Sri Lanka has begun procurement processes to establish artificial intelligence data centres positioned to serve both domestic users and regional clients, opening a new foreign-exchange earnings channel, Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne said.
Speaking on the government’s digital economy ambitions, Weeraratne said the build-out is designed around two pillars: meeting Sri Lanka’s own AI compute needs and exporting AI infrastructure services to the wider region. He cited surging global demand for AI compute as a structural growth driver.
“We are currently carrying out procurement processes to establish AI data centres in Sri Lanka. The objective is not only to meet local requirements but also to build a community that can provide AI data centre services to the wider region,” he said. “Through this, we will be able to create another avenue for bringing foreign exchange into Sri Lanka because global demand for AI data centres is expected to increase significantly in the future.”
Weeraratne argued that Sri Lanka’s renewable-energy potential gives it a sustainability advantage in attracting investment. “Sri Lanka is a country with strong potential for renewable energy. This gives us the opportunity to develop AI data centres powered by renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions and setting an example for other countries.”
The deputy minister also stressed workforce development. “It is not enough for Sri Lanka to simply use AI technology. We need to build the workforce required to develop these technologies.”
He further called for the development of a Sri Lankan large language model tailored to the country’s languages and cultural context. “If a country like Sri Lanka is to preserve its sovereignty, we need AI technologies and a large language model that reflect our culture, civilisation and language.”
The announcement extends a broader digital-economy reform programme that includes the National Data Exchange Centre and the Public Service Person System digitisation effort. Sri Lanka’s first sovereign Sinhala LLM was accepted into IEEE Access in May following a University of Moratuwa–Decryptogen collaboration. Regional energy demand from AI data centres was also a key driver cited by the ADB at the Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative launch in Manila this week.
