Sri Lanka eyes data and AI hub push with hyperscaler backing

By Nishel Fernando

The Sri Lankan government is actively pursuing a strategy to establish the nation as a regional hub for data centers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure, aiming to generate significant export revenue and attract foreign investment. 

High-level discussions are currently underway with global hyperscale providers such as Microsoft, AWS, and Google, as well as local platform providers, to build out the country’s capabilities.

The plans were revealed at a press briefing held at the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) in Colombo recently featuring Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne, and Chief Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on Digital Economy Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya.

Eranga Weeraratne stated that the government is inviting both local and international partners to invest in AI cloud platforms within Sri Lanka. 

“We are in discussions currently to see how we can bring down such AI and the data center providers to come to Sri Lanka and set up AI cloud platforms for the government use as well as for the local private sector requirements,” he said.

The strategy extends beyond domestic needs, with a clear focus on serving the wider region. “At the same time, [we aim] to export data center facilities out of Sri Lanka to see how we can support and serve the region,” Weeraratne explained. “As Sri Lanka is a very much a neutral country, there’s a good potential for Sri Lanka to be a data center and AI hub in the region.”

This ambition is supported by a robust regulatory and policy framework. Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya highlighted that the foundational elements are being put in place to create a secure and enabling environment. 

“We have the Personal Data Protection Act already in place and the Data Protection Authority comes into full force,” Dr. Wijayasuriya noted. He added that a new policy on data classification, compute, and storage is currently out for public consultation, which is key to “organising not only government data but also data in the private sector and having it classified, stored safely, and also ready for an AI future.”

To promote AI adoption and service delivery, the government, led by Minister Weeraratne, plans to make the Government Information Center “AI ready” to improve citizen services. This includes developing local language AI infrastructure, such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-to-Speech (TTS) for Sinhala and Tamil, to enhance digital accessibility.

A large-scale data collection project will be launched to train these models, encouraging global platforms to integrate them. Additionally, a government AI Experience and Innovation Center will be established to cultivate an AI-skilled workforce, starting from schools.

Dr. Wijayasuriya emphasised that this technological push is a core component of the national digital economy blueprint. “Capacity building is the central theme,” he said, stressing the need for a “massive capacity building drive” across society, industry, and government to ensure that the benefits of new technologies are accessible to all Sri Lankans.