dialog said in a corporate disclosure to the Colombo Stock Exchange.
Business process outsourcing, or back-office services, has been booming in post-war Sri Lanka, and the government has made the sector's development top priority to provide employment for educated youth and dissuade them from seeking foreign jobs.
Already HSBC's Sri Lankan unit has a BPO centre in Colombo, with roughly 1,800 employees, while other firms have targeted Sri Lanka's well-qualified but perennially underemployed accountants.
"The stability of the economy, support of the government bodies, and the availability of a highly skilled talent pool were our key drivers to invest in this market," Vallance said.